Is this really February?

Sukanti Ghosh
02 March 2014, 11:26 AM IST

How many of you have asked yourselves this question in the past couple of weeks? Well, I definitely have, and with increasing frequency at that. Caught up with the intense pressures of work, deadlines, weekly chores and frenetic socializing, 2014 year has already started to rest heavy on my shoulders. 'Is it really still February?' I asked myself and a number of my friends and associates last week. For all I could tell, we could easily have been the second half of the year given the extent of battle weariness that had already set in. And, I wasn't surprised to hear that many of them felt the same way.

But then, nature has a funny way of reminding you of things when you least expect it. Laid low with a nasty bout of food poisoning during the week, I was forced – much against my wishes and professional instincts – to take a step back from things; to slow down and put away the phones and laptops and all the problems we tend to grapple with, and let my body heal. Relax.

Surprisingly, in the process, I have found my mind starting to unwind as well and notice many of the things that I had taken for granted from the beginning of the year – yes, there is still a delightful nip in the air every morning and evening; the sunlight still appears to shine a light on each and every leaf around us in sparkling clarity; a mid-morning walk in the gardens still feels pleasant, and is not a sign of one's rapidly depleting mental senses; and that there are few things that can compete with a good chat with a loved one or a book and a cup of steaming coffee on a lazy weekend afternoon, even if it is on an e-reader. Spring is still very much amongst us.

Is it we who drive ourselves into a frenzy, at the cost of everyone and everything else around us? Or are we creatures of circumstance? I would wager the former. I remember telling you all last year about my commitment to take a holiday every time I could feel the gall rising above my perceived 'danger levels' and starting to cloud my vision and better judgment. Thankfully, I have been able to maintain that commitment to myself and to my family, and I intend to continue to do so going forward. And while I agree that planning to take a holiday in February (or March, as is indeed the case!) is a bit much, perhaps it is time I thought of other ways to retain/ regain my sanity.

For starters, how many of us have watched - with what must be a mixture of envy, awe and surprise - at the ease with which many of our global associates are able to raise a strong embankment that separates personal time from the professional? At how they 'switch off' when they leave work, and remain unreachable over weekends, while we continue to stay, 'always on'? Is this a reflection of our servile nature, our robust work ethic, our fragile belief that we are indispensable, our compelling need to prove ourselves to everyone around us, or our inability to separate the personal from the professional?

I recently bumped into a new neighbor in the lobby of our building only to find that he was a frequent traveler and compulsive workaholic, much like me. Swapping stories of our trips and our work, he told me about how bad things had to get for him before he decided he needed to change his ways: "I travel so much that waking up, I often have no idea where I was am for a couple of moments; you know, I need a couple of moments to come to terms with the lay out of the room, and understand which city or hotel I am in". I smiled in agreement. "Well, all that changed recently". "How" I asked. "Well, the other day, I woke up to find a strange woman lying next to me in bed, and it took me a couple of minutes to realize that she was my wife! I knew then that if I didn't change things, things would change for me forever."

While I don't necessarily believe in making such hard demarcations, and believe that the proverbial work-life balance is subjective and needs at best to be elastic at different stages of your life and career, I must admit that there is some merit in exploring this embankment in slightly greater detail; particularly, if it allows me (and people around me) to actually be more productive and efficient in the hours when we are supposed to be 'switched on', even as we appreciate everything around us.

So the next time you feel that you are not sure of where you are and what day of the week / month it is, could I urge you to take a breather and smell the coffee? Trust me, it might help.