Investing Time

Toodlingstudio via Pixabay

One day last week, my friend had to bow out of our plans to meet. Though I was disappointed not to see her, I suddenly had an uninterrupted day at my disposal! A whole day to write! Play on my brand new laptop! 

But what did I do? 

I started slowly. Very slowly. Rather than jumping into the day with both feet, ready to tackle projects, I slept in, played Words with Friends for much too long, texted with my daughter and my husband and didn't even start typing my blog posts until after noon.

What a failure, right?

Nope. 

Texting with my daughter (who's currently more than 3000 miles away) and my hubby is important -- certainly more important than a self-imposed, arbitrary deadline. Playing Words with Friends is one way that I connect with my 80-year-old father who lives alone. And playing the Wooden Block Puzzle game on my iPad frees my mind to brainstorm. 

Although I didn't start typing my blog posts until after noon, I dictated three of them that morning while I moved virtual puzzle pieces around on my iPad. I also brainstormed more than a page of ideas for magazine projects, something I can only do when my mind (and body) are not racing. I've been trying to come up with these ideas off and on for almost a week and it took an unexpected open morning for them to push their way through the day-to-day detritus and make themselves heard.

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Why is it that we feel so guilty when we take downtime? I'm on break between semesters, and I have all kinds of things planned, including writing. My to-do list now is no shorter than it is during the semester. In fact, it contains a lot of things I don't have time to do during the semester. 

So when is it okay to relax?

Clearly, relaxation is helpful. A single morning where I stopped worrying about the schedule, the lists, the consequences of not being productive enough led to more productivity than I'd have managed had I planned out the day hour by hour.

We need clear spaces in our schedules just as much as we need clear spaces in our homes, if not more. Downtime, a nap, a good night's sleep -- all of these are just as important to our productivity as actually checking things off the list. They may feel like wasted time, but the payoff they yield more than compensates for the bite they take out of the schedule.

Sometimes, it's only when we step back and look at the forest instead of focusing on the trees that the picture comes into focus. This is true whether we're looking at piles we need to make sense of or to-do list items we need to check off.

So, the next time you berate yourself for not being productive enough, ask yourself this. Am I wasting time, or am I investing in myself?