Let me paint a picture:
I’m at my desk, punching away at my keyboard. A sea of empty open-plan cubicles surrounds me, but there is one occupied by a colleague. It’s mid-morning, and we’re both light on work. I turn to him and ask
“What are you are up to?”
“I’m just bumbling."
“Oh like a bee?"
“No, like an idiot."
We did that ‘work chuckle’, followed by some small talk, and continued to bumble—like idiots.
But I caught myself by surprise when I thought about the connection with the bee. We all know a bee bumbles about most of the time. But that’s not their job - it’s delivering pollen to flowers. They do focused, specific sprints of work, then bumble about to where they’re going next.
We need more bumble. Our bouts of focused, specific work are too long.
A side note: in my research of how long bees actually spend pollinating – I think it’s quite the opposite. They’re not really bumbling around that much. But for the purposes of this letter (and idea) let’s just pretend they do for a couple of minutes.
I. Overworking
Even if you love your work like I do, we work way too much. And we all keep up and deal with it. It might just be a teeny bit more than we can handle, maybe not even noticeable. But over time this adds up; big time.
We’ve been programmed to feel insufficient when we aren’t eye-deep in work. When we experience an ounce of free time, and we begin bumbling, it’s quickly followed by feeling like we aren’t doing enough.
My returning from a month-long trip in Europe has strengthened this sentiment. When struck by a different culture you either adapt and assimilate, or struggle with daily indecision.
II. Rest
As great as it was living in that space for a month, there’s something else that always strikes me after a length of time away from ‘the norm’—a reset for my mind. My mind eased to focusing on the day’s calendar, uncluttered from everything back home.
And you don’t quite realise the difference until you’re back to schedule.
It doesn’t take long to know where you sit—or to realise just how mangled of a chair you were using. To know where you need to invest your energy, and where to not. You realise just how much you were doing before, and how much you don’t need to do now.
As much as I’ve tried in recent years to review, reflect and contemplate about my life, nothing can recalibrate you like a length of time away from your routine. A period of time that forces change and adaption—possibly even transformation. This doesn’t require a holiday around the globe (although that makes it really easy), it can just be time away from work.
What I’m describing is not a new concept. It’s called having a break. And when you get a proper one, you come back knowing that things needs to change, or continue just as they were. The latter becoming increasingly rare.
The “concept” of overworking is not a new one. Many of us find ourselves constantly engaged in work, feeling the pressure to always be productive. In a world that demands constant output, it's easy to forget the value of rest.
III. The Nature of Work and Rest
How are we so out of touch with how much work and rest we have? We all know that a 45-minute workout, hell even 90 seconds of squats, needs hours—perhaps days of recovery.
Just hold that thought for a moment: Seconds, needs days.
Yet here we are, our minds expected to be active for 8-hours a day, 5 days a week. With two days to ‘rest’.
I recognise that the following is a general assumption: anyone that works full time knows it’s not really full time. There’s still time to chill out, have a chat, eat some food, make a coffee, run an errand etc. But we’re still expected to make up the time.
After our week of work, you’ve still got energy for the weekend – so we aren’t completely spent. But this is precisely what I’m talking about, an incremental build up of overworking adds up to a big amount of stress.
And really, I think there’s an easy fix.
IV. Let’s Imagine for a Moment
We all get to Sunday and begin to feel like we’re actually just slotting into a rest. Then we’re depressed we need to go back to work the next day. I think we take the Friday or Monday and make it a 3-day weekend; without adding those hours back to the week. 8-hours a day, 4 days a week.
It seems there’s some divine reason that every single company on Earth is obsessed with paying full-time employees by the hours they work. So if you work less you’re apparently worth less.
To me this is counterintuitive, to you it may not be. But I’ve got to spend more time “working” just so I can earn a decent living.
And you ask: “Why not do more work to fill the time?”
Because, dear reader, that is not the point. If I fill it with more, I get even less rest and then I’m truly on the path to burning out.
I am of the mind on getting my work done, then bumbling about in my free time. But the free time I have is unfortunately inside the flower, not away from it.
We all know that such a solution is not going to come to life—at least not tomorrow. We’re still going to be doing the same thing when we wake up in the morning. It was just nice to think for a moment what it could be like.
But this is not a letter to get you to think about the last time you had a break, or how hard you’re working – this is telling you to rest. Schedule a decent chunk of time to switch off and let your mind recalibrate. Our bodies get rest during the night, but with the constant work and stimulus, our minds are working overtime to process everything.
Rest is a vital component of our lives that often gets overlooked in the hustle and bustle of our daily routines. We live in a society that glorifies busyness and productivity, but fails to recognise the importance of rest and rejuvenation. If it’s not going to programmed into our lives by the people who run it, then force it—make it happen.
Bumbling is not a luxury, it is a necessity.
Stay safe, and pass-it-on.