You don’t have a very good work/life balance, do you Elliot?
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Mike, I hope you don’t mind, but I felt the need to respond to this (and incorporate it in to a Chapter) after remembering something my friend Abbie said to me last week:
You don’t have a very good work/life balance, do you Elliot?
It came after we’d talked about how much time I dedicate to my Chapters and I’ll be totally honest, it rattled me. I didn’t show it at the time, but that question pissed me off a bit.
It wasn’t anger directed at Abbie, she didn’t do anything wrong. It was anger directed at the question.
I think the anger bubbled up because I don’t have a work/life balance, and any suggestion that I do offends me. I’m even more offended when it’s suggested that my non-existent work/life balance is bad.
I don’t have a work/life balance, nor do I want one. The work I do isn’t work to me.
I enjoy writing, and I write for a living.
I enjoy filming and editing, and I film and edit for a living.
How can anyone see that as work?
If I had a job that I hated, I’d be working.
If I had a job where I was no longer learning, I’d be working.
If I had a job that made me want to dash home on the stroke of 5pm, I’d be working.
But I don’t, and that’s why I’m so uncomfortable with the question Abbie asked. I’m uncomfortable with the idea that people are looking at me — a guy in a full-time job, still writing daily and still trying to have a freelance career — and thinking: he has a truly terrible work/life balance.
My work/life balance doesn’t exist.
Mike, you define leisure as being time with no expectations attached and no inherent goals. I’d disagree, that doesn’t cover enough bases.
Time with no expectations attached and no inherent goals is lazy leisure. It’s the time spent watching Netflix, or playing video games, or going out partying.
Lazy leisure is fine. Lazy leisure is necessary at times. Lazy leisure helps us unwind and forget about any stresses or worries.
But lazy leisure, in high doses, is what creates the idea of the work/life balance.
When we finish work, most of us want to invest time in lazy leisure. We’re tired and we’re worn out and we want to relax. Rinse and repeat, every day.
It leaves no room for productive leisure: time spent learning, or brainstorming, or (as Mike suggests) exploring your curiosities.
Productive leisure serves a purpose. If you hate your job, productive leisure is the time you spend getting better at what you love, or improving as a person. If you enjoy your job but don’t believe in the 9–5 routine, productive leisure is the time you keep going, because it’s not work to you.
For me, productive leisure is writing these daily Chapters, or making videos, or reading, or watching TED Talks, or doing research in to filmmaking techniques. It’s an endless list, and one that is different for each individual.
Some see productive leisure as ‘work’. They don’t view it as true, lazy leisure. These people are happy to expend no energy once they leave the office at 5pm. They get home, eat, watch TV, sleep, get up for work and repeat.
There’s no time for productive leisure in that cycle.
So, Mike, I think you’re being too broad when you say you worry about the amount of energy being thrown at work, and the amount of creativity being thrown at jobs.
Leisure is still there. It’s always there. But I think the issue isn’t that we’re throwing too much energy at work, it’s that we’re not throwing the right amount of energy at the right type of leisure.
