Downtime is Productive

by Robyn Byrd

As winter break approaches, folks will ask writers and researchers, "so you plan to get a lot done over vacation?" First of all, winter break is not a vacation. Second... NO.

As behind as one might be on writing a thesis or dissertation (or on any other big project), it is important to take your downtime where you can get it. Even if it means filling your schedule with other things, like a day job. Some of my colleagues spent the break doing nothing. If you can afford it, downtime doing nothing can be just what you need. But if you can't, or if you're restless, then setting aside knowledge work for a time and working on "regular people" stuff instead can be a much needed respite. In the 21st century, we now know that sometimes a break from work is the only thing that can really increase work productivity. 

It is important to affirm this to yourself, just as it important to renounce the lie that downtime is lazy. Americans, even those of us who have opted out of the rat race, are obsessed with being productive, with working ourselves every hour that's available. It doesn't actually help us get much done, and it wrecks our relationship with the intellectual work we love.

I spent my winter "break" doing seasonal work and teaching intensive ESL courses for international students. I worked seven days a week. I don't recommend it. But what didn't I do? I purposely didn't work on my dissertation. Sometimes this stressed me out, but other times it was freeing. I had license not to do schoolwork. It was winter break. Besides, I had not a single hour left in the day to do anything but "real" work. I paid off the bills, almost as if I wasn't a poverty-wages grad student. I gave my kids a middle-class Christmas. And somehow, as exhausted as I was by all this... I'm ready to start my dissertation work again.

It's okay to bench yourself.

Pushing through a winter break, or even too much of summer, by working on a thesis or dissertation is a bad idea. Think of any other craft that involves such specialized, Herculean effort. Athletes, for instance, don't train like crazy for their sport in year-round. Not until it's time. If they trained every day, they would wear themselves out, open themselves up to injury, and probably become bored. And if they're smart they don't train right up until the night before the big meet. They stop to eat, and take much needed downtime to heal. Knowledge workers, mental athletes, need to allow ourselves the room to heal, to prepare, and to let downtime make us yearn for our work.

This analogy applies to musicians as well. My partner's band goes on hiatus every winter after a December Christmas show. They play hard through the summer and into the holiday season, so they know they'll burn out if they play through the year's end. In spring, someone will get a gig again. They make a plan to have one by March. And then they rest. It is then that new ideas for songs come, tunes heard on the radio remind them of what they love about music, and soon enough they are back at it, ready to rock.

It's important to note that even though I worked my butt off at not writing this winter, I didn't do it without a plan to come back. The semester system gives an unstructured person like me just the calendar I need to plan my work. Next week the university starts up again. Winter break officially ends. I will officially quit my seasonal job, and I will set to work on my dissertation, yet once more. You see, while downtime is very important, you have to set a limit on it. A couple of months was just right for me. Just enough to get lost in this different life of being a working person. After my time away, physically and mentally, I'm ready to strain my brain instead of my back.