This weekend, I did something I hadn’t done in a long time: taken a truly relaxing break.
I always seem to have something to do: leftover notes, blogging, tidying, exercise. The list goes on. I have many things I want to do, or at least, want to have done.
This Saturday was the first day since my dad fell ill that I was able to relax at home. The office phones were off, I’m not on-call, we aren’t hosting my step son for the long holiday weekend (though we’re happy to have him when he comes).
A little after lunch, I started thinking about my many tasks–including fun ones, like taking a walk–and I just thought, NO.
For the first time in many months, I ignored my to-do lists, written and mental, and did just what I felt like.
At the end of my 48 hours, I can look back and see that I:
- Still spent time socializing with my 2 groups of friends by video.
- Did some knitting (possibly while socializing by video).
- Totted up our spending in 2022, and thought a little about it (blog post to be written later).
- Watched some tennis on TV with Mr. PiN.
- Played bridge solitaire.
- Finished an on-line Scrabble game with a buddy (I lost, again) and started another.
- Cleared out half my personal emails, mostly junk.
- Read a book from the library.
- Eventually took a walk.
- Saw a museum exhibit on its last day.
- Spent more time with my husband.
- Finished up Mr. PiN’s backdoor Roth IRA for 2023.
- Returned an overpriced purchase for store credit.
- Did actually fold some laundry.
- Chart-stalked a patient I sent to the ER on Friday.
I’m sure I could have done more. I suspect I may soon wish I had done more tidying, especially since my driver’s license seems to have gone AWOL in the past 48 hours.
And yet.
I got plenty done during my “do nothing” weekend. It just wasn’t particularly productive. Which I find sad as a judgement on how I spent my time.
I don’t do a lot of New Year’s resolutions these days–I always forget them, or outright fail, pretty quickly.
But if I can pick something for this year, maybe I should resolve to enjoy my time off, rather than trying to see how much I can get done before I go back to my paid job.
Did you make a New Year’s resolution? Is it to do more, or are you thinking of doing a little less?