Doing Meaningful Work With Limited Time (Reflection on October 2020)
Hey patrons,
October is coming to a close, and this month has been an eventful one on a personal level.
My wife and I welcomed a new daughter into the world, and right now we are trying to get a sense of what a proper baseline may be. There’s something both disorienting and comical about a baby incessantly crying for your attention, while being unable to convey what exactly she wants. There’s a lot of head scratching and exhaustion that comes with that kind of challenge, but we’re just reminding ourselves that it’s a lovely problem worth having.
In today’s reflection, I want to parse through something I’ve been thinking about lately:
How to balance meaningful work with limited time.
I’ve been thinking about this lately because when you have a newborn, pretty much everything you were doing for work has to be placed on pause for a moment. This is one of those times where conventional wisdom actually does reign true, and the cliched advice of “Make sure you get some sleep” is the #1 thing to keep in mind. There’s a reason why entire villages help raise babies; the around-the-clock nature of newborn children shows no regard for your rituals, habits, or work routines. So while one person rests, another needs to be on duty so that the “let’s-keep-baby-happy” project continues.
Of course, this is nothing new, so even if you don’t live in a village, we’ve modernized the solution in the form of maternity and paternity leaves. By giving people a prolonged period of time away from their work, they can focus solely on the never-ending needs of their growing infant. This gives them a much-needed respite away from the energy demands of their work, which they can then allocate to the home.
However, what if your work is a big source of meaning in your life? What if stepping away from your work for a long period of time actually feels like a drawback, and not a gift?
I am likely in the privileged minority that feels this way. I genuinely enjoy what I do for work, and I’ve noticed the tension that results from having to be separated away from it. This separation is the result of having either little time or little energy to create things for the blog, and I’ve noticed that this can make me quite antsy or irritable. So given this tension, I wanted to reflect on how I could alleviate this. Because this kind of issue is not just limited to new parents; it exists everywhere – from a person wanting to spend more time on their side hustles, to a person that feels like exhaustion is the default setting they operate on.
The first is to understand that humans are very adaptable, and we generally find a way to do the things that matter most. As Paul Graham wrote, “Work, like love, finds a way.” Adjustments are temporary by definition, and as time goes on, it’s only inevitable that you slowly build a new routine with those adjustments built in. After all, even amidst the major adjustments of the past 2 weeks, I was able to post my letter to my daughter on the blog, write this monthly reflection, and get a whole bunch of other things done as well. And perhaps most importantly, I was able to do the work mindfully, carving out an intentional space to do it thoughtfully.
This awareness of our adaptable nature is the first step to pivoting our mindset to better solutions.
The second step is to ask yourself, “What about my work makes it so meaningful?” This may seem like a silly thing to ask, but chances are there are many things about your work that don’t bring much fulfillment. By asking this question, it allows you to strip away the contents of your work to its core, which you can then focus on completely given your limited time and energy.
For example, there are many responsibilities I have running More To That, but after conducting this exercise, I realized that what I love most is writing and connecting with people. So for the next few days/weeks, I’m dedicating most of my available work time to either writing things or having my 1-on-1 consulting calls. I’m okay with putting the other things on hold, as long as those elements are fulfilled.
The value of your attention increases as your available time decreases, and this exercise helps to direct that value to the right things.
The third is to try and do a little bit each day to ensure that your cognitive muscles don’t atrophy. Of course, this will not apply if you hate your job, as every minute away from it will feel like a taste of heaven on earth. But if you love what you do, then it’s important to keep exercising that work muscle, even if it’s just a few minutes a day. That way you’ll still feel like you’re making progress, even if it’s just adding a small drop of water to a rather large bucket.
This is why I’ve kept my daily journaling habit up even throughout this time. I don’t consider it work, but because writing is such an important part of what I do, I see journaling as a way to keep that muscle worked out consistently. I can take comfort knowing that even if I’m not creating for the blog, I contributed something substantive each day to my abilities as a writer. In this case, the quality of the writing isn’t what matters; the mere fact that something was written does.
I came across this quote from Gretchen Rubin the other day that points to this:
We tend to overestimate what we can do in a short period, and underestimate what we can do over a long period, provided we work slowly and consistently.
When our time or energy is limited, we feel stressed because we envision a project in its entirety, and wonder how the hell we’re going to build that whole thing given our constraints. But if can instead see the project as the result of many individual bricks, it becomes far less intimidating. As long as we can lay a brick down consistently, we are making progress toward something concrete. Progress builds slowly, but as long as you’re building it, you will certainly see something meaningful after some time.
These are all reminders to myself as I continue the journey of parenthood, but I think this applies to anyone that wants to do more with their time. Remember that you are more adaptable than you’d think, identify the core things that make work meaningful, and build consistently – no matter how small – toward what you love doing.
And of course, take the time to appreciate everything else in life as well. Whenever I hold my daughter and look at her cute little face, I’m reminded that all these challenges are more than worth it.
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That’s it for this reflection. Hope your month has treated you well, and that you’re excited for the month ahead. Thank you so much for your continued support =).
-Lawrence
