No Responsibility
June 13, 2020•248 words
390
This is the last post about my sabbatical. Promise :D
The week is slowly ending, and so is my break. It has been the first truly planned breaks (excluding national holidays) I've had in a long, long time. I feel so much in love with it, that next academic year I'm going to work in these 6 or 7 week cycles, where I take a week long sabbatical at the end. Rest is essential, "powering through" never really works.
There is one very important lesson I've learned during this break: no planning. See, there is absolutely nothing wrong in doing stuff during a break. It's okay to read books, do work around the house, spend time with your family, or even do some work work. But there is one rule; they can't be activities past you planned. You shouldn't be spending the entire morning writing a podcast script because you planned to do so. You can only do that if you feel like it right in the moment.
Why?
This rule has two effects:
- You ease off any tension. You don't get the slightest feeling of responsibility for things planned in the past. You can truly rest.
- You don't limit your own creativity. If you truly want, then you can go on and create stuff. But right when you stop feeling like it's the right thing to do, you cease the activity. No obligations whatsoever.
Without rest, there is burnout.
Without creation, there is chaos.