Start with Your Bliss
In my mind, summer is a vast expanse of temperate weather, frozen treats, and good reads. The days are long and filled with beautiful joy that doesn’t end because the sun sets. My own personal summer fantasy includes travel, adult beverages, and board games. For health reasons, I may not be able to make that happen completely this summer. But, the feeling is what I want: that lovely oneiric haze of being unbothered, unhurried, and content.
I used to think that my desires for summer were incompatible with my work. I am of a different mind now. Over the past few years, we’ve championed self-care, and paid attention to mental health care, but for some people those have become more to-do items on a never-ending list.
So, start with your bliss.
My main love in this profession is the book. I feel most relaxed with a book in hand or on my mind or in conversation. I like its smell whether new or old (or as mint julep-y as my copy of Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury), the sound pages make whether they are crisp new pages or electronic whooshes, and the confined four walls of the world they create. So, my plan this summer is to prioritize that action.
The question becomes, how do you prioritize anything in summer when it feels like the summer is a wide expanse of time and space? And, lucky for you, dear reader, I have an answer.
Think in terms of a twelve-week interval.
For some of you, this will be familiar. The 90-day business quarter. The semester or trimester. For others, this sounds like I’ve stuck a pin in your balloon. Maybe it is both.
Here’s the thing: despite my fantasies (and perhaps yours) to the contrary, the summer isn’t a vast expanse of time. It has a different pace and, for some, a different structure. But, it does have a structure and the days can go flying by without a plan.
When you break your summer down into twelve weeks, you end up with a realistic sense of what you can do in those weeks. Ask yourself, what have I been able to do between the months of September until November or January until April? Note that this is different from what can I do? Rely what you have done to figure out what you can do. To be clear, this does not mean that you cannot strive for more, but you’ll want to manage your own expectations about what you can reasonably do during the summer. Since I tend to be ambitious, I put my realistic goals into a strategic plan and have a slush pile at the end in case I am an over-achiever. I very rarely get to the slush pile.
Despite the fact that summer has a different pace, it does not necessarily beget more time for work. Yeah. I said it. Let me tell you why: in the summer, you will – by necessity – prioritize different activities, vacations, parties, et cetera. So, you’ll not spend your 9 am – 5 pm unbothered and working. (Besides, that’s not really a sensible way to work anyway. It is a recipe for burnout.)
This is why you start with your bliss.
As an example, I know a person whose perfect day is to get up and exercise, then work on her own work, and, after that, spend time with her children and friends. In order to build a schedule that honors her bliss and her commitment to writing, she plans to get up and rock out with Peloton nation, then greet the child-minder (British for baby-sitter), work until noon or 1 pm and then pick up her child.
Another example, I know a person who prefers to sleep until noon during the summer, and work at cafes and coffee shops. They like to have a run at dusk with their dog to clear their mind. But, this person has difficulty with accountability, so they’ll link up with different folks who need to work and will write-on-site with another person at the café.
In each example, the person thinks through their bliss and their obligations and figures out the perfect day. Then, they strategize to ensure they have the support and accountability to make that day happen.