This year’s holidays sure were special. And, as with almost everything else in 2020, we won’t forget the way we experienced them anytime soon.
Like many of you, I needed the time away after an intense six months of working during the Covid-times. An increased workload from the pandemic, along with the additional fatigue posed by remote working, had dug a deeper hole into my energy reserve than usual. Additionally, recharging was more challenging this year because I had come to resent the tool I used to stay in touch with family and friends: video calling.
Thankfully, after three sun-, culture-, and literature-filled weeks, that energy hole has been replenished.
The experience did make me think, though. We all understand that we need a break more than usual this year — but seeing the Covid cases continually increase, as they are in my current home of Poland, it also becomes clearer that what began as a few-months concern is here to stay for at least another year.
So, I came out of the holiday season with two important questions.
- How can I ensure that the hole doesn’t dig so deeply into my energy reserves as the Covid times continue?
- How can I ensure that I recharge as effectively as possible?
And, like many others, I returned to some ideas that I know but have not always implemented systematically, and further revisited few thoughts through the current Covid-lens.
Holidays = Holidays, Period.
As our homes have become our offices, our working and private lives have become very intertwined. This makes it even more important to truly embrace the idea of being “off” and taking a true break while on holiday.
I am very grateful that my team arranged for a “text-first” policy. When something urgent came up, they would text me the topic, and only then would I need to check for a particular message or approval. Knowing that I did not have to proactively scan my emails brought me peace of mind and facilitated a deeper level of switching off. It also ensure that I was only contacted for truly important things, such as the continuation of compassionate-use treatment for patients. No patient should need to forego treatment because I am looking at archeological sites in Bulgaria.
Sharing that approach also resulted in a stronger role-modeling on the importance of holidays, which is very important to do as the leader of an organization. Although we might think that it is part of our role to be more- or ever-present — and to a certain extent, it is — people tend to model their behavior on that of their leaders. In this case, that tendency can backfire. As leaders, we are accountable for the health of our organization and people and need to ensure that they can fully recharge during their holidays, as well.
The impact of not working during holidays is more profound than I had first thought. When reading the Harvard Business Review’s article, “Don’t Work on Vacation. Seriously.”, I was surprised to learn that truly taking a break from work is positively correlated with intrinsic motivation. Some might think that always being available is the best sign of motivation — yet, having a conflict between what we perceive as leisure time and work time results in our finding work less engaging and meaningful. Not only do people come back from holidays feeling less rested, they also lose their intrinsic motivation along the way.
So, holidays = holidays. Period.
How can I ensure that the hole doesn’t dig so deeply into my energy reserves as the Covid times continue?
Get Your Beauty Brain Sleep
Now that we are in this for the long haul — a vaccine likely will not be available for a year or more — we need to re-look at how we approached our lives when we thought the crisis would only last for a few months.
The other day, I read that Lebron James sleeps eight to ten hours per night and takes a one- to two-hour nap every day. With 19 Blaze Pizza franchises, an ownership stake in the English soccer club, Liverpool, the media production company SpringHill Entertainment, the media brand Uninterrupted, a shoe line that brings in over $300 million annually, as well as a workout schedule that demands hours of work each day, an NBA contract that requires him to play 100 NBA games per year, and responsibilities as a husband and father, he seems extremely busy.
Years ago, some might have said, “Wow, he manages to do all of that and sleep eight to ten hours.” Now, the common thinking is more like, “Wow, he manages all of that because he sleeps eight to ten hours per day.”
Sleep is the sexiest thing around: it allows you to digest your day, build muscles, make you look refreshed, increases your focus, and best of all — it’s completely free! It’s almost strange that we are willing to pay top dollar for any one of these things, and yet compromise sleep without a second thought. So, how much sleep does one need?
Some say that going to bed when you feel tired and getting up when you naturally wake for two weeks or more will help you figure out how much sleep you need; that period should have given your body enough time to “catch up”. So, I measured these holidays. As it turns out, I really need nine hours of sleep per night — and going forward, I will do my utmost to ensure that I fully benefit from the advantages of a full night’s rest.
Another issue I want to address through a Covid-lens is devices.
Ditch the Device.
Two years ago, I wrote a blog on how multitasking — and device-induced multitasking in particular — will, over the long term, destroy our ability to focus, make us less comfortable with complex tasks that require deep concentration, and even negatively impact brain density.
That negative impact has increased during the pandemic. Theo Compernolle, a Flemish neuropsychiatrist, has seen an increase of attention and memory problems since the start of the pandemic. He goes so far as to prescribe a diet of, at maximum, two fixed moments daily for any form of media consumption to keep the brain healthy.
I need to remind myself of that advice these days, because I sometimes find myself mindlessly wandering through social media in the evening after finishing many video calls. I try reframing Compernolle’s advice by telling myself, “If social media is more interesting than a book, the book is not interesting enough,” and take another one out of my bookcase. Thirty minutes of reading before bed ensures that the lovely nine hours of sleep I receive are of optimal quality.
Do whatever works for you, whether it be a walk, a book, or a conversation with a friend, so long as it allows your brain to calm down regularly, and that for a substantive period of the day we are giving our brains and focus a great gift.
Naming it a gift might come across ironical for some, since a lot of studies show that it takes time to train focus. The same Theo Compernolle also states that attention is like a muscle you have to train; the good news is that it is trainable. So, even if you feel uncomfortable when you begin the process, you can and will improve with time.
I have heard this a lot from people who talked about their summer holidays this year. They had felt over-triggered, and it took them longer than in previous years to truly settle in their holidays and fully relax. It’s good for us that holidays are an excellent trainer for our attention-muscles.
How can I ensure that I recharge as effectively as possible?
To start with, the most open of open doors. A good starting point is to identify what gives you energy and was drains energy. It sounds so simple — and it was so simple — until it suddenly wasn’t. Many people had come to rely on the recharging behaviors that worked for the almost intuitively, and now need to reexamine their recovery patterns during Covid. Do you want or need a break after two hours of video call? Are you energized or drained after adding a workout to your workday?
Most people know what makes them tick — but that is not necessarily the same as knowing what provides energy and leaves someone feeling refreshed. The recovery might not be as much as that provided by a full-on holiday, but it would at least provide a person with enough energy to recharge and deal with other challenges.
Plan that recovery in; be strategically selfish. Again, it sounds so easy and almost pedantic of me to write this, but I really encourage everyone to be as purposeful about planning these charging moments as they are about their job accountabilities. Use an agenda, or block that activity in Outlook as “busy” so that it will not be taken up by something else.
Very often, I still hear people talk about how they deprioritized their charging behaviors out of a sense of responsibility. To me, that rationale sounds like an over-expressed Calvinistic gene — even though it looks admirable, it is not sustainable.
Ask yourself the following question the next time that you are on the verge of overriding one of your charging moments: “Will I still be in good health if I do this for the next 12 months?” If the answer is no, why not say no now? It is probably the right strategic choice for you.
Another Act of Strategic Selfishness: Ensuring Enough Brain Bootcamps
Writing these blogs always feels like giving small gifts to myself, since doing so both forces me to think about what does and does not work for me and stimulates me to read more — within nicely-focused timeframes, of course.
It helps me to be strategically selfish about many aspects of my life; to be fully present, relaxed, and ultimately happier because of my actions. I have also started to realize that the inspiration for my blogs often comes during the holidays, when my relaxation allows my brain to gear up. This holiday, my attention has been on a bootcamp.
So, my next act of strategic selfishness will be ensuring that I not only plan enough body boot camps, but also prepare for brain boot camps.
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