Backing Off On the Weekends

This is the first full weekend of the new year that I’ve been back home in NYC. I sat down to write this morning and actually got caught doing SEO optimization for a post on my other blog, cjrcycl.es which then rolled into other distractions, mainly in the form of small structural improvements and administrative updates to cjrcycl.es.

As a result, I didn’t actuallly write anything, which I almost let slide. I didn’t let it slide, in order to keep up with the daily writing habit, which to me means to write every day. I’m sitting down to write this later in the day, which I’m finding to be much more difficult than writing first thing in the morning. My thoughts are less collected and I find that I’m trying to write the right thing in the right way, rather than just roll with it.

This is also the first weekend that I’ve had an opportunity to try and back off and enjoy the weekend, hoping to slow it down by enjoying the time, rather than trying to optimize every hour. Being away gave me some space to think and reflect on the speed life seemed to pick up last year. Rather than being a time to relax, the weekends just revved up as I tried to plan too many things into Saturday and Sunday. The planning became exhausting and I found myself more focused on the plan, rather than actually enjoying the activities that were planned.

I’m trying to do it differently this year. I think part of what was going on last year was that I was still in a tourist mindset when it came to living in NYC. When I was visiting NYC before I lived here, the time was always too short and I felt the need to cram as much as possible into the weekend or long weekend. This way, when I left, it didn’t feel like I missed out on anything. Or at least that’s what I thought.

What I’m finding is that being in that mindset while actually living here is exhausting. There’s absolutely no way, at least for me, to keep up with everything there is to do, see, eat and drink. Not to mention trying to keep up with the pace of change. There’s a ton to do, see, eat and drink to start with at any time, in any neighborhood. Then, add to that a crazy pace of change and forget it. Trying to keep up with this as if I was a tourist with on a few days to maximize the experience was draining. I found myself constantly thinking, “We can do this, or this, or this, or maybe this and this, oh and this too!” I did cancel my subscription to Time Out New York, which helped a little, by not bombarding myself with the daily breakdown of what’s going on and the weekly reports on what’s new. However, just living here makes it really tough to not be aware of everything going on around me and how fast everything changes and evolves.

This year I’m making an effort to back off on the weekends. I need to remind myself that I’m here for the long haul and to also use the weekends as a time to relax and recharge. I’m working to not try and constantly evolve the perfect, hour-by-hour plan for Saturday and Sunday. I’m also experimenting with not planning anything in advance on Sundays. (At least as of right now, there is some minimal planning that will need to take place for church and my cycling training, to make sure time is left to spend together with my wife!) Sundays are also the day I unplug from everything except my Kindle Paperwhite for reading. I unplugged last Sunday and it felt great. The second part of today was closer to what I’m striving for, after getting a bit too wound up during the first half of the day. I’m really looking forward to doing it better next weekend and enjoying the expected benefits of backing off on the weekends this year.