Working Hard; Playing Harder

This year, I have a goal for how many books I want to read and how many movies I want to watch. To keep on track, I have a weekly reminder in my planner to “watch a movie.” If I miss a week, I copy it over to the next week. This has been surprisingly effective at keeping me on top of my film viewing. 

Last month, I was coming off a lot of travel and feeling remarkably behind on, well, everything—my full time job which I’d been away from for over a week; household tasks for the home I felt I hadn’t seen in weeks; Smile Project emails because when was the last time I was at my computer; and on and on and on.

But I was also behind on my fun things. When was the last time I read even one of the short stories in the anthology that I’d dragged through multiple airports? And goodness, were there a lot of great movies on my radar. 

That weekend, exhausted, overwhelmed, and staring at a to-do list that didn’t become any less daunting despite my multi-colored pen, I changed into my comfiest outfit, reheated dinner, and sat down to watch a movie.

Because I may have had a stack of mail to sort through, but I also had a movie goal to reach. And yes, maybe it had to be written down for me to take it seriously. But if the system works, why shame it?

You can only operate at 100% for so long. And if I hadn’t been so methodical about reaching my movie goal, it would be easy to push off this idea of “watching more movies.” But because I’m learning to take my play as seriously as I take my work, I am finding myself resting for the sake of rest. Resting not because it’ll make me more productive at work, but resting because I am deserving of time of leisure. 

Your joy is more important than your to-do list. 

This week, we invite you to prioritize rest, formally scheduled and otherwise.