Living on Easy Street—It’s Hard!
People have different perceptions about taking time off. But ultimately, time off is just “time on” something else. There’s no such thing as doing nothing. Every moment of your existence, you are pumping blood, breathing, blinking, producing cells, repairing bone, and burning calories. It’s exhausting. But it’s what your brain does that you really notice. Whether your time off is rejuvenating depends on your mental state. Your mental state depends on what you’re doing, how much sleep you’ve had, how much energy you’ve been using, how much time you’ve spent with people, and what you’ve been eating and drinking (among many other factors). When you’re busy, some time off is just what you need. But how you spend your downtime matters.
Easy Street
It’s a common misconception that if you have enough time (and money), all your problems will be solved, and you could cruise through life. You can “live on easy street.” But you still have to fill the hours with meaningful, fulfilling, and rewarding activities. Even if you have flexibility with your time, you still need to have a good sense of how to use it. I’m not minimizing the benefits of having flexibility in how you spend your time, but even the busiest people have more flexibility than they might think. And it’s important to realize that flexibility alone is not a solution to life’s challenges; how you act on that flexibility is equally important.
Under Pressure to Relax
When you’re awash in the crazy pace of work and family life, any time off can seem like heaven. It doesn’t matter what you do as long as the crazy demands of day-to-day life abate. But then time passes, and you may start to feel frustrated. You still have to feed yourself and your family, you still have to plan your days, and you still have to take care of your body. Is this relaxation? When you have some time off, you can feel anxious because you don’t want to waste your precious downtime. You want to find the perfect mix of leisure and fun, with maybe some self-improvement thrown in.
Being intentional about downtime
I recently had a few days to myself and was very interested in taking advantage of that time to refuel, relax, and have some serious downtime. I didn’t want to be bored, mindlessly watch TV, or scroll on my phone, so I set up a daily routine. Each day, I would eat well, write, compose and record some music, exercise, read, and watch a movie. Creating a plan for your downtime may seem counterintuitive, but finding a balance between mindless lounging and healthy, exciting, or rewarding activities is essential. You have to ask yourself what your goal is for your time off and plan accordingly. This is not to say that your days have to be full and certainly not busy—the goal here is to make them enjoyable and rewarding.
You should also incorporate flexibility into your planning. A big part of downtime is the decreased responsibilities, so you want to avoid feeling like you have to do anything you’ve planned. So, instead of creating a schedule, make it more of a list of menu options that you can choose from depending on your mood and energy level.
If you’re visiting Easy Street, make it easy. With a bit of planning and the right attitude, Easy Street can be everything you imagined.
