Come Monday, most of America will be off of work. That means that if you try to send any emails that day, you'll get annoying out-of-office replies. I hate those, by the way. (Peter Shankman hates some of them, too.)
That means that you have a full day on Monday to get things done. Sure - carve out time to grill out, go to the lake, sing a song - but just imagine what you could do in four hours that morning with no one sending you emails. And none that you have to send.
Most people will probably leave the office tomorrow after lunch, too. If you stay until five, you'll have five more hours to do (nearly) uninterrupted work. Combine that with Monday morning and you get an extra day. One entire day that your competition, your co-workers and your colleagues may ignore. What can you do to get ahead, be remarkable and mark off your list?
Me? I'll be at 30,000 feet during those hours, headed to Disneyland to run half-maratahon #9 of 2009. But I've got a stack of things to work on duing those four-hour plane rides (one good thing about air travel - you've got uninterrupted time to work).
Maybe you'll:
- Update/organize your contact list
- Polish up the resume
- Write down goals you'd like to accomplish this month
- Do some market research
- Brainstorm big ideas
- Read a book
You can repeat this on Memorial Day, July 4th, the week of Thanksgiving and the week between Christmas and New Year's. You don't have to be a workaholic - just see what an extra day will do for you every now and then.