On Friday afternoon, I wrapped up my afternoon meetings, replied to the outstanding items from team members, and drove about twenty minutes to the sea and the wood fired sauna we have here on the island.
It’s a Friday night rhythm for me.
And the ONLY way this works is if I block it out.
I need to:
- Block out 45 minutes for closing out/finishing anything urgent from the week (usually from about 3.30pm on a Friday)
- Block out any time following that so no one books a meeting in that space
- Say no when someone says “What about Friday at x time?” and it’s blocked out
- Make sure all my sauna things are set aside and ready as I’m usually cutting it pretty close to the wire
- Leave on time so i get the full sauna hour
- Do this regardless of the week or weather or my feelings one way or the other
One Friday, it had been raining and hailing with howling winds most of the week. Friday was no exception: I drove to the sauna in driving winds and rapidly-swishing windscreen wipers, and dashed out to the sea in between sauna sections being pounded by hail.
Another Friday we had three new clients starting, loads of enquiries and sales calls, some meetings i needed to have with team members, and a few extra unexpected operational meetings and discussions. There were some late nights. It was very tempting to cancel the sauna that week “just this once”.
There are the odd times it doesn’t work out – the sauna isn’t open, or I have an injury or a reason I’m genuinely not able to go. But most of the time, I can craft my time and schedule so I will be there: and I’m always, always glad I did.
Some weeks there’s only one or two other people in the sauna (or none), and I sit quietly and watch the waves of the sea and the light in the sky, and ponder things. Or I think about nothing at all. Some weeks there are five other people in the sauna and we have lots of chat and banter and it’s a little crowded but still fun.
And every time, there are NO SCREENS. No phone to reach for even when i’m trying to wean myself off it.
No zoom meetings.
No calendars.
No time, at all.
I don’t wear a watch (no point as the screen goes black from the heat anyway.) And of course phones don’t belong in a 100C sauna!
A 55 minute session can feel like ten minutes, or three hours. I generally try to get a feel for how much time I have left, but I can tell it’s a good session when I think it’s almost done and there are twenty minutes left. The sauna operators are really generous, too. If it’s the last session of the night, or few people are in, or I showed up late (despite all my efforts to get there on time), they’ll sometimes stretch it out for a few extra minutes at the end.
It’s my place to reset. And a Friday night is a perfect time to do it.
What’s your weekly reset?
