I have just done something I thought I would never have the opportunity to do again.

I took a week off.

Yes I checked my mails, yes I did drive 250 miles back to Milan for a meeting that didn’t need me there. But even though I was still ‘on’, I actually took a week ‘off’.

It’s amazing how a few days can clear your mind, or in my case, make it up.

Now I’m back, I feel refreshed, revitalized and, more importantly, re-focused.

More than thinking outside the box, it’s as if I see the world above the clouds. Possibilities, opportunities, potential, all within my grasp, yet seemingly so far from my clients’…

Shame the real world is fast approaching beneath my feet.

I still have time left. Time to solicit a website I’ve been waiting 9 months to be delivered, time to start the biggest project of my life, time to look my kids straight in the eye, and giggle with them for hours on end.

Soon, routine will settle in with all the unpleasantness of a small dog whose cocky bark repeats incessantly with bone grating persistence. Soon can wait, right now, I’m a star.

Best not to think about tomorrow when today is so sunny, so sweet.

Taking a week off from Twitter, RSS feeds and even newspapers is a very, very pleasant experience for no other reason than you are suddenly presented with an inordinately large dollop of time on your hands. Time to decide… Time to kill… Time to think… Time to breathe…

Remember what that felt like? Didn’t think so.

In the fast connected world, time isn’t actually used by us, we do not hold the keys to our time. More often than not it is used (badly) by our clients to get things done (badly). It’s taken from us, and we readily give it up in return for feeling part of the moment, part of the big equation. How sad is that?

One of my random thoughts concerned a very big client of a client who’s taking too long to get what I can help them embrace. Not just social networks, the whole online caboodle. The web, its codes, conduct and - now - transparency are all beyond what they’re prepared to welcome on board in one fell swoop. They need more time to absorb the message, assess the potential damage and prepare their excuses.

And in my current position of outsourced copywriter, I’m not exactly in a position to help.

Which brings me back to time. When you have enough time on your hands to realize that you don’t have the time your clients need to decide, what do you do?

You start your own project, that’s what you do.

Thanks to the one person I’m always happy to hear from and who has inspired me without knowing it, I am expanding my product portfolio to include conversation marketing. I think I’ll be the only one selling (or buying) it for a while in Italy but at least I’ll be in excellent company ;-)

A new service will allow me to concentrate on using my time well for the benefit of my clients, or in other words: the better I use my time, the better the quality of service I offer my clients.

And the project? Well I’ve just got off the phone with a web design agency in Toronto and am happy to say I’m going to give them the green light. I can’t believe that after twelve years, my little idea will finally get the chance to prove its worth. I hope I don’t make a hash of it as without wishing to sound too full of myself, the world really does need something like this.

Thought that would make you jump.

If any of you know any English language teachers or bloggers/writers looking to participate in something really radical (and get paid for it), please give them my mail. Trust me, they will thank you.

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