The phony war

One of the essential changes I needed to make when I left corporate life and started my own operation was to ban the Monday morning blues. From way back in my schooldays I'd hated that feeling that used to seep in some time after lunch on a Sunday: that feeling that said there were five working days ahead. Back then it was the dread of Latin, Maths and Chemistry and in my working life that morphed to a general low feeling that my time was over for another week and that the following five days would be at the command and control of whoever my boss happened to be at the time.

Of course, so often the dread was misplaced. I largely enjoyed my corporate career and it was only the last couple of years that brought me back to my Sunday/Monday blues. Anyway, when I was setting up Leapfrog, I made sure that there would be no way that I'd ever have to waste my Sunday afternoon and evening worrying about Monday.

These days, Monday morning is my time. Unless I have to, I try not to schedule client meetings into this time - and certainly don't demand the 8.30am 'team meetings' that used to unduly put the pressure on all concerned in my last corporate role. With the globalisation of work and the fact that we're far less office bound than ever before, there's no reason for Monday morning to have any special significance.

Of course, August is the most phony of working months, and I'm glad it's coming to an end. While I despise the Monday morning blues, it's good to have some shape in my working life. That shape goes out the window in the dog days of the summer when everyone's either away, just about to go or has just come back. Projects crawl along at something less than a snail's pace and decision making is as drowsy as the weather. Roll on September. Roll on the working week.