Doing the bare minimum

Succulents store water for when they need it. Too much will kill them. (Image by Mikes-Photography)

With a couple of major projects wrapped up, others delegated, and others dropped, I have found myself in a slow season.

First, I took a vacation. When I went to set the autoresponder on my email, I learned that I hadn’t done so since the summer of 2018. Yikes! Even if I didn’t go anywhere, this complete holiday from my laptop was necessary.

I further decided that, upon my return from my vacation, I would strip away everything from my to-do list that wasn’t essential.

That meant that I would show up, do only what needed to be done that day, and go home. Well, I was home already. But you get the idea.

Looking at my work through this lens has been a revelation. I carry around with me an infinite list of tasks, projects, and activities for work, home, and hobbies. These are waiting in the wings for any free time that allows them to take center stage. The idea of filling any extra time with home and hobby projects instead of work projects is appealing. The idea of leaving the time empty is compelling.

Naturally, I’ll still find something to do. The time still gets used up. But the sense that I “should” be doing something else—something additional—is gone.

As a small business owner, I’m always working for the future, thinking about the next quarter, the next month, the next week. Like the retail employee who straightens the displays or dusts the baseboards during slow moments, I can always find something to do. It is a huge relief to simply shut that off.

There are many in our culture who prize the hustle. When you invest a huge amount of time and energy into something, you are bound to get results. I’ve seen it happen—I’ve made it happen. But what I’ve come to learn about the hustle is that it needs to be temporary. Working long days, every day, is not sustainable. Compressing a lot of effort into a short period of time must be followed by a period of rest. I’ve left that out of the equation far too often.

Coming out of complete rest—a short vacation—has left me uncertain as to where to put my energy into next. Therefore, I’m going to conserve it. If that means that my workday is over after just four or five hours, so be it. I will do the bare minimum, on purpose, and see what happens.

I’ve had periods of procrastination in my life. This is not that. I’m not going to shirk my responsibilities. In fact, with less to do and no pressure to do more, It will be easier to stay on top of things. The lights will stay on and the metaphorical trains will run on time. But the lady at the metaphorical switchboard will clock out before dark and be home for dinner. And she’ll actually have the energy to do the dishes afterward instead of letting them sit out all night.

I know myself. At some point, I am going to come up with a big idea or a fresh challenge that calls me to invest more time and energy at a more familiar rate. But that’s not the season I am in today, and I finally understand the distinction.

I recognize the privilege I have in being able to choose what I want to do and how much. I didn’t always see that I had a choice, though. I have been shifting my patterns and attitudes toward achievement for awhile now. This is the next step, and it feels right. It’s rooted in a sense of confidence that what remains on my to-do list is the right stuff, and a sense of trust in myself. At the moment, I will do just what must be done. After that, who knows.