After Hours

I know a lot of people say they love to get to work early and get stuff done before other people get there. They even go so far as to say that 45 minutes or hour before the rest of the world shows up for work is their most productive time of day. And up until today, I agreed with them.

I would have agreed that yes, the quiet of an empty office is condusive to mass quantities of work getting done. But then I started thinking about it and thinking about when I get my best work done.

You see, if you're there in the early a.m., people are often times connected to work by their phones and you still get interrupted. They slowly start to trickle in and you are inundated with calls of Good Morning and the distraction of people milling about and settling in. Your phone starts ringing before you're ready for it to and suddenly you have a new to-do list of things that just "popped up". Good idea in theory. Buuuuut....

I have grown to be a fan of the "last hour". That sweet spot from 5 to 6 where most people are stuck in traffic or picking up little bobby from hockey or already home making supper. Its that time where slowly but surely, lights are clicked off, doors are closed and feet shuffle on downstairs to head out into the dusky evening. It is then, in the dimness of a darkened office void of people and activity or the buzz of the start of a new day, that the work gets done.

No one bugs me. No one calls me. No one needs something RIGHT NOW. Its just me, my half done to-do list and an hour to power through it. I put my music on, turn on my little desk light and hunker down. And sometimes, as I cross things off my list of tasks, when I know everyone is gone, I might even sing along.