This week’s newsletter is going to be a little different. We’ve been toying with the idea of reviewing books that we think might be helpful to our readers. I recently finished Do Nothing by Celeste Headlee, so I thought we’d start there.
If you’re looking for a review of the entire book, this isn’t it. Instead, I’ll be writing about some of the concepts I found interesting and applicable to the work we do as mediators and counsellors.
Polluted Time
This was a term I had never heard before, but have definitely experienced in my own life.
Periods or moments in which work pressures or commitments prevent someone from enjoying or otherwise making the most of their non-work time.
Have you ever felt like this? Imagine you have a weekend coming up with no commitments or appointments. You can do whatever you want! Once the weekend arrives and you try to relax, how do you feel? Do feelings of guilt or stress creep in because you’re not being “productive”?
Polluted time isn’t the only term for this feeling. In psychology, it’s also related to something called internalized capitalism. The belief that your worth is tied to your productivity. It often shows up as guilt when you’re resting, and the constant fear that you’re never enough.
This is the bitter truth of working in the post-digital revolution. We have tools that make us more productive than at any other point in human history, yet we’re working more hours than the generations who came before us.
My biggest take aways from the book:
- The amount of hours people typically worked before the Industrial Revolution (it’s less, not more).
- Henry Ford implemented the 40 hour work week because he found it made his employees MORE productive. It had nothing to do with altruism.
- Trading hours for money is a relatively new concept. Before the Industrial Revolution this didn’t really exist. You provided products or services for a flat fee.
- What we’re doing now can’t last much longer.
So yes, we’re working more hours now than at any other time in recorded history, and we’re constantly being pushed to do more. It’s no wonder we feel guilty when we have time to ourselves. So what can you do to help mitigate those feelings of guilt and begin to separate your self-worth from your productivity?
Reframe
Remind yourself that recovery enables better focus, creativity, and decision-making when you do work. If you like structure, literally schedule “recharge time” in your calendar and treat it like a work task, something to accomplish.
Use a To-Do List
I would be lost without my list! Keep a visible log of what you’ve accomplished (work, errands, responsibilities). There are countless apps you can use, or just grab a pen and paper. When guilt creeps in, look at your list as proof that you’ve already “earned” your downtime.
Practice Active Rest
Sometimes passive rest (scrolling, TV) makes guilt louder. Active rest, like cooking, reading, walking, or gardening, can trick the productivity-driven brain into seeing rest as “doing.” Over time, it gets easier to allow yourself truly passive downtime.
Active rest is what tends to work best for me. I love getting outside and going for a run. Nothing clears my head faster.
Linn Ullmann, in an interview with Vogue, about her father Ingmar Bergman:
“My father was a very disciplined and punctual man; it was a prerequisite for his creativity. There was a time for everything: for work, for talk, for solitude, for rest. No matter what time you get out of bed, go for a walk and then work, he’d say, because the demons hate it when you get out of bed, demons hate fresh air. So when I make up excuses not to work, I hear his voice in my head: Get up, get out, go to your work.”
“Demons hate fresh air”, I love that. I need that as a bumper sticker.
Start with Micro-Breaks
If long stretches of downtime feel impossible, start small: 10–15 minutes of guilt-free leisure. I use something called the Pomodoro technique. It’s a time management technique where you break up your work in to small chunks and take short breaks between each chunk. There are numerous apps out there you can use to get started.
Everything in life has seasons, and that includes our minds and our bodies. The line can’t constantly go up. Something has to give. Relax, get bored, do nothing.
When you grow up you tend to get told the world is the way it is and your life is just to live inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family, have fun, save a little money. That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.
– Steve Jobs