Live Large Pack Small Revolution
It's 3pm, it's been hours since you've had coffee, yet your heart is racing as you plow through the eleventeenth thing you decided to single-task on, crossing off completed pomodoro's with one hand, and with the other jotting down to remember later more to-do's that pop into your head, starring emails you can't answer right now, because -- you know -- single-tasking, and you have to pee, but the timer on the pomodoro is ticking so you gotta finish, and the phone is buzzing, but it's the credit card company who wants to get paid, so you ignore it (just like you ignored a call from your mom earlier, don't lie), and then your daughter walks into the room, and she doesn't have a mute button, so when she asks for lunch, all you can do is snap WHAT? NO, NOT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!
Sound familiar? Even if you’re not living the exact scenario described above, chances are you feel that modern life has somehow failed us. The efficiencies, gadgets and productivity apps that were supposed to make everything easier simply increased the heap of stuff on our plates. As work and office life expanded to intrude into evening hours and weekends, working at home seemed appealing. Maybe you could set your own pace, and get a little peace an quiet. But once the pandemic brought that reality, er… home to many of us, we see that it has only further blurred the separation of work and non-work, by removing all boundaries, and throwing Zoom and childcare into the mix.
No question, work puts food on the table and keeps a roof over our heads. But instead of being relegated to a utilitarian category and a allotted a reasonable portion of available waking hours, work has taken on gargantuan dimensions. For most of us, it is the way we define ourselves. As in: “I am a lawyer, a midwife, a teacher”, and as opposed to: “I am a parent, a Chicagoan, a student of life”, for example. Work is our life’s goal, a path we travel, a badge of honor. Sometimes, it’s even our passion. Nevertheless, it is too often also a reason for being away from life as it happens, missing Dylan’s soccer game, not returning mom’s calls, failing to exercise, and never, ever, ever taking a break.
Clearly, it's time to get the hell away from all this work right now. No, not to run all those errands you’ve been putting off, you don't need another friggin’ project. Go somewhere you can go without a phone (but maybe with a crusty, buttery, juicy pomodoro sandwich), so —at least for a few moments— you can forget about those mountains of to-do's, and maybe rediscover the reason why you're doing it all in the first place.
I don't care where you live, or what the demands on your time are, give yourself a WEEKLY vacation, not one that you have to spend weeks planning and months (years?) saving for, but bootstrap yourself a short and snappy adventure to someplace nearby that you know exists, but where you've never been (like the end of some train line), somewhere where you can move your body and free your mind so you don't go insane.
I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that your co-workers, your spouse, that guy on the phone, your mom, they will all know you're gone, and that the one day you take off everything you've worked for, all those completed pomodoros will just explode, and you'll have to start from scratch. To which I say, this is BS, NO ONE will miss you (I know, that kinda hurts, but if you think about it another way, it doesn't) for a few hours on a weekday morning, or if you leave work early for a quick overnight, or even take a whole glorious DAY off so you can rest your mind, pull your shoulders down from around your ears, and relax your face into a smile.
Look at the picture at the top (it's not just random decoration, I put it here for a reason, it’s from a wonderful, local mid-winter hike). Imagine yourself snoozing among those sun-stroked grasses! Imagine knowing you don't need to save thousands of dollars and wait months for your next getaway, and instead looking forward to taking your next adventure literally tomorrow, or grinning at your co-workers, because you just got back from one.
This year, vow to Live Large and Pack Small, and take your life back.
Footnotes:
This is a pomodoro.
This is also a pomodoro.
Examples of small escapes.