Elevator Operator
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I've done that a few times (and I don't know if one can appreciate how wonderful it is until you do it). But I'm not doing that this time. Instead I'm making a cut off time. I've got a dissected day, though, I think dissected is not really the right way of phrasing it. I wanted the day's activities to bleed into each other without being intrusive to each other. Part of that is "single-tasking," doing only one thing (and I mean one thing) at a time. That means that when it's time to build coding solutions, it's intense and complete focus on that task. When it's time to exercise, complete focus. When it's to pray or read, complete focus. Even when it's leisure, it's focus on leisure and not on tomorrow or what else can be accomplished with the day that's left. In that podcast she recommends a 12-hour work day. For most of us, that'd be 8 hours of a day job and then 4 hours of productivity outside of work. That could be anything from practicing a new skill to playing with your kids to cooking or doing laundry. But after that twelve hours of work is up (of course this depends on everyone individually. You can't just stop playing with your kids and say, "Sorry guys, you're really draining so please leave me alone until tomorrow." Or maybe you can. Jerk.), it's guilt free leisure. Because leisure is actually necessary. Even St. Anthony the Great saw the need for it in this story:
" A hunter in the desert saw Abba Anthony enjoying himself with the brethren and he was shocked. Wanting to show him that it was necessary sometimes to meet the needs of the brethren, the old man said to him, "Put an arrow in your bow and shoot it." So he did. The old man then said, "Shoot another," and he did so. Then the old man said, 'Shoot yet again," and the hunter replied "If I bend my bow so much I will break it." Then the old man said to him, "It is the same with the work of God. If we stretch the brethren beyond measure they will soon break. Sometimes it is necessary to come down to meet their needs." When he heard these words the hunter was pierced by compunction and, greatly edified by the old man, he went away. As for the brethren, they went home strengthened."
Yes, we NEED to relax. But we also NEED to work up to the relaxation. It's like the way everything exists upon the Orthodox Calendar, how fasts lead up to rest from fasting. Pascha and the presiding week (or 40 days if you are Antiochian) of no fasting, meat and dairy, of sex (if you're married and chose to abstain during lent), of no prostrations in prayer, these are far more impactful if we have kept the fast. The leisure, the rest feels like a reward instead of an entitlement. And because of that, we enjoy it more.
I've noticed this with my attitude concerning one of my favorite hobbies, playing video games. When I look to them as a source of relaxation, as an expected thing I'm entitled to, they become less enjoyable. But when I hold off and only play for an hour here and there, I enjoy this time more that has been sectioned of doing something I enjoy.
Even work can be enjoyable when looked at in the right way. I, personally do not have the most exciting job, but I think to myself during the day that God enjoys and takes pleasure in my attentiveness and diligence in my work. So now the sense of fulfillment is not coming from the work, from a particular "dream" job, but from the knowledge that God is pleased when I do this, that when He is pleased, because He dwells in me, it is real communion with Him.
The two balance each other out. We should not work for work's sake or we may burn out, drift aimlessly or become workaholics. One the other end of the spectrum, we shouldn't be pleasure seeking hedonists either or we will be self-categorized consumers who just want high after high and never attain satisfaction. Both should have a higher focus and so work in unity toward that purpose.
Just some thoughts.
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