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 rigors:
- "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 which aren't realistic, yet are causing them anxiety
There's an ever-increasing popularity around philosophies that involve doing less in order to increase one's quality of life:
example example exampleSo 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.
--case p.
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