This is the third and final part in a series of posts on maximising scholarly output. You can read the first and second parts here and here. Today I'm going to attempt to tackle recreation, friends and family time.
Recreation
It's taken me way too long to figure out that to do my best work and be my most productive, I need regular and frequent periods of recreation but, as an ECR, I find it very difficult to 'switch off' from work and engage in recreational activities, because I don't want to fall behind my peers. For some people, recreation is the activity they are naturally drawn towards when they are not required to be working. They don't have to think too hard about recreation because it's what they want to do and will take any chance to do it. The choice to recreate for this kind of person, I think, is a passive one. Not so for me and, I suspect, many other researchers. For me, it is an active choice. I have to choose to engage in recreation at regular and frequent intervals or I will just keep working until I can work no more and suffer burnout. So, to make sure that I am recreating adequately, these are the structures I have put in place:
- No work in the evenings, except on Thursday when my wife is out
- Arrive at work at 8:30 AM and leave at 4:15 PM
- Take at least 30 min for lunch away from my desk every day
- Only work on Saturday from 5:30 AM until 7:00 AM
- No work on Sunday, not even checking emails or using Twitter
- Bushwalk/hike once a month
- Spend the evenings reading, baking, watching TV/movies, playing board games or computer games, blogging or painting (most of these activities are done in the company of my wife)
Friends
It's very easy for someone like me to get so focused on work that I neglect all-important friendships. This is bad for my friendships and bad for my work, so it's important to prioritise friendships. I do this by having lunch with friends every day I am at work; no eating lunch at my desk! These times are invaluable for resetting my thinking. I've often found that after lunch I can come back and solve problems that had seemed intractable before lunch. I also try to invite friends to our house or go hiking with friends on a regular basis. To stay in touch with friends who don't live close by, I try to reach out at least once per quarter. I also send a yearly update around Christmas to my broader friend network as a way to keep these relationships alive.
Family time
Since the modern family is largely a leisure unit, family time ties in closely with recreation time. In thinking about what activities our family should focus on, I've come up with a list of 18 values and then linked those with activities that support those values. For example, I want our family to value cultural appreciation and the activities that support this are reading to the children, visiting museums and art galleries, listening to Classic FM and having regular movie nights. As another example, I want our family to value technological know-how and the activities that support this are typing games, Scratch coding and visits to Scitech. I really like this way of looking at things because it helps me to understand how a particular activity fits into the broader narrative of our family life. The rules outlined in the 'Recreation' section above also help to keep family time separate from work. I don't use my phone for work and I don't bring my laptop home so that I can be completely focussed on my family and attentive to their needs when I am at home.
I hope you found this series of posts helpful. Now, go an curate your own life to maximise your output!