Finding a 2022 work rhythm

On Tuesday, I sat back down at my desk for the first time in two weeks. I opened up my Word doc, and I stared at the page. Scrolled up, scrolled down. Scribbled down some notes. Wrote some new lines, deleted some others.

Most weeks, I enjoy the independence of the writing process. I’m good at sticking to a schedule, setting goals and seeing them through. I can be both the musher and the Husky, if you will. But, in a week like this one, coming off of a break—it’s hard! In my last letter, I talked about my routine, how I preferred writing six days a week. I find momentum so helpful in the writing process. The problem with resuming work after a break? I completely lack it.

This week, I’ve found myself missing that feeling of walking back into the office on the first work day of the year. How emails drowsily trickle in into your inbox and everyone lingers in the kitchen longer than they need to. This year, in a change, I just have me and my 70,000 outstanding words to revise.

My wild 30th birthday outing: the newly-reopened Courtauld Gallery in London.

It’s a curious thing, how so many of us are locked into the default, 40 (plus) hour a week, Monday through Friday schedule. We’re forced to acquiesce to it, early birds and night owls alike. I had to unlearn—truthfully, I’m still unlearning—that schedule and its habits. I’ve had to dismantle it to learn what serves the writing best. I’ve learned my words become loose and imprecise after I write the first 1,500 words of the day. Sometimes I get to a thousand words before I’ve finished my morning cup of coffee. Other times, I don’t hit that mark until the evening, sipping a cup of tea.

For the first time, I’m learning that the 9 to 5 schedule doesn’t best suit my work.

It’s not just me, with my writing. The pandemic and the shift to remote work disrupted much of the world’s routines. That meant, and continues to mean, a lot of headaches, especially for working parents—moms in particular—but in having schedules upended, there’s also been opportunity. Working from home, at least for part of the week, is here to stay for many. Some companies experimented with 4-day work weeks, which studies have shown to have huge benefits. Last month, the Congressional Progressive Caucus endorsed a bill that would amend current labor laws to reduce the federally recognized workweek to thirty-two hours a week. To quote Democrat Congressman Mark Takano, who introduced the bill: “[I]t’s safe to say that we can’t—and shouldn’t—simply go back to normal, because normal wasn’t working.”

He’s right—it wasn’t working. But what is “normal” anyway? Why do we assume that to be the 9 to 5?

In the discomfort of trying to find my work rhythm again, I feel the impulse to mimic the normal, the 9 to 5. But in the new year, a time of setting goals, I’m trying to remember to experiment, where I can. We all can, in different ways: building new work/life boundaries, turning on Screen Time limits on our iPhones, attempting new routines or dispensing with routines altogether.

So I’m going to try a new editing approach next week, and try out working in the evenings too. Why not? I’m curious to hear in what ways you’re approaching work differently this year too.

And, on the subject of changing schedules, I’ll be writing to you every other Thursday moving forward.

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What I’m watching: It’s my favorite movie season of the year. I loved Licorice Pizza and am now firmly in the Alana Haim for Best Actress camp. (Although Lady Gaga deserves an honorary Oscar for her iconic House of Gucci line reading of “I don’t consider myself an ethical person, but I am fair.”) I wanted to nap during West Side Story. I found Spencer painful. I’m looking forward to watching The Lost Daughter and Titane this weekend.

What I’m reading: I didn’t love it in the end, but nonetheless I tore through Jonathan Franzen’s Crossroads over the holidays.