Knowing when to unplug and take a break
There is almost a constant bombardment of motivational and productivity messages, embedded in these is the idea of “hustle” — an endlessly productive life without downtime. This current era has brought technology closer to the person, through smart phones, email and social media. Technology is more intimate and integrated in our lives, almost indispensable and yet, frivolous considering how long humanity has previously coped without it.
Presently the world appears to be dominated by constant, demanding and instant communication which never sleeps — so why should you? An all-pervasive noise trying to shape our perceptions and beliefs. All encompassing, it surrounds us. Demanding and expecting much, but this cacophony gives very little value in return for our time and its relentless demands for attention. A constant distraction — but is it always welcome?
With such limited time for thought and disengagement, how useful is to be plugged-in. How much time has been spent looking at messages and mindlessly surfing our phones? How much time has been taken from other things, and how much progress has been made towards our goals that matter? But in this always-on state, how much of these attention demanding requests are just trivia and a waste of time? Are these messages just baseless opinions and agenda-driven self-promotion and sales and, a constant and persistent distraction — can breaking free of these create much more space in our lives?
The hustle is an idyllic setting, a picture painted through the filters of the medium, and the agenda of a picture to be shown, not necessarily lived. A tool for image, for comparison, shame and explanation. Personal weakness and insecurity can be preyed upon by the constant comparison — with the exploitative explanations — such that these are only due to a lack of hustle — only if we could hustle more could we be more worthy. But how much hustle is enough? When does hustle become toxic? Does hustle explain everything?
What is reality and how real is the world?
This has always been a challenging question for me, and some of this may be significant naivety on my part. For me, the difficulty is in the lack of clear dichotomy, the messiness and ambiguity in facts, information and “truth”. It is a question of gradations a sea of gray — a vast lake between off-white and charcoal — not everything true, yet not everything false. Some lies exists and are intentional, the desire to mislead or to paint the hustle life as an ideal.
We see the painting, this magical ideal — but how well do we see the painter? Does this painting represent actuality, or is it simply painted for a reflected glory of the painter? What is success, and what is the painter’s real success? Most importantly, do we know and, can we ever truly know? I suspect we will find out over time, but today it is difficult to tell. This is where the shame comes in — can we ever compare ourselves with an image — one we neither created, know its origin, nor do we know how well it reflects reality? Thus, the question becomes one of should I feel shame?
Well, what good does shame do? It makes me feel somewhat inadequate compared to an image. An image that I cannot challenge or understand the veracity. Will shame make me better? Do I improve with shame? Sometimes identifying a shortcoming helps to overcome it. But living with weaknesses and instead focussing and building upon strengths rather than shortcomings is usually more beneficial.
So, will a hustle-based shame work and actually bring results? Also, is hustle and an improvement over consistent and continuous effort towards a goal? I would argue it is not.
I know how hard I work or otherwise. Personal discipline and self-awareness easily identify where I feel I am letting myself down or if I have done enough. Goals are known, and progress can be often be seen. Targets can be set everyday and progress can be measured. From feedback my progress and skills can be measured. I do not need the added comparison to others. Especially when I do not necessarily believe the comparator. Personally, these comparisons are more demotivating and have no constructive use. If I continually strive towards a goal, then I will make progress and overtime that will accumulate. So, is hustle just a lack of patience, and an unwillingness to wait for the compounded benefits to take effect?
Probably, in my opinion.
Thus, progress, even slow progress might be what truly matters — is continual effort more the tortoise to hustle’s hare, and maybe the focus on hustle is wrong? Maybe the focus should be on that it is okay to be the tortoise, as long as we believe in ourself and our goals, and work our way towards them at out own pace.
Tiredness
Self-awareness and knowing how I am feeling often helps to understand my behaviour in the moment. Continual effort takes a toll. Motivation is always high when I start something, but it is discipline that maintains some level of continual effort. This is the long-haul, the slogging it out for a few yards every day that adds up and, this process eventually makes me weary. As discipline and routines carry me, does hustle, comparison and shame help me? No!
Shame and comparison build anxiety, they build inner emotional walls. They demotivate. Steps forward feel more difficult as if wading through mud. The anxiety refocuses the mind elsewhere, it the shallowness of comparisons and self-doubt. It saps both physical and mental energy, creating higher mental barriers and expectations to fail, a doom cycle. Not a single positive emotion in me, nor in the work that I am doing is engendered. Anxiety is really a motivation killer.
Rest is part of self-care. Hustle is not. You can’t hustle if you are dead, burnt out or if there is no motivation or desire. Hustle is a buzz kill. Rest has a habit of breaking tiredness. It can soothe and reinvigorate.
I find the body knows when it needs rest. Psychological rest messages are made, although requiring interpretation, it is not difficult to figure out their meaning. Tiredness, anxiety and low motivation are easily seen. My behaviours get worse and relationships with others weaken. These were not difficult to observe or get feedback from. The quality of what I produced and the nature of my thoughts were also noticeable. Low quality work and pessimistic, angry and aggressive thoughts, feeling animosity towards others, being short-tempered and easily annoyed by trivial things were key signs. Journaling identified these issues easily.
Taking a break really did improve my behaviours. Productivity and quality rose. I focussed on other things I enjoy. Breaking the routine. Anxiety, stress and annoyances passed, a restful, positive and calm feeling returned and the malaise lifted. But it was the journaling process and the experiments in rest and play that highlighted the improvements by having a rest, and I needed the evidence to convince myself of the benefits. The evidence from recording my experiences gave the trust that there was a causal link with taking a break and making improvement.
The need for a fresh perspective
I found that it is easy to get lost in a particular mindset. A constant barrage of stimuli, provides a mindset which is not helpful. Working at something the same way builds a singular mindset that forgets there are other approaches. With weariness and a constant barrage, there is no time to think, and no time for creativity. I can see the trees, but the forest is lost. This is particular harmful state of affairs, because the point of action and what you are trying to achieve is lost and becomes the noise.
Breaks allow for a restatement, a refocus, a requestioning and a restart. Regrouping allows the questions of whether the methods and approaches are still valid, and chance to walk through the door again and ask, should I still continue to proceed with this or start again. A point I often found was that after working on anything I was not the same person I was when I started. Personal change happened — not always a positive, but it did seep in. Challenges change people, and the questions of whether this was a good idea in the first-place surface. More importantly, am I the best person to do this and should I be focussing on doing something else?
Trying new things and play I found, gave new inputs and signals into my mind. It injects some kind of new thoughts and patterns, creating connections galore. The same ideas can be cast in a new light through the lens of a new idea or skill. Also, the ideas of others, their views and perspectives again can cast new light on various projects. Over time, different perspectives begin to shape my thoughts and behaviours, but it can take time for these to take hold.
By taking a break, I could start to think, but also internalise the learning that was occurring. These perspectives begun to take hold. But this happened mainly during the rest period, and not often during the action periods. Here the rest brought ideas percolating upwards, and new connections made. It was thinking about other things that my subconscious seemed to reorganise things. My thoughts changed and more importantly so did my approach. Waking up and having the thoughts that completely change my understanding of a concept and the application of ideas came during the downtimes.
Moreover, with these new thoughts and perspectives came hope. I could feel and understand why these new approaches would work. Anxiety left to be replaced with drive, a real desire to hit the work. It was like the initial motivation from when I first started came flooding back. No more tiredness and lack of morale with a feeling that I was clinging on to discipline and habits by my fingernails. This was the time to go for it. Changes like these are amazing, and they come with patience, persistence and a willingness to take a break. These benefits all derived from finding a new perspective, and giving it time to internalise.
Unplugging
The easiest way to break the comparison and the hustle culture is to unplug. I found it surprisingly easy to do. There is no need to answer all the messages and notification that I have received, they really can wait. The world does not end if they are ignored, they can be handled at a specific time of my choosing. In my experience, people do not seem to mind if you unplug and take time to get back to them, they seem to consider it to be a healthy approach.
Limiting the time spent plugged-in frees up so much more time elsewhere. Multitasking conversations is both rude and unhelpful — not having a phone anywhere near you whilst talking really helps any conversation. Giving people your full attention in conversation is something that gets positively noticed these days.
Projects go so much quicker without the distraction. More can be accomplished and learnt. However, there is a question of whether you want to be distracted, and this maybe a reason why people can always be plugged-in — it’s a distraction from what they need to do but don’t want to do and, keeps them entertained. This is a further reason to want to unplug — facing what is required, facing the quiet and, your thoughts and feelings. These are the costs in having more time and space available in which to work and improve. However, it also means accepting that there are no valid excuses for not doing what needs to be done and, there nowhere to hide.
Being unplugged gives this freedom, but it also breaks the shame and the comparisons. Who are you comparing against? Without checking the phone, the internet or social media, what images am I viewing. None, these pictures may exist, but not in my current world — I no longer see them, and so, I no longer care. There is no comparison, so there is no shame. Finally, the race being run is mine and only mine. No comparisons, no noises of hustle. I can be a tortoise, and progress at my own rate. Progress comes from doing the work, not from comparisons. The anxiety and shame no longer exist — I am free of it.
Conclusion
So, what I found is unplugging and taking a break is the escape from the vicious hustle cycle. In my experience, removing distractions provided a better focus, a better use of my time and a much better internal state. My welfare and self-care have improved immensely. Breaks really helped my understanding and perspective. Motivation and understanding really improved. Hustle and hustle culture just made me feel anxious and tired, as well as gobbling up my time. But freedom from this allows me to set my own time and priorities and judge my own progress. Moreover, removing distractions removes excuses for not doing things. I found it to be a virtuous cycle.
