remember to loaf around

I really, really took it easy this summer. Took a leave from my masters, took extra time off from work, and spent a lot of time just sitting at the beach with my kids. You need periods of that in your life, I think…and I’ve noticed that my creative energy is good this fall. Coincidence?

When I take one of my weekend days and set it aside for just fun and not homework, I find that I have a much better mood. It also helps me be more productive when I get back to work. This might help me be less crabby, too.

I’ve noticed that what I do when I loaf around has a lot to do with how I feel about loafing. For instance, I feel guilty after sitting on the couch watching TV, but I feel relaxed and accomplished if I read a book in a coffee shop or take the dog for a long walk. What I’ve decided is that a balance between being productive and not having time constraints or performance standards is critical.

As much fun as loafing around is, it gets old. I think I’ll replace this goal with one to word hard and get a few things done. Not that loafing and productivity preclude each other…

I usually end up planning what to do with my time off. I need to get back to just flying by the seat of my pants and doing whatever comes to me. It’s been a while since I’ve felt okay doing this. They say that people who are in a hurry are less likely to stop and help a person in trouble on the sidewalk. I don’t want to be that person that is to wrapped up in my schedule that I let people around me die. Yuck. Loaf!

I need to learn when to go, and when to stop. I can control myself pretty well, but always feel like I’m either doing to much or too little – always at the wrong time.

Work when I need to, and play when I ought to, what a life.

So much of 43Things is just so over-the-top purposeful. Which isn’t bad, but I’m already trying to do way too much.

I probably could have just added one of the goals to relax, but there seems to be something different about loafing. Relaxing encompasses activities people do to relax, and I really mean that I want to remember to do nothing. Lie around the house occasionally and just think, let the kids crawl over me if they feel like it, have some mellow music going in the background.