Nothing, nothing, nothing!

Weekends are so precious. If you’re working 5 days a week, 2 days off don’t seem like enough. There’s so much to do: catching up on sleep, long meals with your family, meeting friends for coffee, working out in the gym, going out for a lovely meal in the evening and more dreaded tasks like grocery shopping or laundry.

What we’ve done over the last 2 weekends was the opposite for us. We planned nothing. We did nothing.

For us (and probably for you too), the previous weeks have been super busy. We’re working with a corporate client, getting their processes and documents (think lots of paper and plenty of electronic files) in order. You may say that’s easy. All you have to do is read, trash and file the rest. For those of you who’ve organised their pictures online, you know how challenging soft copies can be.

My vision or the 20:20:20 rule

By the end of some days, my vision was blurred and I wouldn’t want to look at another electronic document. My eyes have been exhausted from the online reviews and activities.

A workplace designer shared the 20:20:20 rule with me. When working on your laptop or another device, look up after 20 minutes. Look into the distance (at least 20 feet or 6 metres) for 20 seconds. It’s a simple, yet effective way to fight screen fatigue.

Over the weekend, I kept my phone on but drastically reduced my usage. It was amazing to see my little phone was just laying on the table doing nothing.

My schedule or the “nothing!”

You’ve heard me say it before: “If it’s not in calendar, it doesn’t get done!” Even on weekends, I’ve blocked time for some activities. Whether it’s for work with clients (obviously can’t miss those appointments), certain errands or meetings with friends, there are little green blocks and reminders.

For the last 2 weekends, nothing was scheduled. Nothing was in my calendar!

My family and friends know how much I love to plan meetings with them, often days in advance. In fact, I’m arranging a meeting with a friend in May while typing this (to my defence, it will be during a holiday and requires a little bit more preparation).

At first, it felt strange not having anything pop up. By the second weekend, I was better prepared for not hearing those reminders. While I admit it was nice having nothing nag me (yes, I do procrastinate), I somehow missed have more meetings with my friends.

My energy or the early sun

I meet so many folks who are trying to convince me about the beauty of early morning hours. The birds are the only sound. Your mind is crisp and focused. Yeah, not in my world! I remember the days when the alarm rang at 5:51 am and I hated it! No matter how much I like to use those early hours, I love my sleep.

Could you imagine my surprise when I woke up early on the first weekend?! Nothing was planned for the day, there was no need to get up early but I was bright awake. So I continued with the unthinkable, got dressed and used the gym! Coming back, it felt like the entire was still ahead (well, it actually was) and my day of doing nothing started with some actually productive.

Over to you

I’d encourage you to have a “nothing!” weekend. Does that sound too challenging? Okay, take a smaller step, make it a day, an evening, an hour or just 5 minutes where you have nothing planned. Don’t have the constant time pressure of running from the gym to a lunch catch up to then quickly meet others before getting ready for a night out with friends. Could you benefit from a weekend with nothing in calendar?

Until next time,
Agni