Embracing Idleness
How I'm getting more done in less time without sacrificing my personal time.
In my last post I signed off with "be comfortable being idle", and it's been on my mind since. It's one of those things you write without thinking too much at the time which is what these posts are mainly for but even if you don't think about it at the time, it can linger around for a bit after.
So what did I mean by it? Like I wrote about previously, I had an odd reoccurring habit where I'd try to fill my free time by doing something considered productive to me such as learning something new, or working on a project.
More often than not, I wouldn't end up doing what I had planned and instead filled the free time I had by watching a video course with one eye, while my other was on my phone looking at the Saturday 3pm fixtures LiveScore updates.
Instead, a couple of months ago I began purposely setting time in my calendar labelled "downtime". During this time I could be browsing YouTube, playing video games, napping, whatever. The point was that I had time to unwind, and more importantly, not feel guilty for doing so.
Since that small change, I've put more focus into being as productive as possible during my working hours. If I can't get what I planned done during that time, stop, and finish it tomorrow, it's not going anywhere.
It does obviously depend on the work, sometimes we don't always have the luxury of walking away from something unless it's finished.
I noticed that knowing I have certain hours to get things done, I put a much more concentrated effort into what I'm doing and in-turn, producing better work, and even retaining information better. I feel this is helped even further by letting your brain melt away and process the day during my evening downtime. A time that would have previously been filled by the illusion of productivity.
Take the time to zone out, we're not machines, we can and do burnout.