How
do you celebrate summer?
As
a girl I played flashlight tag and caught lighting bugs in a jar after
dark. I loved the creak of my mother’s rocking chair and the orange tip of
my dad’s cigar as they sat in the dark, out on the front porch. The
pungent smells of hay and Pigeon Creek hung over our town, truly just a
few streets, cut into miles of farmland.
Unfortunately,
with the arrival of television and central air conditioning, those simple
summer pleasures gave way to staying cool indoors and huddling in front of
the tube. Summer lost its uniqueness then. Gone was the ability to connect
with neighbors, to linger under the cone of a streetlight, to eat homemade
ice cream on a front porch down the street. When summer went indoors, it
started to look like all the other seasons, and for me it lost its
joy.
But
in New England summer is an art form. Great summerhouses line the coast
reminding us that even the Victorians felt it was OK to be frivolous in
the summer. When Rogers and
Hammerstein pinned “June is Bustin’ Out All Over” for the musical
“Carousel,” they echoed the joy, the playfulness and the zest that comes
when the long raw winter has ended.
When
but in summer do we have boat races and clambakes and beach picnics and
blueberry pie? We sleep with windows wide open; the clean smell of the sea
washes in with the fog, and the lighthouse horn groans on until dawn. If we don’t live by the sea we
listen for loons laughing on quiet ponds and hike along mountain streams.
We try to live outdoors, knowing summer is as brief as it is
beautiful.
Good
News – Bad News
First
the good news: With new technology we can work from anywhere. In summer
that’s particularly appealing. Now that we can work remotely, we never
need take a day off. That’s the bad news. If summer lost its uniqueness
with the onrush of air conditioning and television, technology presents
another lifestyle challenge. We are in danger of summer becoming one
monotonous workday while we forget how to play. On the one hand, if we
can’t buckle down to work, we fall behind in our objectives. But if we
never really play, we lose the zest that comes from play.
I
found myself facing this dilemma recently when I moved my office into my
home. Now I am surrounded by every imaginable technology, but when the
tide comes creeping up Eagles Nest Creek, just outside my window, the urge
to go sailing is almost more than I can bear. I’ve had to devise a plan so
I can both work and play with equal vigor.
The
Summertime Work /Play
Plan
The first step in utilizing this plan is to understand that it is a
tool to organize your time and your attitude. Work and play can co-exist,
but not without some clearly stated ground rules. Here is what works for
me:
1.
I
give myself permission to celebrate summer. After all, it’s only a few
weeks, 20% of the year if we’re lucky. We have the rest of the year to
work like fiends, if that’s our choice.
2.
I
set a quota for the hours I will work each day. If I need to work six hours, I
decide in the morning just when I will get those six hours in. It’s OK to
break the six hours into segments, say three before noon and three later
in the day. Working in the cool of the early morning is also an option.
This leaves the flexibility to work around the tide, trips to the beach
and others’ plans. I just need the work blocks to be long enough to get
something accomplished.
3.
There
is no blurring of work/play time. When I work, I concentrate fully on the
task at hand. This is easier to do when I know I can play at a specific
time. When I am sailing or gardening or walking the dogs, I don’t feel
guilty that I’m not working. I know I have a work schedule that allows me
to accomplish all I need.
4.
There
are two exceptions however: First, it’s tempting to check my email during
time off, and if I’m expecting something important, I do. Otherwise I
catch up during the next work period. Second, if it’s possible to work
from my deck or hammock, I do. For example, coaching calls, business
reading and outlining of articles can be done anywhere, so why
not?
Now
You Try It
Why
not borrow my plan, or make one of your own, so you can live life to the
fullest this summer? If we get our fill of play in summer, we greet autumn
refreshed and grateful, ready to take on new challenges. But for now it’s
best to live in the moment. Relish the summer joys that make good memories
and good dreaming to sustain you on long winter nights.
