Summer was a long-anticipated break for me. Throughout the entire school year, I felt overwhelmed, anxious and ran solely on caffeine almost constantly. I ached for a break, but ironically, when summer finally came, I found myself doing work for fun because I missed school. I’ve always struggled to find a balance between relaxing during my breaks and feeling productive, mostly because I enjoy ending the summer feeling accomplished. But the last thing I want is to start the new year even more burnt out than when the spring semester ended. Although it’s taken me a good few weeks to find my balance, I think I’ve cracked the code to having a rewarding and restful summer!
The first thing I did was outline the goals I wanted to achieve by the end of the summer. I spent the first week of summer break doing work that felt productive in the moment, but when I actually wrote down my goals, I realized it was just busy work and didn’t actually contribute to them. I also found myself wanting more downtime that isn’t scrolling, but because I felt so tired from aimlessly doing work, I’d end most of my days bedrotting. So, the best thing I did was outline 1-2 goals in different areas to figure out how exactly I wanted to spend my summer. I started off with these categories: my career, social life, physical and mental health, finances, and spirituality. I picked small goals, like doing 4 hours of practice problems per week, or crocheting 30 mins a day. I made myself a color-coded tracker to visualize my progress, and that alone completely shifted my mindset! I went from feeling like I was never doing enough to feeling accomplished, and seeing how much I did each week satiated my productivity craving. It’s given me a sense of purpose without over-exerting myself during a time that’s meant to be restful.
The next thing I’ve done to feel relaxed and productive is give myself a flexible schedule. I currently have two jobs, one full-time research position in my department on campus and one-part time job. I’m very fortunate to have a lenient advisor for the former that lets me make my own hours without having a set schedule every week. This gives me the freedom to rest extra on days I feel more tired, and have slow mornings without feeling rushed. It also gives me the opportunity to make plans spontaneously, do my hobbies and make time for movement. This is certainly harder working on a set schedule with my other job, but it’s really about capitalizing on the times when you do have a choice and using it to listen to your body and mind.
The last (and most important thing in my opinion) is to schedule rest. Rest is never something that needs to be earned, and I’m using the summer to put this idea into practice. Giving myself a cutoff time for doing work daily, letting myself have two days a week to do whatever I want and being selective with my energy has done wonders for my mental health. Rest is not only productive but necessary, for both physiologic and mental wellness. It reinforces the bonds between existing neurons to store the information we learn in our brains, and gives us energy to work towards our goals the next day.
Life is meant to be enjoyed, and savoring the slow moments is the only way we will get any enjoyment out of life. Finding balance is hard in a world full of extremes, but at the end of the day, your happiness comes first, and living a life well-lived is far more important than having a good LinkedIn post!