July 20, 2007
It occurred to me this week that there’s (at least) one activity that, perhaps counterintuitively, is a foundation of work/life balance and productivity: recreation.
While coaching a client this week and introducing Stephen Covey’s Urgent/Important quadrant system for prioritizing and completing tasks, I explained that true recreation — something that’s reenergizing, that “re-creates,” rather than passive activities like vegging out in front of the TV — is a Quadrant II activity: not urgent, but important. It isn’t urgent because there will never be a requirement to enjoy recreation. No one will ever request you to “recreate” on their time schedule, and no law firm partner will ever drop by late in the afternoon and apologize for asking you to put in a few hours of recreation that night. (Absurd image, isn’t it?) But it’s vitally important.
What “true recreation”? It varies from person to person. Perhaps it’s writing, gardening, skiing, going to or performing in the theatre, playing with children, doing volunteer work… Whatever it is that takes a person from his ordinary self into a state of flow, where time passes without notice and the end result is production of energy, enthusiasm, a rounded person. The key point is that true recreation creates balance and energy, both of which lead to increased productivity in the office. And that’s what makes it important.
For those of you who are inclined to try an experiment, give this a shot: if you typically eat lunch at your desk, try going out instead. Spend 30 or 45 minutes at a museum, in a park, talking with a friend, whatever you enjoy. And then see whether you’re more productive than usual when you get back to your desk in the afternoon. Or take several hours over the weekend to engage in recreation, and notice the effects when you get back to work.
If this post was helpful to you, please consider signing up for the Life at the Bar Survival Kit. You’ll receive a weekly summary of blog postings, a special report titled 7 Secrets Law Firm Associates Need to Know to Find Better Work, Faster Advancement, and Greater Professional Satisfaction, plus other resources designed to assist you in building a successful and satisfying practice. Visit http://www.lifeatthebar.com/MenuSignUp.htm for more information and to sign up.
Welcome back!
Hi Julie. You say, “…For those of you who are inclined to try an experiment, give this a shot: if you typically eat lunch at your desk, try going out instead. Spend 30 or 45 minutes at a museum, in a park, talking with a friend, whatever you enjoy. ”
And, I might add…do it WITHOUT obsessively checking your cell phone or making calls, without checking your BlackBerry or making notes, without thinking or talking about work issues, i.e., not atttached to your various electronic leashes…in other words, re-create it while breathing, being “in your body” not in your mind, being present to your immediate experience (not in the past or in the future). Give yourself the opportunity to enjoy YOUR life, not someone else’s who has their hooks into you.
Thanks, Peter, for that excellent clarification. That is absolutely what I have in mind, since I would suggest that engaging in “recreation” while still performing in work mode isn’t actually engaging in recreation at all. Instead, it’s living in the worst of all worlds: body and mind in two (or more) separate places, not working well, not enjoying the recreation, neither being nor doing anything consistently. There’s no reward (neither business nor personal) to that kind of activity.
And accordingly, while I don’t encourage anyone to shoot for black-and-white perfection or failure thinking, I would encourage anyone who tries this experiment to do so with the intentions that Peter describes. Recognize that, especially if this is something new, the behavior is likely to be uncomfortable, and explore just being with the discomfort until it passes. It may not pass on the first few times you try this experiment, but it will pass, and that’s where the rewards of balance and productivity come in.
Peter, thanks for opening the opportunity for me to complete this thought. I didn’t realize that I’d omitted such an important piece, and I appreciate your bringing it to the conversation.