I didn't lift a finger!
“I’m going to pretend I’m in an Airbnb,” I declared to Tom.
And it worked!
Despite staying at home, we had a glorious week off during which I did zero work and ignored all the pesky jobs that needed doing around the house.
We had so much fun! (I shared what we got up to here on LinkedIn… we even ended up with an unexpected house guest, so the Airbnb thing wasn’t too far off the mark!)
I know how fortunate I am to be safe, secure and in a position to take a proper break, and I don’t take that for granted.
Times are tough for many people right now, and even when things are going well the thought of taking time away from work - without checking email and social media - can feel impossible.
And I also know the importance of taking a break, no matter how small.
I once heard someone talk about cultivating a strong rest ethic to sit alongside our work ethic, so that we’re either 100% on, or 100% off.
I love the simplicity of that. There’s no grey: You’re either working, or you’re not. (Which means no more checking your emails when the friend you’ve met for coffee pops to the loo!)
Whenever I spend time pondering this stuff, the conclusion I reach is always the same:
Intention is the answer.
It won’t surprise you to hear that I’ll always be an advocate for switching off completely*. (I once came to an agreement with a 1:1 client that she would give her phone to her daughter whilst they were on holiday together, so she could be fully present and have fun. My first suggestion was to remove the email app from her phone, but there was a genuine reason why that wasn’t possible for her, so we reached this compromise instead!)
But if the truth of your situation is that you can’t completely switch off for a week or two this summer, you can still choose when you’re going to be 100% on and when you’ll be 100% off. That might be as simple as choosing not to work after 6pm, so you can enjoy the longer evenings.
And if you’re having a holiday but you still want to keep an eye on work, you can choose what that looks like. Instead of being mindless about it so that you can never fully switch off, you get to choose when you’re going to check in and when you’ll step away.
When you make those choices intentionally – and perhaps share them with the people around you, like I did – something magical happens: you feel in control, and you can ditch the guilt (whether that’s guilt about working, or guilt about resting… it gets us both ways, eh?!)
So, if you haven’t already done so, I invite you to consider when you’ll be 100% on and when you’ll be 100% off this summer. And feel free to share your intention in the comments below – I’m happy to hold you accountable!
Whatever you’re up to, I hope you have a wonderful summer and make the most of any opportunities to cultivate your rest ethic, no matter how small. (I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to standing outside in the rain tomorrow, after this heatwave!)
* For more on why I’m such a fan of switching off completely, take a look at this blog about why there IS such a thing as too much fun, and this one written in lockdown about the importance of taking a break, even when there’s nowhere to go and nobody to see.