Making time for leisure strengthens my scholarship.
Leisure time is not a luxury, it is a necessity.#academiclife #PhD— Heather Johnson (@HthrLynnJ) March 17, 2017
This week I revisited an advice column, Workload Survival Guide for Academics, which I came across last year.
Professor Andrew Oswald identified a price that comes along with the privilege of being a university faculty member: No clearly defined leisure time.
One way I make sure that I have leisure time:
Schedule time for real breaks.
.@nmlfonger I schedule personal time so I’m sure to take it. I put yoga on my calendar, and I treat it like an appointment.
— Heather Johnson (@HthrLynnJ) March 17, 2017
One reason why my leisure time is so important: JOY
Joy in being.
Feeding myself some loving energy#yoga #mindfulness #Namaste pic.twitter.com/BXrjP56PEr
— Heather Johnson (@HthrLynnJ) March 7, 2017
Joy in scholarship.
@mpershan Was there anything more than 1/4=6? I love investigating when kids write stuff that makes sense to them and is puzzling for me.
— Heather Johnson (@HthrLynnJ) March 17, 2017
How do you make time for leisure time?
Reply in the comments, or Tweet me @HthrLynnJ.
The biggest habit I have to be careful about comes on those days when I think, “I want to go for a bike ride/hike/run/etc., but I really have work I should do first.” Too often, that leads me to think “work now, play later” but I end up unmotivated and I never finish the work and, by extension, never get outside. More often, now I try to get outside first and trust that if the work is really important it will get done afterward.
Your habit resonates. Too often, when I tried to power through with no breaks at all, I found myself in a vicious cycle of “half-working,” neither fully working nor fully relaxing.