The power of switching off, resting & recharging
I often struggle to switch off from work when on holiday. It comes from two decades running my own business. I’ve not wanted to miss out on an opportunity that may land or I just need to fire off a quick response to that email asking if I’m available for a project or talk.
Way back in the beginning, I remember a holiday to Turkey where I’d walk down the hill to the village in the midday sun, then queue up at the internet cafe and log into my webmail.
Smart phones did away with the trek to the internet cafe, but their accessibility of course made switching off even harder. This year I’m experimenting with taking most of August off - a mini sabbatical after 23 years of running my own business. It feels like a radical move to me, but I know I need it. I know too that I can only do good work when I rest and recharge. I owe it to myself and my clients to take a real break.
My decision is part of a move to be more intentional about downtime. Last year I read ‘Rest’ by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang. Alex observes that we often see rest as something that just happens i.e. when we have leftover time between work and sleep. But if we rethink rest and turn it into something we’re deliberate about, Pang says it becomes more valuable and tangible.
Great ideas come when we switch out of the day-to-day. I love this remark from Vanessa Nadal, to her husband Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of Hamilton:
“The best idea you had (the idea to make a musical of Hamilton) actually happened when we were on vacation - on a pool float with a margarita in your hand -- and you had a moment when your brain could kind of unplug from your day-to-day concerns and really drift."
It’s great to see employers too recognising this need and setting good examples. Global ad agency Wieden + Kennedy is closing its offices for an additional week this summer to let its team rest and recharge.
I look forward to putting up the closed sign at the end of the month and letting my brain drift! I’ll let you know how it goes.
