Work-Life vs. Task-Creative Balance

It’s Monday, President’s Day, and usually this is a unicorn day for me. A unicorn day is a day that I have a holiday but my two girls still have daycare. This only happens like once a year—hence the unicorn day. I usually end up working anyways, but I don’t have meetings to attend and I am not required (per my communication policy with students) to answer emails. During this sabbatical, I am realizing how these two things (meetings and emails) can actually interrupt the flow of work. I know that I read about this in Cal Newport’s “Deep Work”, but to see how much time was spent dedicate to these two tasks on a daily basis has been interesting.
 
Before this sabbatical, I would spend the first hour and half of my day answering any emails that I received from 5 p.m. onwards each night. This hour, from 4-5:30 a.m., however, I am finding is probably the best time for me to free write and get my initial ideas out on the page. My mind is not clouded with other tasks or things yet. Once I open the email server that all changes. My mind is dedicated to other people’s worries and problems and I am task rather than creatively- focused.
 
The next hour of my day typically was going to the gym and here if I had an email that I needed to respond to, rather than react to, I would ruminate over the way I would approach this when I got back to my house. If I didn’t have an email that required this amount of thought, I would be in task-mode and be thinking about the topics of meetings for the day or the teaching topics of the day. There was really no time to think about creating anything new.
 
This pattern of response continued, as I went to meetings and added items to my to-do list that surfaced at these meeting, or as I checked emails at my noon and 5 p.m. designated checking times each day. I would finish responding or performing and then go right back to another set of requests and tasks. This cycle was amplified during COVID and this is the pattern I have been in since COVID began in March of 2020. A pattern of task-response and a to-do list filled with meeting others needs.
 
I am just seeing the noise that this caused now, as I don’t have to open emails three times a day or attend multiple Monday faculty meetings and schedule student meetings on all the other days of the week. Not having to do this has actually given me some time to work on research, look into new opportunities for learning, and be creative in how I want to grow as a scholar and in my profession. Now seeing this, how to do I take this forward is the next question.
 
I think the easiest change I can make is not opening email first thing in the morning. If I use this time to write, read research, and produce then I don’t become a slave to others needs first thing in the morning. Not many people are even up at 4 a.m. so are not awaiting that reply at that early hour. Just doing this would give me essentially 3 hours of research in the morning—90 minutes of writing and reading, and 90 minutes of reflection and ruminating on this (the ride to/from the gym and the workout). Then I can jot ideas done, and turn my thoughts to being responsive to others at this time.
 
I know in academia, as in other professions, there is always talk about work-life balance, and I don’t know that it’s this balance that I seek—but instead I think I seek a balance of creativity and growth vs. task and delivery. I think I have a good sense of work-life balance with my family as I can shut off all work items from 5/6 p.m. onward each night and on weekends (with the exception of the rare emergency). Even during COVID, I have been able to have work-life balance, but the work part was, again, task and delivery focused and the learning and exposure to new ideas was the part that suffered. To continue to grow during COVID I took on new tasks, but this was not creative growth—it was skill-set growth and I think there is a difference; one fuels you and the other provides for others.