One day you wake up, only to realise that more than half of your summer break is gone. And you feel neither rested, nor accomplished.
I feel like most of us are guilty of this. We crave rest, time away, a permission to turn our overworked and overwhelmed brains off, if only for a couple of weeks.
Research and creative jobs are extremely mentally demanding and assuming most of us only dream about a true work-life balance, taking a longer period of time to recharge is absolutely essential. For our mental health. Our personal development. But also our future projects and activities.
However, just like with our lack of personal boundaries - spanning from weekend work, emails after midnight (or even 6 p.m. when it comes to it), unpaid projects and favours - we often seem incapable of actually taking the summer off once it finally arrives.
Instead of laying on the beach, our friend’s garden, or even our own sofa devouring through the pile of (non-academic) books that we managed to hoard during the year, we suddenly feel uneasy.
At first, we try to do nothing for a day, two, or three. Catch on some sleep, turn off our regular morning alarm. We even buy a new plant for the house because, to be honest, we haven’t been the most attentive to our surroundings recently.
Maybe we even manage to open our first book, or buy a couple of new ones for that matter.
But after a couple of days, we start feeling anxious. Uneasy. We start feeling guilty. I mean, all of this wasted time, wouldn’t we do better using it for something more “productive?”
Our September deadlines suddenly feel right behind the corner. Yes, we did some stuff in June. But no, not nearly as much as we should have. Maybe if we work now, we will save ourselves some unnecessary stress in autumn?
This thought might sound reasonable. But it’s a trap. Because once we jump back into the work wheel, we don’t get out of it until next summer, with a possible break over Christmas.
The (sad) truth is, there will always be deadlines. And conference presentations to prepare. And new book chapters or articles to write. Classes to plan. Students to mentor.
We need to get all the rest we can before the autumn madness starts again.
So how can we leave this guilt behind? Focus on replenishing our energy rather than procrastinating and stressing about all the things to come?
I mean, do we really want to waste our whole summer in front of the computer screen, in a mostly empty shared office, managing to read max. 5 pages a day or barely write a single paragraph? These constant distractions have a reason behind them. Our bodies and minds were promised a holiday. And whether or not we are consciously on board with it, they are taking it regardless.
I am 100% guilty of all this as well. Aside from article and dissertation writing, conference prep, and next year’s projects planning, I am also fully immersed in our summer wedding organisation. A crazy mix leaving me with little to no time to actually wind down.
However, because, as we all know, admitting that there is a problem is the first, I decided to experiment with a number of strategies this summer to gently force myself into relaxation. Despite of myself (and my guilt). So here they are:
1. Booking a (family) holiday. For the first time in a number of years, I took a night bus with my mum and sister and spent a week on the Croatian seaside. With the white mountains behind my back, azure blue sea in the front, and a terrible Wi-Fi connection all around me, I spent a week in blissful slumber. Dozing off on the beach surrounded by semi-read books and magazines, woken up only by corn vendors and my little sister forcing me to play with her, I managed to start filling a deep well that I didn’t even notice was empty. Yes, I was still checking my emails whenever I came across a decent signal, but only opened my laptop two or three times, low-key regretting not leaving it at home entirely.
2. Festivals, day- and weekend-trips, galleries, date nights. Pretty much anything forcing me to stay away from our home office, and my laptop in particular. Yes, I might still be stressing out about the workload awaiting me and would rather procrastinate in front of the screen to feel better about myself, but all these feelings disappear once I leave the house and immerse myself in something fun :)
3. Switching off weekends and weekdays. Sometimes the guilt is just too much to bear. So to calm it down (and do something for autumn Lucie as well), I tend to design dedicated work days. These usually amount to three days of the summer week with the leftover four meant for replenishing, exploring, new inspiration, and fun. This way, I manage to get at least some things ticked off my to-do list, while making sure I also have a summer break. Similarly to a 4-day work week, by limiting the amount of working days to a smaller number, I tend to be a lot more productive and focused, and use the rest of the week to rest and dive deeper into other activities that I am interested in :)
Do you have some strategies of your own? Please share them in the comments!
Have a beautiful summer, you all :)
Love,
~ Lucie