Today is day 5 of my week long vacation from work, and I am embarrassed to say that I have been simply unable to stay disconnected.

First, I was originally scheduled to take off the following:

8/23 - 8/24 (Thursday - Friday)

and

8/27 - 8/31 (Monday - Friday)

Due to my inability to tie up the loose ends I decided to work from home on 8/23 - 8/24 ... proceeding to call in to no less than 5 meetings and honestly working from 6:30am - 4:00pm (when I had to disconnect from the laptop to cook dinner - something I occasionally do).

Vacation now:

8/27 - 8/31 (Monday - Friday) ... still decent.

In my preperation for my two days working from home I forwarded my desk phone to my cell, and I gave my office key to a coworker ... so ... my calls this entire week have been forwarding to my cell ... some I let slide to voicemail, but some cannot go unanswered (or so my whacked my says).

In addition, I took on a project in one of those work from home meetings that I need to report out on my first day back ... not to mention that I have accepted four more meetings on my first day back, leaving me no prep time. (if I was actively applying the principles of "Take Back Your Life" I would NOT have let this happen.

So, now I

Okay, before I begin this post I must encourage my good *nix peeps to close their eyes ... or have a couple of drinks ... or put on their "grain of salt" hats. Please remember the world I live in - the office dimension ... Microsoft land. You must not judge me as I am only a product of my surroundings ;)

I have been reading copious materials about how to organize my life and priorities using Office 2007 magix (see book references below). In my excitement to "hiya!" take back my life, I have found myself once again buying into the Microsoft marketing voodoo.

First, let me make a statement, a controversial statement that may make me vulnerable to my good *nix loving friends. I love Microsoft, I do ... I love the way that there are at least 5 ways to do everything in Microsoft programs, I love how everywhere you turn there is some kind of MS propaganda, I love that MS products all work together, I love that when you pick up some MS training material there is always at least 10% marketing for other MS products. The fact the Microsoft is a huge evil genius monopoly actually gives me chills. CHILLS. I suppose it should be said at this point that I am also the person who feels for the "bad" characters in all story lines ... often seeing their points of view much more clearly than the sympathetic good-ees. Whatevs ... I digress.

So, in my gathering resources re: SharePoint I stumbled upon the book referenced above ... and as a certified MS - cult member it was my duty to purchase, read, and then attempt to implement the wise words written within. I read the book over a weekend, took notes even ... and followed along by diligently completing the exercises necessary to TAKE BACK MY LIFE. By the end of the book I had reduced my inbox to 3 items (I swear, down from over 500), scheduled out the next couple of weeks with time to complete tasks. Re-evaluated some of my commitments ... and ended up with a categorized task list of over 80 actions - urgh. Now, a couple of weeks later my inbox is back up to 250 and 30 of those actions are overdue. Oh, and I also shelled out some bucks to by a new Windows Mobile device to replace my Blackberry ... so that I could appropriately manage actions on the go. (blush - don't tell my husband - I just can't pass up a new toy ... I mean, tool).

I'm going to try again with the concepts in the book, like all things worth doing it will take work and commitment to truly get the greatest benefits out of a productivity plan like what is laid out in the book. Oh, and I have to do something to justify the new fancy-smansh phone I shelled out for :)

ps. new phone: T-Mobile Wing, runs on Windows Mobile 6 ... review to come.