Leisure vs Work: Lessons Learned?

My week of keeping a log of my leisure time vs work time is just about up -- and what have I learned?  One thing -- that sometimes leisure and work get a bit muddled, especially since I don't have a typical 9 to 5 job, in which I have to get up and go someplace....except when I'm teaching a course, and that's a different story.  It was much more clear cut when I "worked" at the hospital.  I *went* to work, I *worked* and then I came home.  What happened after getting home - a lot of times that was work too...typical mom/wife types of things related to keeping the home and the children taken care of. 

I'm list and goal and accomplishment oriented. And unless I cross things off the list -- significant things, like finishing a lecture or getting a load of paperwork done -- then it almost seems as though the day just slipped by without anything being done.

When I'm lecturing/teaching -- that is Work!  But a very enjoyable sort of work.  I really love getting up in front of a group and teaching.  I enjoy putting lectures together and working on my powerpoints -- finding just the right pictures to illustrate what I'm talking about.  I enjoy the interaction with the participants and many times I learn things from them that I wouldn't otherwise know.

So, much of what I did this week I labeled as work -- as it was -- preparing for our course next week, getting some lectures done, getting all the paperwork done that goes along with the administrative role of my part of the business.  Interspersed was time spent on Facebook -- but much of that relates to the Business of Breastfeeding which is my work.  Also communicating back and forth via e-mail with my two colleagues in LEC.  So being on e-mail is also work. 

I had wonderful conversations with my sister and my husband about work and leisure and how we were brought up as children to view leisure -- mostly with suspicion...that if you "indulged" in leisure, it somehow was equated with laziness, unless Everything Else Was Done. 

My leisure activities -- that I really consider leisure involve reading -- novels are really leisure.  Crossword puzzles that I've just begun to thoroughly enjoy -- thanks to Tim & Annabel.  The occasional computer game.  And notice that those are all solitary activities!  Hmmmm.... Other things I would consider leisure -- eating out.  And probably my favorite activity of all, having my family around and eating dinner on the deck in the summer time, spending an hour or so after we have finished, just hanging out and talking.  Being with my family any time may involve work, but I think it is so pleasurable, it has to be leisure.

I discovered I really enjoy my work, so it's hard to look at it as *work*.  And I still feel guilty when I take an hour during the day (I didn't, but I imagined it) to read a book.  I'll need to work on that!!

I think if I add "read for an hour" or "do Monday's crossword puzzle" to my list of things to do, perhaps I'll feel as though I've accomplished something....

Something to think about!!