Work vs. Play: A Workaholic's Dilemma
Work vs. Play: A Workaholic's Dilemma
Every few weeks, the feeling of immense isolation is something that I consistently felt in the past, like clockwork, and this particular Saturday was no different. I was sitting alone on a weekend afternoon in my bedroom in New York, looking into my laptop, feeling defeated as I saw the nice weather outside with trees gently rustling and birds chirping. Many of my friends were out and about, enjoying walks in McCarren Park, lunch with friends, or going to one of the many events that New York has to offer. On the other hand, I was trying to focus on many of my goals, from being part of a demanding startup to personal goals and side hustles around financial independence and self-growth.
It's a conundrum that I am not alone in. What is an "ideal work week" supposed to be, then?
There are too many things to do and not enough time in this crazy world. The balance of working hard enough and enjoying life outside of work is something I rarely got right in the past.
Often, when I put in 60+ hours a week, I was productive but felt isolated because I didn't have enough social interactions with people. During weeks when I took it easy by clocking out at 5pm or earlier to do social activities with friends, I felt lazy and thought I should be working harder on whatever I thought was professionally or financially meaningful at that point.
So, I looked into what people online say. Some studies and articles say that the right amount to work is 7.8 hours a day or 38 hours a week to feel "happy," but I am skeptical of having such broad statements. What does "happiness" mean? Who was part of this study, and how seriously were other factors considered, like the amount of sleep one gets, fitness routine, and social life? Most importantly, what goals do these people have?
On the right side of the scale, we have the extremes of hustle culture of working 80-100 hours a week from Elon Musk and the Silicon Valley entrepreneur types that seem to put all of their eggs in the socioeconomic ladder basket but not leave room for much else.
Neither of these mindsets of "let me just do a chill 40-hour work week" or "workaholic marathon with no end in sight" has worked for me over the last 12 years. And when I tried to take the mantra of hustle and relaxation in the same week, I felt like a juggler trying to have too many balls in the air that inevitably faltered.
What has worked for me instead is thinking of my life and goals in terms of different "Seasons."
Hustle Season
Hustle Season is a dedicated time of weeks, months or sometimes years when I prioritize working, learning, and getting ahead in life professionally. This is when I put in 55-65 hours a week to work towards the professional achievements in my life, from income, skills, and achievements that drive me to be a driven person. In this zone, I still make weekly time for friends, my girlfriend, and family as the schedule allows for some weekly dinners and events on weekends, but only a few a week.
What I find important is that I don't generally feel nearly as guilty for prioritizing hustling because I've already decided that this is my focus for a finite period. The length of this season varies depending on the goals, but typically, for me, it's 3 to 18 months with short breaks and vacations in between.
Play Season
Being in the Hustle Season forever is a life I cannot bear to imagine. I need time to do the so-called "unproductive" things that are just as important to me, including traveling, spending lots of time with friends, following my curiosity without a particular goal, and thinking deeply about the world and my place in it.
My last extended Play Season was a few years ago when I spent almost the entire year traveling and living in places like Bali, Japan, South Korea, Ukraine, Spain, and Berlin, among other countries. I remember when I was in my early 20s, I would fantasize about living and exploring different cultures and ways of life, so to live out that dream within several years felt terrific. It was an impressionable time when I got to live my dream of experiencing the jungle of Bali, the busy streets of Tokyo, visiting uncles and cousins in Ukraine, roaming around the streets of Amsterdam and Barcelona, and seeing where fate takes me.
In these times, I don't feel guilty about being "unproductive" either because I just came from a Hustle Season where I put a lot of work in over the previous months and years.
I plan to have the next long Relax Season towards the end of 2024, where I want to spend considerable time exploring Peru, Brazil, and Europe and give more time to neglected hobbies like learning salsa dancing, and Portuguese. In addition, how long a season should be and what is defined as work or play are personal preferences. As I get older, these definitions will continue to change as I think about having a family and changing my priorities in life.
Having dedicated seasons for work and play makes life easier to compartmentalize and more guilt-free for me, and I encourage others to try it as well! If you have figured out a different approach that works for you, please share in the comments! 🙂
Cheers! Andriy
PS thanks to Lee’s Substack
for helping me edit this piece!
I definitely think you're right about the seasons, Andriy. It's a much more sensible and sustainable way to go about life. It feels like it's one of those life skills that should be taught in schools, among plenty of other stuff.
And the thing is, by "sustainable," I don't necessarily mean balanced or equalised or even stable. I think we experience life best when we ride the high peaks and low troughs of whatever we're doing, especially when it comes to work. Like you said, you have seasons where you want to go all-in on work followed by seasonal rest periods. This is what I like so much about the idea of a seasonal approach to work. It allows for these peaks and troughs—and has a much longer time horizon.
Nice work man