I've kept up a weekly "day off" most weeks since April, and it's been such an amazing habit. It continues being pretty much what I wrote below: - no preplanned anything - no browser tabs to start the day Thread of reflections so far:
Reflections on a weekly day with nothing planned
16 tweets · October 2021 · 85 likes · 3 retweets · read on Twitter
I've kind of tried to keep those 2 elements alive during the day too though, meaning: - I don't schedule anything later in the day, during the day - I try my best to decisively nuke browser tabs I'm not actively using
If some event is particularly juicy and only happens that day, I might put it on my 2nd calendar (more of an "fyi") so that I know that the opportunity is there. But I make it clear for people not to assume I'll go.
Sometimes, a day or two before my day off, I imagine what I might do that day, but I still have to find out. Saturday-me can delight in the present FEELING of how satisfying it might feel to spend the day finishing an old backburner project... but it's a fantasy, not a plan
It's simultaneously kinda scary & profoundly liberating to tell people I'm not available on a given day not because I'm busy but because my schedule is completely empty and NOBODY (not even me) is allowed to fill it.
People have been remarkably respectful of it though! I think that's in part because I
This thread prompted by this VV tweet. My work is fun and my play is worthwhile, so I still don't feel like I need separation between work & leisure, or weekends/weekdays, but creating FREE TIME is huge.
Would highly encourage all feral free agents to take a whole day off each week. If you can't socialize midweek though it's not unreasonable to refuse to plan things on the weekends, but I'd still recommend carving out 2-4h in which you do WHATEVER YOU FEEL LIKE DOING 🙃🥳🤓😴
The value of starting the day without open browser tabs is that I "what I feel like doing" bubbles up from within, rather than being sort of an "oh, what about this?" prompted by external stimulation. Easy to bomp around at the whims of the environment all day by accident.
Sometimes, in service of that "bubble up motivation instead of external prompts" vibe, I also take the day off Twitter! (if you're "how can you possibly manage that?" then... I am well-prepared!)
Here's an excellent piece describing what sounds like a very similar practice, although implemented on a more reflex level whereas mine feels a bit more on the routine level. agentyduck.blogspot.com/2015/07/effect…
@ben_r_hoffman has a great article which was one inspiration for this. What I do is very different on the object level, but the meta points resonate: if you don't have the slack to take a day to do whatever you feel like, things are not okay. benjaminrosshoffman.com/sabbath-hard-a…
An invitation, if you want one: 👉 pick a day on your calendar where you have few or no things scheduled already ⛔️ block it off entirely (from yourself & others) ✖️ call off any existing plans, & tell people who might have implicit expectations that you're taking the day off
When that day comes, do whatever you feel like doing! ...in the context of the whole rest of your life, of course. Everything always is. But you can assess that directly in the moment in an in-person way.
In the long run, I think we can move towards a world where approximately people are always doing what they feel like doing. Figuring out how to make that even remotely workable is a design problem tho; practicing bite-sized amounts of utter freedom helps.
> "Work [in the onerous sense] is whenever you’d rather be doing something else."