my afternoon of rest and relaxation
I’m no good at resting. Or rather, I’m no good at prioritizing rest. That’s about to change.
Most of us probably know the pressure that comes with a full schedule and a hefty to do-list. Take one look at the statistics and you’ll see how 82% of the workforce is at a risk of burnout. Turns out, excessive workload and pushing yourself to the brink of exhaustion don’t make for good circumstances to thrive under.
Yet when planning my week, empty slots get filled like cavities. There’s always something to do, someone to see, places to rush to. I like being busy, sue me! Fact is, though, that my body doesn’t share my preference for constant activity. This becomes apparent when I let myself crash on the couch with the noble idea of hitting the road again “in 10 minutes”. That 10 minutes turns into an hour or four, my body teetering on the edge of sleep and my eyes focusing on nothing. Surely that’s completely normal.
Thing is, it might be normal (remember that statistic about the risk of burnout?) but it shouldn’t be. It’s my body forcing me to slow down when it gets the chance. I have no choice but to obey, because I have pushed past a limit I should have acknowledged before.
Boredom is good for you
My packed schedule is a strategy to ward off boredom. How do you think I nurse my boredom otherwise? You guessed it, by scrolling!
My latest visit to see my extended family showed me that scrolling to pass the time is common - at least in my family. It’s what elementary school aged kids do (imagine being locked in a car with two kids who watch brain rot content on Youtube shorts with the volume all the way up. I shudder at the memory). It’s even what my 60-year-old dad does in the evening (with full volume, mind you). And I can’t blame them, for it is a compelling past-time: your phone is always present, always ready to provide instant entertainment.
As per my last post, I don’t want to be like the other phone addicts. I’m looking to kick the habit. I don’t want to watch Youtube shorts with outrageous volume levels to numb the boredom away. But by cutting down on my screen time, I’ve introduced a new contender for myself: toxic productivity. Fun.
The real underlying problem here is my need to erase all possibility of boredom. But why? It’s not a problem to be solved. As Kelly Kuch expressed so precisely in her article:
But boredom is not an illness. It’s a pause.
The pause allows for rest. It also gives room for new thoughts and creativity to bloom. Now that this project is coming to fruition, I’ll want to make space for creativity to blossom. Resting will prepare me for doing the work to actualize all those ideas too.
how not to burn out before the ripe old age of 25 in 5 steps
New season, new me, am I right? While there are obvious priorities in my life: work, thesis, hobbies, social calls, Narratiivi (duh) and the like, I've decided to honor rest so that it’ll not be forced upon me by exhaustion. Here’s my plan for making it all work:
Sleep enough. Enough meaning 8 hours, not 6 and under, miss m’am. Whatever tasks I feel like I need to do at midnight can wait until morning, no matter how I swear in the moment that they cannot.
That in mind, schedule in the things I have to take care of. And once those things have their allotted spots in the calendar…
Focus on one thing at a time. Be it work or school or taking a nap, I’ll dedicate my entire being to the chosen activity and forget about the rest. I suck at multitasking anyway.
While updating the calendar, I have to stop playing dentist with the gaps in my schedule!! If there’s nothing that has to be done at that particular time, learn to exist without obligation.
Come up with a dopamine menu to curb the desire to deal with boredom by over-planning and mindless scrolling. This is a buzzword of yester-year, but I never got around to making one for myself, now’s the time. I want it to be a reminder of nice, enjoyable activities that will make me feel relaxed. I might make a post about this, stay tuned…
With that, I’m clocking out and focusing on other things for the rest of the day. I might even take my own advice and rest a bit, who knows.