10 o’clock Work

[Work – III]

Your best work happens at 10 o’clock at night. I’m not promoting workaholism. I’m not even suggesting staying at the office late or putting in the extra time to get noticed.

10 o’clock is when you’re not at work! In the evening, after dinner, after the Netflix special, and after you’ve called your mom or texted with friends, the day finally slows down. You plug the phone in and you’ve resolved that anything on the to-do list will have to wait until tomorrow.

It’s at this moment, when the chatter and the demands and the coming-and-going is all put to rest, that you do your most important work. It’s the time you finally look in the mirror and see . . .

. . . not someone else’s blog.
. . . not someone else’s banner or newsletter or achievement award or polished profile picture.

You see you. In the raw. No makeup. No uniform. No public status update.
It’s here that you can finally ask, Am I being me?

Am I working like me (and not like Steve down the hall)?
Am I pursuing this or that goal for me (and not for the boss or the overseer)?
Am I being true to my convictions (and not the institutional expectations or the legal fine print)?
Am I pursuing my vocation (and not my parents’)?

10 o’clock is when we finally ask these questions . . . and do our most important work.