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Evaluating My ‘No New Projects’ Summer Plan
Every year since I began working in my field, the summer months were filled with hours dedicated to learning something: a new skill, a different style for an existing project, re-writing an existing policy. I would fill my days with unending activity, believing it was because I wanted to get ahead of the new year. And each year, the summer would end with a handful of new projects in various states of completion — some ready for immediate use, others tossed to the side never to be looked at again.
But doing these activities had a serious flaw: I was always tired. Like, always.
I never took the time during the summer to do what was required of me — to recharge.
Instead, I operated from my own belief: that during the summer, I needed to prove my worth to the organization and fill my days with projects to look like I was contributing something. Even when the organization demanded nothing of me, I made my own demands.
And I would enter each new fall semester with less energy than I needed to feel successful. This often resulted in having a starting level of energy closer to 75% than 100%
At the start of this summer, when the instinct to do something big this summer began to creep into my consciousness, I made a different conscious decision: no new projects this summer.
