Hi friends! Taking a slight break from my usual oversharing š to talk about an article I read this week thatās been swimming around my brain ever since.
On Tuesday, the lead of this writing club Iām in shared out this op-ed from the New York Times. The title might lead you to believe it was a piece written to lend some credibility to the quiet quitting ridiculousness of the summer (aka doing your job and not going above and beyond ā Iāll get to that in a moment), but in reality, itās about so much more. I feel like using āquiet quittingā in the title was just SEO clickbait, as the tldr of it is that doing things you love, that you enjoy, that fill your cup ā outside of your work responsibilities or home/family life and obligations ā is the best way to overcome burnout and create a healthier time-management system for yourself.
In other words, when youāre feeling exhausted and like you have zero time in your week, with just enough energy to lay on the couch and scroll your phone or watch TVā¦ you should instead add something to your routine. Something thatās just for you.
It sounds a bit contradictory, I know, but the author Laura Vanderkam, whoās apparently a time-management writer/guru, made a compelling case:
āIāve come to realize that the opposite of burnout isnāt doing nothing, or even scaling back. Itās engagement. As counterintuitive as that seems, adding energizing activities to your schedule just might make life feel more doable.ā
The idea is that there are activities out there that are additive, and can actually be restorative for you in the long run ā more so than cutting back or leaning into inaction and lethargy.
The author led a time-satisfaction study in 2021 with 140 busy people, and said she asked them to āmake space for little adventuresā and prioritize āeffortful before effortlessā when it came to the things they chose to add to their lives. Like reading a book or taking an art class rather than binging a new show.
Now, I think for a lot of people, adventures of any kind have felt out of reach for a while, for a variety of reasons, but I do love that idea of adding to your life rather than figuring out ways to pull back or edit stuff out. I say that despite the fact that admittedly, since March 2020, Iāve found myself more often than not choosing to lean out ā like all the way out (sorry, Sheryl Sandberg) ā and seeking the comfort and perhaps disassociation of lighthearted television shows or the endless scroll of Instagram rather than the effort of making plans or adding things to my work day outside of the already must-doās on my list. But, I know personally that having a packed schedule of things Iām actually enthusiastic about or something on the calendar that Iām looking forward to is far more recharging and mood-lifting than, say, paging through the internet mindlessly.
[Note: I donāt think resting or watching TV or anything else that could be construed as passive is ābadā or should be taken negatively; you know yourself best and what your body needs to feel cared for and safeā¦ and sometimes, that is laying on the couch and watching āFriendsā for the 85th time.]
I find routines and time-management best practices to be really interesting (nerdy, I know). I was obsessed with blogs in the early 2000s because I loved learning about peopleās schedules and how they spent their time; itās kind of fascinating, you know? And reading this authorās evidence that considering your life through an additive lens could be less depleting and just generally make life more wonderful really got me. As you probably know because Iāve written about it here, Iāve felt like Iāve been in a bit of a rut, personally and professional speaking, for a little while, and Iāve definitely experienced burnout in the last year, as I know so many of you have as well. Iāve also had something of a reckoning since my mom passed away, as losing her (not to mention the pandemic) was another very real reminder that life is short and precious and no day or even next moment is guaranteed. (Makes me think of this Mary Oliver poem.) All of that combined has led me to push myself out of my comfort zone a bit more, and Iāve tried to find more creative ways to channel my energy and breakup the monotony of the work week. I mean, I could definitely be better about it, but Iām trying. For example, I went out to dinner and to a play with a friend earlier this week (and for someone whoās such a homebody on weeknights, this was definitely a ālittle adventureā for me).
Reading this article left me feeling more inspired to be more thoughtful about how I spend my time outside of work, instead of defaulting to something more passive that Iām used to. It also just got me thinking overall about how we really utilize the time available to us, and what I could be doing instead of, say, checking Instagram for the 18th time.
Anyways, I thought this was interesting food for thought! And as for the āquiet quittingā business, I donāt think itās worth spending much energy talking about it here, but I do think itās wholly unnecessary to demonize or criticize anyone for simply wanting to do their job and then go home. Not everyone needs to live at the office (or in Slack). Not everyone is trying to get to the C-suite or wants to be a manager and that is FINE. I was taught to always ask for more work, to always seek out additional ways to help and say yes and go above and beyond in order to keep climbing at work, and all of that is still core to my nature but honestlyā¦ā¦. I donāt think all of that is necessary to be a successful person. And it shouldnāt be expected. If you do your job to the extent of its scope and you do it well, why canāt that be enough? To earn you a promotion, or simply just enough, period? More so, why do we always have to be looking for whatās next or whatās better or bigger? Not to mention, in this day and age when people are so deeply depleted by the state of the world over the last 2.5 yearsā¦. the fact that any of us are still showing up at work feels like enough in my opinion.
More than enough.
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OK! Thatās it from me, but Iād love to hear from you ā leave a comment and let me know what you think about the op-ed, or the idea of adding things to your routine to fight off burnout. xo
Thanks for reading!
Joelle