How To Create Spaciousness Without Sacrificing Productivity
Photo by Bruno Bergher on Unsplash
The other day a friend and colleague of mine wrote a post about the concept of “spaciousness” in his day.
The basic gist was that he feels better when he’s not rushing, when he has ample space between meetings, when his day feels the opposite of compacted.
And this really got me thinking because if you asked me if I like spaciousness, I’d say “Yes, I like spaciousness. A lot.”
But yet, the way he arranges his days is not, at all, the way I arrange my days.
Instead, I arrange my days in a back-to-back fashion.
Yes, I make sure I have 10 minutes in between meetings
(Or, at least, I try. My self-sabotaging trait might be that even though I schedule my client sessions for 50 minutes, if my client isn’t done talking, or has an extra question, my impulse is to be generous with my time in the moment, even if I know, when it’s happening, I might regret it. But I digress).
My days are quite compact.
I focus hard.
I plan.
But my weeks? My months?
They’re spacious as hell!
I’m experimenting with a 4 day work week right now, which means that I generally work Monday through Thursday from around 9:15ish to 5:30ish, sometimes slightly later.
But my evenings? My weekends?
They’re spacious.
No work. No email.
I exercise, I cook, I read, I watch TV, I crochet, I go to the pottery studio, I take walks with my family.
The time feels languid.
I approach spaciousness differently.
When I’m on, I’m on.
But when I’m off, I’m truly off.
And as I think more about this, I’m brought back to the dichotomy of the integrator vs. segmentor.
TL/DR:
A segmentor is someone who thrives with hard boundaries between work life and home life and an integrator is someone who thrives with fluidity between work life and home life.
The interesting thing is that, when polled, about 30% of folks self-idenify as segmentors, while the other 70% self identify as integrators. But here’s the kicker: only ½ of the integrators are true integrators, those that thrive with integration, while the rest would prefer stronger boundaries, it’s just that expectations (real and perceived) and technology make integration the path of least resistance.
Now, you might be thinking it’s strange for someone like me, who loves working at home, and who worked at home a decade before the pandemic made it a necessity, and who runs my own business, to be a segmentor.
And maybe it is strange. Perhaps I’m an outlier in the entrepreneurial world.
But when I mix the two, I start to feel out of control.
I start to feel put upon.
I start to enjoy my personal life less.
And I start to enjoy my work life less.
And I suspect that my friend might be a true integrator (actually, I know this to be true because I asked him before I wrote this article!).
He’s someone who thrives with more porous boundaries.
And that might be why he really likes that spaciousness IN his workday and I like spaciousness AROUND my workdays.
Neither way is right.
Neither way is wrong.
But understanding what works for you can make all the difference.