Last updated on April 4th, 2021 at 11:30 am
I’m tired, and until I shaved this morning, I looked like I’d been hiding out in the wilderness for an extended period of time. Relaxation hasn’t really been in the cards lately, but I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t seen it coming.
We all tell each other our tales of woe—how it’s all too much and grating on our nerves to deal with our daily rigours:
- “There’s only so much I can do in 24 hours”
- “There’s so much to do and only one me to do it”
- “No one else can do it the way I do it; no one knows what I know; if I don’t get it done, I’m screwed”
The recent issue of Toronto Life (emblazoned with the text “Work Sucks” across the cover) even mentions that many would rather receive extra vacation or shorter hours than a promotion with extra pay and responsibility because really, we’re all tapped out.
So what do we do? How do we manage our time when there’s so little of it available to us? Some people I know have been making recommendations:
- Sarah directed my attention to a Toronto Star article on 24/7 concierge services.
- As I understand it, The 4-Hour Workweek covers a lot of thinking in this area (I’m still dying to read it!)
- It’s even been suggested that I hire an assistant or intern when I can rustle up enough money to do so
While some of those might not be the most feasible, there’s something to be said about having someone else who you trust to be able to take care of things exactly the way you’d do it yourself. But what about the other side of the spectrum? What if you just did less? I’ve also heard of friends who’ll:
Take weekend silent retreats at convents within the city
Strategically remove items from their to-do lists that aren’t realistic, yet are causing them anxiety
There’s ever-increasing popularity around philosophies that involve doing less in order to increase one’s quality of life: example example example
So what am I going to do? Personally, I’d love to have less to do. I think I’m going to continue to try and lessen my workload by lumping things together that are similar and trying to complete tasks all at once rather than in chunks; I’m going to try and get more done early so that I have more free time to relax whenever I want it, and I’m going to continue to work smarter instead of harder.
One can dream of a day where less isn’t more, but they’ve received more from their life from doing less.
One day.
76/365
5 replies on “Ideal vs. Reality: When One You Just Won’t Cut it”
I think it’s too crazy to do things all at once in big chunks. I have too short of an attention span. I have the span of a gnat. So I tend to do things for 20 minutes at a time then move on the next thing on the list, rotating my way though until it all gets done. Unless of course it requires going places and then I’m miss efficient and I get it done faster than you can imagine because I HATE TO WASTE TIME! 🙂 So figure out your own style and stuck with it.
If you have your own business an intern is good idea because you don’t have to pay them but you do have to show proof to the school that they have been working for you and doing real stuff. X)
It might be crazy, but in ways I feel it’s the most effective approach — I think we often get too sidetracked and unable to get things done as well as if we’d just done a concentrated approach. I too get distracted by “the shiny”, and a side effect of that is that I end up having lists of things pile up, and it’s very annoying! So I think it’s something I’d like to try out. On my honeymoon, Sarah and I will both be finding time to do a lot of reading, so maybe I’ll come back with a new, supercharged mentality?
I could TOTALLY find work for interns to do. Having been one myself, I value the fact that interns NEED to get great experience so that they’re valuable members in their industry. It’s a good idea for down the road!
casey, i really don’ t think you have the personality to do less. not that that is a problem in any way, since i know i do way too little. its just the cards we are dealt. im no less stressed with my life than you are with yours (making an educated guess), i would almost venture a guess to say that i may be more stressed because i have hours to think about it and yet do nothing about it… because it is my nature. much like it is yours to do more than you ever need to.
it sucks, but such is life.
i think we all need to move to sweden or australia or somewhere that isn’t north america.
hahaha… yeah.sorry about that ^^^^ the posts are all mixed up in order… and yeah, took forever to post so i kept pressing the button.
impatient… you can add that to my list of character flaws. =)
Yeah, you’re probably very right there, LJ. I got a full night’s sleep last night for the first time in a VERY LONG TIME last night, and I was still tired. What the heck.
One day I’ll be content with the knowledge I have and the things I’ve done.
…no I won’t.