Day of Rest

While I think efficiency is generally a good thing, any trait taken too far becomes a negative. There’s a particular version of this that I’ve noticed I keep doing to myself, and I want to work on stopping.

Here’s what I do: I notice during the week that I feel a little stressed and want some relaxation time. Because my schedule is somewhat full given work, kids, etc., I will wake up earlier than I have to in order to squeeze in some extra relaxation time before I have to do whatever I need to do.

So now I’m stressed and tired.

And when I wake up, I either take longer to get moving because I’m both tired and lacking in urgency (since whatever I need to do is farther away), or I do manage to do something fun, but then get wrapped up in it and end up being more stressed because I scramble to get to my responsibilities!

So I’m going to try, next week, to do something similar to “observing the Sabbath.” I’m going to pick a day next week and clear it – no responsibilities, no planned activities, etc. Just a chill day. I will guard that schedule with my life, and I’ll let the rest of the week be what it is. I won’t try to force relaxation in (I’ll still take breaks and all, I’m not crazy, just not big “relaxation activities”). I’ll use the knowledge of the coming Day of Rest to shelve my stress.

We’ll see if it works!