I took the past two weeks off. I turned on my out of office notification, checked email less, stayed on top of things but reacted to less, did zero meetings, did fewer calls, and didn’t go to the office at all. I slept eight hours most nights and a bit longer on a few. It was great. I’m relaxed and rested.
To celebrate the new year, going back to work, and to put an exclamation point on the rested and relaxed thing, I am going to archive all email in my inbox. If you sent me something and did not get a reply, please send it again if it is still important.
My oldest daughter asked me yesterday if I was excited to go back to work, expecting a resounding yes. I told her I was going to miss vacation. I’ve read a few books and I have a bunch more I want to read that I probably won’t get to until my next time off. I’ve been enjoying rolling over and going back to sleep at 5am/6am even 7am. I’ve been very happy working in my home office with a nice view, the music cranked, and no time pressure.
So I’ve got mixed feelings about going back to the grind. A lot less than my son who starts school again today, but a few nonetheless. Like all things, the VC business has its good and bad. The good is working with incredible partners and entrepreneurs and getting to see the future imagined every day. The bad is the firehose of hopes and dreams that comes at you relentlessly every day which results in a crazy schedule, time pressures all around, and never enough time to think and breathe.
Maybe I will figure out how to manage it better this year. Maybe that can be my new year’s resolution. But I’ve been trying and failing for over twenty five years. Hopes and dreams are a hard thing to resist. And that’s a good thing.
