Is leisure part of your productivity routine?
I recently read the book Do Nothing: How To Break Away From Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving [1]. Despite the title, it wasn't about actually doing nothing. It was about being intentional with your work time and your leisure time and scheduling both.
Placing a conscious value on leisure time has helped me to be more creative and energized with my work.
It also helps me make sure that when I am working, I'm working towards something worthwhile and productive. Leisure time gives me the space I need to reflect and more clearly see what tasks/initiatives I need to do, and which I can drop or postpone.
When transitioning to/from leisure time, I like to do brain-dumps. During the brain-dump, I write down everything on my mind. It's fast and messy. It helps me reflect on what's important. It also helps me identify tasks that are too big [2] - and likely to cause me to feel overwhelmed and procrastinate [3].
Deep leisure time and brain-dumps give me clarity and energy in both my work and life. What works for you?
[1] https://celesteheadlee.com/do-nothing-book/
[2] https://blog.amazingmarvin.com/break-large-projects-tasks-bite-sized-tasks/
[3] https://medium.com/better-programming/cultivate-your-can-do-attitude-10864742d76d
What works for me is that I exercise but I listen to podcasts and audio books during. So it probably doesn’t count as leisure.
Don’t get me wrong... I do think it’s important to get away from what I’m working on to gain new ideas, get through writer’s/coder’s block and generally recharge.
Another thing that I’ve tried to do and this works for me, is to take another project or work on another part of the business in 2 weeks sprints. Buffer has used this hack and been quite successful with it. I think Crew did this with Unsplash and the project saved the company as well.
Overall, I find the insights from my side project helps me get through my main business and avoids burnout.
I recently started a 3-day weekend practice. On week 5 now. I don't get any less work done in the week and I'm actually way more focus. This is great!
that's awesome! I haven't tried this yet but I've heard a number of stories where people have great success with it. Are you planning to continue past the summer? Do you work longer hours on the days you do work?
I will definitely continue past summer! And honestly I don't work longer days. I had gone so long without a vacation that my days were slow and distracted. Taking more time off means I can be more focused and get just as much done.
How many hours do you work in your work days then?
I'm also on a 4-day work week, I'll never go back to a 5-day work week.
Each day is deliberately long and grueling though.
I'm looking into changing that, but I'm afraid I might take a hit on productivity.
I found that shorter work weeks help me stay more focused so I can batch work and do deep work on my work days. Also don't see myself going back to a 5-day week. Way too many days!
I recently ranted a bit on Twitter about how we cannot expect knowledge workers to take care of their sanity and mental health in their own time. Expecting so would essentially require someone to dedicate their whole life towards performing for their employer.
So yes, it absolutely is. Usually I try to get my mind off things by reading a book about a completely different topic, or going on a bike ride. Reading books is nice for a mental reset, while bike rides are amazing to order some random thoughts about work to do.
I also have trouble turning off my brain to actually engage in leisure, and find that meditation for 10-20 min helps as a brain 'reset' to aid transition. Curious as to what sorts of activities you do for leisure?
Meditation works great for me as a "reset" too. The key that the author talks about for a leisure activity is that it's something you do for the pure joy of it - not as a means to something else.
For me, some of these activities include cooking, walking in nature, listening to music, reading (not self-improvement books), and hanging out with friends/family.
This comment was deleted a year ago.
That's awesome. Yes these have been two of my biggest things too