Do you have mixed feelings at the end of a vacation? Your days were so free, with no obligations and no deadlines. You feel refreshed and you want it to last forever. But by the end it starts to feel just a little bit empty of content. Your goals are waiting for you. You miss home and all that’s familiar. There is a way to take a piece of that vacation with you into everyday life.
Paradoxically, you can take the freedom of vacation with you into everyday life by restricting yourself. Vacation is relaxing not so much because there is nothing you have to do. You still have plans and schedules. But nothing is pressing on you. Everything is open-ended. You can stay in one place for as long as you like and start the day whenever you like.
You can take this relaxed kind of open-ended time-consciousness with you by taking the following four steps:
- Put everything you want to do (including things you enjoy!) into a clearly delineated time frame. Allow a bit more than the maximum amount of time you think you’ll need for each activity.
- Expect unexpected things to come up (because they always do) and make room in your schedule for an alternative ‘catching up’ time slot. In the course of the day insert into this time slot anything you did not have a chance to do at your regularly scheduled time due to unexpected things that came up.
- Treat your schedule as holy. Nothing should interrupt it unless there’s a very good reason for it.
- If something is important enough to rightfully interrupt your schedule, lovingly embrace it. The cosmos is calling your attention to something more important than your regular routine at this particular moment in time
Schedules are good for meeting goals and being efficient but the point here is a different one. A schedule is freeing. By deciding on a clear schedule and sticking to it religiously, the space within that structure becomes open-ended. You don’t have to feel pressured because there is no place else you need to be and nothing else you need to be doing except for where you are and what you’re doing right now.
If after carefully following these steps you’re still feeling stressed, there’s a fifth step you need to take. Evaluate what went on there. It’s possible you need to prioritize and drop some things, delegate responsibility or learn to be more efficient.
If you do all of this your busy life will be almost as relaxing as vacation.