If you pop by his blog on the regular, you’ll know that I am all about blending “  work” and “pleasure” so it’s not surprise that this weekend I took a mini Work- cation to Lake Rotoma.

I was pleasntly surprised at the amount of work I achieved, without wifi or phone and while eating my body weight in bliss balls.

The ladies I went with were fabulous, Angel and Blake are Studying mum’s and Angie who organised the retreat is finishing her book. What was ideal about our group is we all had projects that we wanted to get done, so everyone wanted to work.

You might be thinking this idea sounds good in theory, but how the heck do you get any work done with such gorgeous surroundings? Well, I think it’s all about creating a good balance of work and play.

Let’s talk about play:

I slept in, both days. We had a masseuse drive from Papamoa to treat us with a full body massage. I went for a beautiful long walk along the lake and up to the look out. We went for an evening dip beneath the stars at Soda Springs, an incredible thermal pool in the ground and I had my first skinny dip ever! I ate healthy meals that Angie prepared and cooked FOR us. I cuddled with her special doggie Paua, and sat admiring the lake and surrounding mountains. I read a book for an hour each night before going to bed. Pure. Bliss.

As you can tell I totally gave myself permission to do absolutely nothing related to work ( that’s sometimes when my best ideas tend to arrive!) There is something very refreshing about seeing the world beyond your life and business.

Then there were times I was brimming with new ideas and itching to get into work.

When I first leared there would be no internet, I have to admit I panicked. What does one do without wifi? Then I realised I had loads of ideas and admin that I had been putting off forever because…. Internet.So getting away from all of my usual routines and distractions helped to unleash my energy in a huge way.

We started our retreat with an exercise around mindfulness, and then looked at aligning our working schedule with our natural creative rhythm. For example: If we get our best work done first thing in the morning, but are totally brain dead after 4pm, then we did that. It was our work-cation. It could flow however we wanted it to.

Together we created a loose, happy structure to our days and it was bliss.

I am now officially a work-cationista, and can see a lot more of these retreats in my near future.
What about you?

Have you taken a work-cation in the past? Tell me about it in the comments below. Or if you’ve never gone share your dream work-cation plans!

Here is the view from my room each morning

The amazing Angie who not only cooked for us… but did all our dishes too! 

Here’s Angie giving Blake some feedback on her essay. 

The beautiful Soda Springs during the daylight. A divine soak for sure!

P.S: Did you see I became friends with a dog!!!! A real one.

Awwww yeah. My life is changing.

x

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