Stop the tyranny of the academic calendar
It’s one thing when your regular work day isn’t under your control.
It’s another thing when you keep telling me how regular you work 10, 12, 14 hour days.
You are under the control of a system designed to keep you cycling through a regular onslaught of a workload meant for more than one person and the constant ding of non-urgent “urgent” deadlines marked by stupid little red exclamation marks in your inbox.
Educators, professionals, folks with kids, near everyone - we are all under what one of my Overing workshop participants coined the “tyranny of the academic calendar”. It’s the promise of… just hold on until spring break, just get to summer, just get through the week. We find ourselves consistently just holding on until (fill in the blank) – week after week, month after month, year after year. But the break never really comes because there’s always something else.
This is how Overing patterns become habitual and so deeply ingrained in us that we can’t imagine another way. Overing causes you to shift into overdrive. And overdrive causes more overing. It’s a vicious cycle.
And it doesn’t stop until you stop it. Work will never stop you from overworking. (Caveat: I do know some kickass leaders who tell their staff to stop overworking–but the funny-not-funny thing is that many of them end up picking up the “slack” and overwork themselves so others don’t have to.) If you’re reading this, you know who you are - I’m looking at you.
However, you can create detachment from overing. Even if you love your job. Even if it’s your “calling.” Plus, as one client noticed, the more she created that separation and shift, the easier it became to continue stopping her toxic overing. Now she teaches grad students how to have boundaries and tells them to take time off.
Freedom to live and love your life and work requires embodied, empowering choices about how to spend your time.
And how you spend your time points to what you value and where you put your worth.
How you spend your time shows whose worth you’re valuing.
Is it your own?
Here’s a place to start: do this easy assessment of your calendar.
(Yes, change can feel scary AF. And there is work you can do to create transformation with ease and love. Give this a try.)
To conduct a calendar assessment of your last week or two:
What were your days filled with? Review your appointments, tasks, meetings, etc. Where were you double or triple booked
How much “you” time was scheduled? Where did you have breaks in the day to eat, pee, walk outside?
Put everything from Step #1 and #2 in categories.
Total the time you spent on each of those categories.
Assess what’s missing from your calendar. Did you have to reschedule or miss something important to you? What do you wish was on your calendar that wasn’t there?
Calculate how much time you would want for what you missed or want to add.
Review your to-do list. Is there even enough time for what you think you need to do?
On a scale of 1-10 how satisfied are you with your assessment of your week?
If you find that your calendar and time is full of work output goals and tasks then you’re valuing work and output which can lead to toxic productivity rather than focused productivity.
If you find yourself unsatisfied, let’s get into your calendar and hack away. It’s a favorite client activity of mine. (It’s fun to slash things and draft decline, aka NO, emails–plus our calendars are the biggest and most obvious telltale sign of what matters.)
When you live from your own self-worth, you know that your time is your most valuable resource. Your days deserve to have breaks, presence, and creativity. It's up to you to create boundaries and buffers to protect and value your time so that you live your best life.
Remember: Just start. Do the calendar assessment. Pick any activity from this post.
Just start.
P.S. The next free Grow Boldly Workshops will be April 3-6. Sign-up even if you can't attend every day that week. We'll work together to shift your relationship with work into a healthy, whole paradigm. I'll create space for you to reflect on where your mindset and behaviors might be hooked into overing. From that clear awareness you then can envision a new relationship with your work that feels more joyful and peaceful in order to have the time and energy to make a genuine impact in your community.