If you’re like me, it’s difficult to maintain work boundaries when living/exercising/working/cooking in the same space. The question of what to do with our non-working time can be challenging when, at least here in the city, many things are still closed. For those of us whose time is more empty than full, finding the self-motivation to stop working when our usual leisure activities are not available is a completely different set of emotional muscles. It’s like the first time I went to barre class, used to high intensity interval training. I walked in confident, and I barely walked out, having worked muscles I didn’t even know I had.
In my conversation with Caroline Mayer on ye olde podcast, we talked about recovering from creative burnout. She referred to the areas of her life as buckets, explaining that when she put too much pressure on her work, her creative bucket quickly became empty. One of the ways Caroline refilled her creative bucket was making time for creative activities that were fun. She and a friend would go to a museum and sketch, or be in nature. One practice I mentioned is consistently celebrating small wins along the way.
Counterintuitively, taking a step back can actually lead to better productivity. In today’s blog on rest, I wrote “Sometimes, the most productive thing we can do is stop being productive. ”
What are some ways you could take a step back and remember the things you love about your work? Maybe listen to an album you love, or watch clips from your favorite musicals. Maybe take a virtual museum tour or read a beautifully written memoir. And who can you do it with (virtually, or socially distant)?