The Importance of Time Off
** This newsletter is brought to you by the two oracles from The Matrix movies: Gloria Foster & Mary Alice. Rest well.
The pandemic did something to my sense of “time off.” Since I refused to put myself at risk, I stayed at home and only ventured out for doctor’s appointments. My home office replaced my school office. My sense of time itself was off since I wasn’t creating a rigid distinction between home and not-home.
As the days bleed into each other, so my home office blended into the rest of the house. Prior to the pandemic, I was clear about work time and play time. When the spaces collapsed, so did the distinctions. I felt the ever so slow creep of work time into play time. Since capitalism is nothing if not cannibalistic, it swallowed me whole.
Since 2021, I’ve been trying to get back to my work-free weekends. To my surprise, it isn’t just work in the way of this endeavor. That is, the amount of work I do hasn’t shifted by much. Instead, I am working against myself, my own habits of mind and body.
My first response to this – surprise! – is to plan for time off. I examine my weekly plan and shrink my work week to 40 hours. I had been able to do this when I was an Assistant Professor (read: untenured) up until the pandemic (when I applied for Full Professor). I have to get used to ensuring I do not borrow from the bank of the weekend, by ensuring I have time to get my tasks done during the week.
When I cannot trust myself to stick to my own plan, I plan to do something with someone. These days that tends to be a phone conversation or an online watch party for a movie or a show. When folks aren’t around, I tend to create something fun for myself to do like a puzzle. Everyone’s fun will necessarily look different.
I have learned something during my little reboot. Distraction is not the same as rest or joy. I used to zone out a little in front of my computer screen watching whatever show I happened to choose. But, those did not rest my brain. You may be tempted to think that these were not restful because of the evils of television and streaming services. I would attribute the lack of rest to something different: intention.
Turning to television only solves the riddle of what to do, not necessarily how to rest. I have turned to Netflix usually in lieu of chill. That is, I have turned on the television when I need to nap or walk or stretch or read or mindlessly wash dishes. If television allows you to rest, that’s fantastic. Sometimes it does that for me as well, but only when I am turning to it with the explicit purpose of enjoyment rather than distraction.
So, I encourage you in the idiom of The Matrix: “Temet Nosce.” Loosely, ‘know thyself.’ You’ll want to be clear about what brings you joy and what will allow you to rest and when you need it. The difference between joy and distraction is one of rest. Rest lets you recharge, decrease your stress hormones, increase serotonin & dopamine, create and maintain relationships (including the one with yourself), synthesize knowledge during the week, seek pleasure, and fulfill the conceit of being human. It allows you to walk past the color purple without pissing off God by not noticing it (thank you, Alice Walker). Rest is also for rest’s sake. You do not rest to simply be better at work. You rest because you deserve it. There is no spoon.
As I continue to break this habit, I had to learn what drives me to work on the weekends. Quite frankly, my decision was driven by procrastination. Procrastination isn’t a time management issue, it is an emotional management issue. There were a bunch of tasks I did not want to complete during the week, so I would borrow from the bank of the weekend. I seek some help from an accounta-buddy for those tasks now.
I hope that you understand what this all has to do with writing. Being in the thick of a project can be exciting, thrilling, as well as frustrating and lonely. It can be all of these at once. So, I encourage you to rest.
Rest is revolution.