Breaks
You’ve probably heard by now the comparison between the United States vs. Europe in PTO. The European Union mandates that workers must have four weeks minimum of paid vacation. In the United States, there is no law that requires PTO. In fact, most workers are lucky to even get ten days off. The term that circulated for a while is that the US is a “No Vacation Nation.” There are articles, talks, etc. speculating why that is, why that’s our culture, but I’m not getting into that today.
When I was in the corporate world, there was a long time there, especially within the first couple years of my career, that I just wouldn’t take breaks. Lunch would turn into a working lunch. I’d definitely be putting in way more than forty hours a week. I felt like it was taboo not to despite everyone stressing the importance of taking a break and taking PTO. Eventually, I got moved around and the people I saw day to day were different. Whether it was the influence of others or me just valuing my time more, I started to take breaks. I took my hour break for lunch or working out. I would work overtime when I’d need to but make up for it during less busy times. I felt the work-life balance that everyone talked about. I got what I needed to get done, done, and many times, I still completed more than I was required to but within working hours. Why do I bring up my corporate life? Because I find that it’s interesting that it doesn’t translate into my writing life.
I love checking things off of to-do lists. If I’m in the middle of a task, unless I’m at a good stopping point, I don’t like to leave it, even if it takes hours of focus. I can do it. When it comes to writing, I’m exactly the same. I don’t like to stop in the middle of chapters. When I’m editing, I’ll do that for eight hours straight. In fact, I wrapped up the first draft of my novel a little over a month ago, and I did just that - spent eight hours editing. I had my working lunch. And guess what? I could’ve kept pushing myself to go longer. In fact, I wanted to.
This is so exciting and fun for me because though there’s still a lot to fix in the story, the ending is in sight, more than it ever has been. However, come the sixth hour, I noticed something - my pace got slower, reading got harder, and edits got shittier. In fact, any work done after the sixth hour, I consider a complete waste of time. It was still progress, but not as much progress as I could’ve made. Today, I have to go back and re-edit those portions.
This concept of needing a break applies to all areas of work, but in my tech job, where things were more methodic, I needed a quarter of the creativity I need when writing. Creating a to-do list doesn’t work so well when you’re working on something creative. Speaking from a writing standpoint, yes, you can set goals on where you want to be at the end of the day, but more often than not, you’ll end up some place entirely different, and it’s entirely out of your control. In fact, when you stare at a piece of writing too long, you become lost in the weeds. You can’t step back and see the tree. It becomes too convoluted for you to look at it objectively.
What did I learn this first week of editing? If I’m only working on one piece, it needs to only be for half a day. The other half can be spent working on a new project. Once I’m done with my first round of edits, I have to put away my novel for at least a week, maybe two. A month is better, but I can’t wait that long. Only then can I go into my second round of edits, when I have the eyes of a reader. The eyes of a writer can get foggy.
No matter what field you’re in, take those breaks! Your well-being and your work will thank you for it.
