If you’ve been on my mailing list or reading my articles on LinkedIn for more than 12 months, you’d probably know that at this time of year, I like to send out the same email entitled: “Sweet. Glorious. Nothing.” 

In it, I like to point out that for busy professionals who’ve spent a year go-getting, busting a gut and burning the candle at both ends, this should be downtime. I also show you how to write an out-of-office email.

This year, however, I thought I’d do something different by letting you into how I’m going to be spending my time this Christmas break.

Accepting Limitations

One of the biggest influences on my thinking over 2022 has been British writer Oliver Burkeman. If you haven’t read his book “Four Thousand Weeks: Time and How to Use it”, you really should. (If you’re busting a gut so badly that you’re too busy to read, listen to the audiobook).

Burkeman points out that if we live to 80, we have just 4,000 weeks on earth. That’s all. (If it sounds like a ridiculously small number, Burkeman points out that: “a fairly modest six-figure number of weeks – 310,000 – is the approximate duration of all human civilisation since the ancient Sumerians of Mesopotamia”.) Wow.

In other words, life is ridiculously short, and we really don’t have enough time to get everything done. When we accept that, we also give ourselves permission not to try to do it all.

Indulging in Idleness

Professionals are a rare breed as their value is usually tied up in the time they spend being productive. It can be extremely difficult to do nothing because it feels like a waste of time. What happens when you have a whole timesheet of emptiness and nothing to show for a day, an hour or a six-minute interval?

So they find idleness uncomfortable. Some even find it hard to do ordinary or “lesser” tasks like preparing a meal or reading a book.

Last week I had a conversation with a recently retired law firm partner. He was both amazed and annoyed that former colleagues kept asking him what he was doing to fill in his time. “What they don’t get is that the whole point is I don’t have to fill in time,” he complained.

We don’t have to be constantly productive. It’s when we take things slowly and switch off that we gain some sense of balance. That’s not just because we give ourselves the chance to recharge; it’s also because it’s often when we get perspective, come up with the best ideas, and have the time to form complex views on things. (I was taken by this story of the Harvard fine arts professor who has each of her students sit in front of one painting for three hours to try to teach them patience and temporal intelligence.)

As humans, we’re also programmed to rest. Studies show that being sufficiently rested could be the key to success. Those who are chronically sleep-deprived aren’t just crankier, they also tend to have worse memories and make poorer decisions. Yep, that’s right, they tend to be stupider.

Packing Up The Home Office

Like most of you, I’m still doing a stack of work from home, but over the Christmas break, my home will go back to being only a home.

Remote work is great for avoiding the commute, getting better flexibility and spending more time with loved ones. But it’s terrible for separating work from the rest of our lives and switching off. I often find myself sitting back down at the computer to answer that email that probably doesn’t need answering right away.

So, the home office is going to be shut down too.

Getting Some Good Reading Done

While Oliver Burkeman had a huge influence on me this year, I’ll be spending my time off reading or listening to new books.

What’s better for recharging than taking some time to learn new stories and to fill your head with new ideas? I’ve been saving this list from The Atlantic and intend to get through at least one of them. I also like to take inspiration from Idler. 

And I find revisiting an old favourite is always a great way to ease in to a laid-back holiday (mine’s Cloudstreet - described by Pulitzer prize-winner Geraldine Brooks as ‘Of the Aussie, for the Aussie, by the Aussie' )

And That’s Pretty Much It…

Yep, that’s all I’m doing. Three weeks of not very much. Reading, sleeping in and taking it easy.

So it’s time to set up your out-of-office, turn off the computer and put 2022 behind you once and for all.

Have a wonderful Christmas and a peaceful break.

See you in the New Year.

Sue-Ella.

References and Further Reading

How To Write an Out-of-Office Email without Weasel Words

Burkeman O (2022) Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mere Mortals

Brooks A C (2022) How to Embrace Doing Nothing, The Atlantic, 4 August issue

Cain, H (2022) Seven Books That Will Make You Smarter

Hodgkinson T (2014) If You Want to Get Ahead have a Lie-In, 10 October issue of The Guardian

Roberts J (2013) The Power of Patience, Teaching Students the Power of Deceleration and Immersive Attention. Nov-Dec issue of Harvard Magazine

Urban T (2014) Your Life in Weeks, Wait But Why blog (7 May)

Australian School Curriculum – A Year 12 Reading List

Sue-Ella is the Principal of Prodonovich Advisory, a business dedicated to helping professional services firms sharpen their business development practices.

©Prodonovich Advisory. Please respect our copyright and the effort taken to produce the original material in this article. This article, and any portion of it, may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author