Recapping recharge week

Issue 95: Refactoring my life with a week off

Jun 5

Happy Sunday. I’m heading back to work tomorrow after a week off, and man, I needed it! Recharging your personal batteries is even more important when you do what you love for work. Contrary to popular belief, a profession you love doing still takes energy from you. Despite how high performing and reliable the Apple M1 chip is (ambition), the device still needs to be recharged (physical and mental well-being). A destination vacation is in the books for Hawaii this summer, and this is a week-long staycation to rest and recover.

First, identify recovery areas

Sleeping for a week straight like a hibernating bear is the dream. However, rest is only one type of recovery and may not be getting to the root cause of what is wearing you out. Reflect and focus on ways to address what’s burning you out. I identified three areas that were personally affecting me.

1. Heaps of meetings

It’s not a surprise for managers to have a lot of meetings. It’s part of the job. I never realized how much recovery time walking from one conference room to another allowed until we all started having remote meetings back-to-back. Having a week off with zero meetings gave my body so much freedom from the 16:9 video conference box.

2. Recovery from remote work

It feels like everyone I know is having issues with some part of their body if they work remotely—back, shoulders, neck, and sometimes they get the trifecta. Much of my time off was stretching, riding the exercise bike, and exercising in the pool. I hardly spent any time in the home office and worked on creative projects in other parts of the home or throughout Los Angeles.

3. Still mourning the loss of a friend

As many of you know, my beloved cat of 19 years passed away in early February. Honestly, I'm not emotionally over it—not sure if I ever will be. Through the love and support of friends, I've been able to make it through day by day. This week gave me time to organize photos of nearly two decades and absorb the reality he is gone. We miss you, Wilson.

Fulfilling what needs fulfillment

In addition to recovery, invest in areas you seek fulfillment. Having a week off allowed me to do things I haven't prioritized in a long time.

Deep sketching and writing time

I’ve found a good rhythm of sketching and writing throughout the week. However, it’s a lot of work to find the edges of time to do it. This past week I had large blocks of time to do sketching and writing sessions in blocks of hours. It felt so nice!

Coffee and walking conversations

Though I didn’t take any remote meetings, I had a few coffee and walking conversations. I met a founder whose startup I invested in for the first time, a few people in the venture space, and a Twitter friend IRL!

The freedom to be anywhere

With no meetings, my day was completely free and unstructured. I often describe the measure of success in my life as when I can be anywhere on a Tuesday afternoon with no obligation. This is symbolic of not having any obligation to be anywhere. For this week, the world was my personal sandbox.

Recap of the week

Most of the week was rest, relaxation, and reflection daily. The week allowed me to recalibrate my eating and sleeping habits. In addition to my Three Rs, I made low-key progress on a few things!

A list of accomplishments

Read 4 books
- How to watch basketball like a genius
- I never thought of it that way
- Design is storytelling by Ellen Lupton (re-read)
- Console Wars
Took 5 naps
Wrote 3 issues of Proof of Concept so I can take some weekends off from writing
Updated my personal website
Caught up with 6 friends
Met a founder I invested in for the first time
0 Zoom meetings

Made progress on

My personal health with an annual wellness check
Organized my Obsidian notes
A digital zine

Could I take another week off? Absolutely. That said, I'm excited to sign back on tomorrow and be with people I love working with. I have the ReverseSunday Scaries now! The goal isn't to accrue the wear and tear to take another week off to recover from it.

It's an opportunity to re-prioritize and the week off inspired ideas on optimizing my time back on!