Taking back time
(every other) Monday is mine now
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?Mary Oliver
I’ve entered the world of flexible working.
Not that I haven’t been working flexibly for the last six years. If deadlines and meetings permit, I love starting a little earlier to finish a little earlier, and never take it for granted.
It’s not just for the parents and carers among us. It’s for those of us who engage in our local cultural scene, which seems to be primarily active during traditional working hours. It’s for those of us who value work/life balance, who want some extra time in the week to Get Stuff Done. For those of us with pets. For those of us with side hustles, second jobs and freelance empires on the back burner. For those of us who want a haircut at a decent time of day. For those of us with a project on the go, with a novel in the works, with a blog, or an exhibition to develop. For those of us who just want to make work work for us.
After all, I’m pretty sure we weren’t put on this planet just to send emails and attend meetings.
Yes, I’ve been working flexibly here and there for years. But now, it’s official. It’s in the new contract.
I have secured a fortnightly day off.
Luxury.
But I think I may already be experiencing what I’d dreaded: the overwhelm. There is SO MUCH I could do with this ‘extra’ day, that I’m at risk of doing nothing at all.
May I take Mary’s iconic line and make it my own?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious day off every fortnight?
I want to spend it baking and cooking; making delicious loaf cakes and breakfast muffins, and slow-cooked feasts to enjoy at the end of the day. I want to spend it strolling through local exhibitions, free of weekend crowds. I want to go to the cinema off-peak, dodging the yappers, filmers and back-row vapers. I want to write for hours, and hours, and hours. I want to create my next great poem. I want to create any poem. I want to finally get around to turning the room at the bottom of our garden into a studio. I want to play with ink, acrylic, oils, and yarn. I want to plant cascades of courgettes, cucumbers, and beans to feed us over the summer months.
I want to see friends and their babies; I want to see friends and their friends; I want to see teacher friends in the holidays when they’re no longer too frazzled to talk. I want to spend hours with family, to indulge in a long weekend visit, to start my week with a languid brunch. I want breakfast in bed. I want to run errands without the constraint of an hour-long lunch break. I want to binge-watch that show. I want to clean the oven.
I want a midday bath. I want to take myself into the New Forest and wander beneath shady canopies. I want to go to bed the day before without the Sunday Scaries. I want to trawl through charity shops. I want to finally finish that book. I want to go to London on a slightly less busy train. I want a massage. I want a rest. I want to go and write in the cafe around the corner, instead of my work desk. I want to continue building my freelance portfolio. I want to do some great work for some lovely clients. I want to contribute what I can as a trustee. I just want an extra day.
I know I’ll try my best to ensure this extra time of mine is dedicated to creating things. And I know, inevitably, it will slowly be overtaken by life admin and necessities. I’ve learned before, recently, that more time does not mean more writing will get done. But I’ll have another crack at it.
On my first Monday off, I replied to some non-Work work emails. I read some Substack posts. I made a new recipe for lunch (eggy udon noodles. Still unsure.) I browsed Farmer Gracy for bare-root blooms to brighten our garden (I’ve been admiring the Tumbling Teds pouring over neighbouring walls and want some of my own).
I started drafting a script for a show my partner and I are writing together.
(Oh yes, I should mention. We’re writing a show and performing it next month. As you do.)
I had some patatas bravas and an almond iced latte at a cafe for lunch, then walked to the post office to pick up my latest Vinted purchase (an oversized t-shirt with tomatoes on the front, because I am having a real moment for oversized, shapeless, comfortable clothes.
I met a friend for vegetarian sushi. We headed to my favourite local open mic night after that, caught up with some more friends, saw new faces, read out some poems and drank wine.
Not a bad first Wild And Precious Day Off Every Fortnight, eh?
What would you do with an extra day off? Give me ideas. Reassure me that you, too, would end up getting distracted.
I, too, have every other Monday off, and I love it so much - however it rarely results in additional productivity, or even more fun activities, but it does give me space that I’d really miss if I no longer had it. That space just takes the pressure off the rest of the weekend - jobs get spread out, there’s less time pressure on catch ups, and I can enjoy a few hours of reading without feeling I’m missing out. But this has definitely made me think how I’d like to be a bit more intentional about that time too ❤️