The Sweet Spot – Part 2: Take Recess
In her book on finding greater life balance, The Sweet Spot, Dr. Christine Carter makes the startling suggestion to take more recesses, “It’s about learning how to increase our productivity at the same time we take more breaks and play a whole lot more.” Unless she also gives us the formula to extend the 24-hour day, it sounds impossible, right?
Carter lays out the research that shows a life without recess is less productive than an all-work-no-play mentality, and it will induce nothing short of generalized anxiety disorder. As many of us have learned the hard way, we are not productive when we are anxious, so our 24-hour day is effectively shortened. Carter cites a famous experiment by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, author of Flow, in which subjects were given the following instructions to conduct their days from the time they woke up until 9:00 pm: “We would like you to act in a normal way, doing all the things you have to do, but not doing anything that is ‘play’ or is ‘non-instrumental’.” It only took 48 hours of recesslessness (yes I made that up, but I maintain it should be a word. After reading Carter’s work, I’m submitting that word to Webster’s for consideration) before subjects produced symptoms of restlessness, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, irritability and muscle tension. As Carter puts it, “In other words, we get anxious when we aren’t having any fun.” Can you relate to any of the above symptoms of anxiety? Is there a chance you are suffering from recesslessness?
What does this have to do with your money? Plenty. For many of us, money issues produce anxiety with or without recess. We need to make sure we offset the time we spend doing money chores with time enjoying life. I tell my coaching clients to dedicate a certain chunk of time for money work on a day when something fun is going to happen afterward. Perhaps Fridays after work but before you have a get together with friends. Or in the early morning on a weekend stocked with fun plans. Reward yourself for getting through the money stuff and make sure you have something to look forward to while you’re completing those tasks.
For me, the most dreaded money chore is paying medical bills, so I tend to save them up and then pay them all at once. In the past, my practice was to do those bills on a day that was already awful, because I didn’t want to ruin a day that was going fine. But that’s a bad strategy. It’s more important to set time aside in advance for these chores and then plan for recess afterward. That way you know the task will be completed on time. Plus, you contribute to your financial confidence by proving that money stuff will NOT ruin your day. We all have money tasks that should be done on a regular basis, so setting aside an hour a week will really jump start your financial health as you get proactive rather than having to respond to crises all the time.
Inherent in this idea of recess is what Carter calls the “school day approach to life, in which we work and learn and produce and create in predictable periods of time, and then we have equally predictable periods of play and rest and recovery. As in school, we take recess.”
Let me ask you this, what does your recess look like? Stop for a moment, and picture it. Now think of something else that re-energizes you, because even the swing set can get tiring if you play on it every single day. Now that you have those recess ideas in mind, answer this: how many of those dreaded money chores could you get done if you knew you were going to do them for a set period of time and it would be followed by a time of play? Give it a try this week and see what happens. As with most things in life, it pays to think like a kid again.
Click here to read the introduction of my series Finding Your Financial Sweet Spot, or click here to check out the next post in the series, Rewards: The Secret to Lasting Transformation
