Appreciating the Slowness of Summer

In my tennis era.

Summer is a time to slow down. Many people go on vacation, work tends to move slower or be put on hold because of this, and as long as the weather’s nice, people are happy to be out and less eager to be bogged down in the office. Especially in a place that experiences a (long) winter season, the nice days and evenings to be outside in the warm weather feel all too fleeting.

I know that not every job experiences this seasonal cycle, though if you’re reading this, you are most likely a professional working an office job for a non-profit, business, or government, where this is usually the case. Even if you’re not getting away, this time of year is a chance to take advantage of being less busy, and to engage in activities and with the people you love, and don’t always have as much time as you’d like to for at other times of the year.

I’m experiencing this slow down, with many work projects on hold at different times this summer while clients are on vacation. One of the things I’ve challenged myself to running this business is to build in slow down periods, if full breaks are not possible. Sometimes deadlines demand a heavy work week, and that will always be the case. To the extent I can, I am attempting to put boundaries around when I work and making sure that I can continue to make time for the things that support my mental and physical health which also, frankly, help me do my job better.

So, I’ve been working towards being intentional with the summer slowdown, knowing that in a few short weeks things will ramp up again. Here are a few ways I am making time during the slow period to build in relaxing and fun (and sometimes necessary) activities.

Action shot on the tennis court.

Playing Tennis

Late last summer, I picked up a racquet for the first time since I was a kid. Reader, it is not like riding a bike. I was a beginner again. I played about once a week through August and September, then had to put it on hold through the winter while rehabbing an ankle injury. I got back to it in March, and ramped up my playing when outdoor season started in May (I love clay courts, and I will evangelize about them at any given opportunity). Once I got a feel for the sport, I fell in love (pun intended) with it again. Most days this summer, I hit for about two hours (weather permitting), either playing matches or practicing, and am participating in a handful of tournaments (both competitive and fun) over the summer. Running will probably always be my first love as far as sports go, but tennis is giving it a run (again, pun intended) for its money, and for the moment I’m enjoying the challenge of growing and improving at a new activity.

My summer reading stack.

Reading

I’ve always enjoyed reading books (I was a precocious reader as a kid, and by the time I was a teen I was reading full-length novels). Like during undergrad, grad school disrupted by reading routine over the past few years - when I’m reading a lot for school, it's often the last thing I want to do when I have free time and can do something else. In the year and a bit since I finished, I haven’t gotten back into a good routine. I’m working on changing this, starting with carving out time every evening before bed to read. This is a stack of books that have been on my list for a while, or I’ve recently acquired, and am aiming to get through in the next month or two, along with whatever library requests come in (I just read Victoria Zeller’s excellent novel One of the Boys). A mix of sports, novels, personal development, and work seems about right.

Culling

No photo to accompany this. I always seem to accumulate more stuff than I planned to or realized I have. It adds up over the years, and I’ve become adept at putting it out of sight and out of mind when I don’t have time or capacity to deal with it. I’ve been chipping away at this for a few months, paring down my (extensive) book collection bit by bit, selling or donating clothes, and taking other household items to charity or the waste centre if they’re at the end of their life. Not the most exciting thing, but necessary, and the kind of thing that weighs on my mind, to an extent I don’t always realize until I’ve dealt with it. And the kind of thing I put off during busier times.

How are you spending your summer? However you are, I hope you’re also enjoying some quiet moments and taking advantage of the less busy times when they come.