The Simple Sophisticate - Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style
Education:Self-Improvement
"To embrace leisure, we don't have to let go of progress. [Our] constant pushing is now impeding our progress. We work best when we allow for flexibility in our habits . . . [w]e can and must stop treating ourselves like machines that can be driven and pumped and amped and hacked. Instead of limiting and constraining our essential natures, we can celebrate our humanness at work and in idleness. We can better understand our own natures and abilities. We can lean in not to our work but to our inherent gifts." —Celeste Headlee Do Nothing: How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing , and Underliving
For the past 10 weeks I have had the good fortune to go to work with both of my dogs. Why? Because I have been working from home.
I am able to take them for a short walk about the neighborhood before I step into my office and remote classroom, then take a break around 10:30 am as we sit on the garden porch, soaking in some sunshine and thinking about what I might want to enjoy for lunch in a few hours time. Lunch is leisurely because I can cook it, savor it, not be rushed to eat it or interrupted and our afternoon outing after about 70-90 minutes of work after lunch is to the mailbox and about the neighborhood. Returning to the office if need be to tie up loose ends, check my work email one more time (I only check my school email three times a day), when the day concludes, I am not exhausted, but I do feel productive.
Admittedly, the scenario I shared above is due to an unwanted global occurrence, and I miss my in-person connections with my students and colleagues, but what I do not miss is the excessive expectation to always be checking my email, regularly being interrupted so that I lose my focus/students' focus and requirement for a long inflexible work day (meaning not healthy breaks, a constant expectation of being "on"), and being rewarded for giving more beyond the work day even if it reduces the quality of my home life and personal relationships.
I am not complaining directly about a system that surrounds so many of us, but trying to be honest about the reality of why I was quietly thankful to have the time at home these past 10 weeks to catch my breath. I did my best to examine why, and while the emotional toll for those of us fortunate enough not to have our health and livelihoods taken away was unhealthy and exhausting, overall, I found great refuge and restoration this spring whilst staying at home, finding a schedule that worked for me as I continued to remotely teach and blog and just be home.
I also found much more time to read books that have been patiently sitting in my shopping cart, and two books furthered my exploration into how exactly improve the working environment when we begin to step back into the workplace. I have a few ideas to share in today's podcast episode.
Visit the full Show Notes on The Simply Luxurious Life — thesimplyluxuriouslife.com/podcast283Season 7 Schedule Announced!
285: The New Parisienne author Lindsey Tramuta
224: How to Welcome Simplicity Into Your Life: Live Differently for One Month (top episode from season 5)
142: 9 Reasons Owning Your Style Will Change Your Life
15: 7 Components to Building Your Signature Style (a top episode from Season 1)
284: 5 Steps for Finding Financial Peace of Mind
282: Author of Paris On Air and Podcaster, Oliver Gee
45: 10 Ways to Set Your Home Like a Luxury Travel Accommodation
281: 18 Ways to Welcome English Country Decor Ideas into Your Home
232: 28 Life & Style Tips from a Parisian Woman (top episode of Season 5)
148: The Hygge Phenomenon & Living Simply Luxuriously (the 5th most-downloaded episode of all-time)
4 Simple Ways to Spring Forward
280: The Importance of Daily and Weekly Rituals & Routines You Love (12 Ideas to Incorporate Now)
279: 15 Life Lessons Learned during my First Year into my 40s
278: 14 Ways to Create a Happy Home
277: Winter in Paris — The 15 Essentials for Timeless Seasonal Style
276: The Art of Mise en Place
275: 34 Ways to Attain Emotional Freedom and Cultivate More Joy of Living
274: Quality Friendships = Quality Life
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