Time off

The title of this piece -- "The right way to slack off at work" -- makes it seem like a primer on how to be a bad employee. But it's really about how to cope with being in a downsized company in which you might be doing the work previously done by several employees:

The conventional workplace wisdom is to keep up with the Joneses and then leave them in the dust. After all, in a competitive job market, you don't want to be seen as a weak link. But if you're getting all your work done well and on time, why shouldn't you take a little time to relax?

The advice given is about how to find a little down time at work -- small moments of relaxation: Don't eat lunch at your desk, don't multitask, don't always say yes, don't be so obsessive about e-mail. Good advice. Both in the fat times -- when my department had four full-timers and two part-timers -- and now in the lean times, when I AM  the department, the key to good mental health at the office is not how much work there is but how many small spaces I can create between tasks. Just a couple of five-minute breaks spent staring out the window can be the difference between having a great morning and a lousy one.