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They say:
Do what you love, and you’ll never work a day.
While this is mostly true, you can still reach mental exhaustion and feel your passion turn into a chore when you continue to do it repeatedly, day after day.
It’s not that the work becomes tedious. Following a strict routine makes everything seem monotonous over the long run.
We need to shake things up now and then to keep work interesting and give our minds and bodies a much-needed break.
This is where the Japanese philosophy of Datsuzoku helps.
In this blog post, I'll share my experience of a rough patch from last month and how practising Datsuzoku helped me get back on track.
Let's start with:
The rough patch
I've been working full-time on Hulry since February of this year. Although I've taken occasional short breaks and made tiny changes to my routine, it has remained the same for the most part.
This is what my usual day looks like:
- Wake up at around 5:45–6 AM.
- Freshen up and take my dog for a walk.
- Spend some time before work to ease into the day.
- Read books and take notes to write summaries.
- Work till noon with micro-breaks in between.
- Have lunch.
- Work till 4 PM and then head over to the gym.
- Have a tea break with my wife.
- Shower and then spend around an hour and a half reading, picking articles for the newsletter, and learning something new.
I've been following the same routine from Monday to Saturday, week after week, month after month.
And it has worked splendidly.
With this routine, I wrote and published a book, sent a newsletter issue every Friday, wrote numerous posts on this blog, introduced a membership program, and did many other small projects.
A routine like this kept me disciplined and focused on my goals for this year, and I made incredible progress.
But as you might've experienced, following routines at a stretch takes a toll. After months of high throughput, I finally hit a breaking point I needed to address.
I wasn't burned out. I could still work but felt less motivated to continue doing what I'd been doing for so long.
Writing felt like a chore. It became something I needed to do rather than wanted to because this blog, the newsletter, and everything else, business-wise, depended on me writing and publishing new pieces.
As a result, I felt less creative and lost and struggled further to write anything good.
Even with a rock-solid weekly routine planned, I procrastinated whenever I had to do actual work:
Okay, let's get to writing this blog post. But first, let's watch a video on YouTube.
A few months ago, I felt so pumped that I wrote and published a 180-page book in two and a half months while running this blog and the weekly newsletter as usual and constantly reading and learning new things.
But a few months later, I struggled to complete even the bare minimum of tasks in a week. This feeling overflowed to other parts of my life, too.
I felt less motivated to wake up early.
I enjoy going to the gym and lifting weights. These 30–40-minute sessions are a refreshing transition from my work day to a more relaxing later part of the day and give my body much-needed movement after sitting around typing on a keyboard all day.
But during those few weeks, I resisted going to the gym.
Like my work, going to the gym felt like a boring routine I had been following for too long. I went to the gym each day at around 4 PM, lifted weights according to a regime, and returned home.
I had to fix this, but taking an entire week off now wouldn't be wise because I had a holiday in a few weeks anyway. Another week off now would only add to my financial strain and make me more stressed than relaxed.
So, I sought a compromise to get me out of this rut.
That is where the Japanese philosophy of:
Datsuzoku became a guiding light
Datsuzoku, or “breaking free from routine”, was the change I needed. I'd been following the same routine too long and needed a detour.
But instead of the usual “take a week off and travel somewhere”, I decided to mix things up a bit.
I decided to work in a limited capacity to keep Hulry operational and give myself the much-needed free time to pursue off-track projects and activities.
I would meet my weekly commitments, such as sending the weekly newsletter and working on a premium guide, but also keep ample free time to do what I wanted during the week — unplanned, impromptu stuff.
And it started with a lovely Saturday.
It was my dog's birthday, so we had planned to take him to a pet park for a day out. Although initially I had scheduled my work around this time, I decided not to work the entire day.
Instead, we spent more time outdoors and invited a friend back home for game night. After quite a while, I had a Saturday that felt like a breath of fresh air.
And then the streak continued.
On the following Monday, I worked an hour on the newsletter, and then, instead of writing a blog post or the premium guide, I fixed a code issue in one of my internal apps that I had been putting off for the last few weeks.
I hadn't programmed for over a month, so this felt like a change, too.
I kept the schedule for that week light, working only on the essentials and exploring new things. I also read more non-usual stuff, like this fantastic guide on the James Webb telescope's capabilities.
On the fitness front, I worked out at home using a 7-minute HIIT training plan instead of hitting the gym with a familiar routine.
Because of my lean build, I don't do cardio often, so a week of back-to-back aerobic workouts in seven minutes daily felt electrifying. This high-intensity workout session was way overdue.
With Datsuzoku, I was able to break out of a rut and enjoy a mental and physical reset without completely shutting down. I moved to maintenance mode.
I still did work that moved the needle, but not following my usual routine for a week helped me renew the lost energy source.
I returned to work the following Monday in a better mood, more enthusiastic about writing, and resumed my strength training workout regime.
I felt less guilty about not working at full capacity that week because I still made some progress.
A few weeks later, I went on an 11-day trip to Japan, which made this overall experience even more fruitful. I had a long disconnection, a striking change of place and pace and a more nurturing rejuvenation.
Learning from this recent experience, and since I can't hop off on a trip every month, I'm tweaking my weekly routine to include more scope of deviations from my regular work.
This is challenging, given I have too many things to do and too little time, but I have to figure something out.
Maybe taking half a day every two weeks to work on a project different from Hulry, like photography, would do the trick. We'll see.
For fitness, I plan to do a HIIT workout once a week to keep things fresh.
Kokoro
Enjoying what you've read so far? You'll love the book I wrote on 31 timeless Japanese philosophies like this one.
Get Your CopyIf you've been on a routine for too long:
Adding Datsuzoku to your life will help
Holidays and travelling can work wonders in giving you a much-needed reset, but if you can't afford a holiday right now, find creative ways to break free from your routine.
Find tasks you've been putting off in your inbox, and do them.
These tasks could be productive distractions that break your routine without making you feel guilty about not working.
A technical documentation you've been meaning to write at work? Write it.
If you're a photographer busy shooting and editing wedding photos, take some time to go outside with your camera and shoot pictures of the city or nature. You might find hidden spots that would make beautiful pre-wedding photoshoot locations for your next shoots, and the shoot itself will be a refreshing activity.
If you've been stuck on a problem for days, step away for a while and work on a radically different problem. Or give your mind a complete break and go for a movie with friends.
Datsuzoku can emerge from even the tiniest changes. You don't necessarily have to travel to a distant land or spend an extravagant sum of money.
If you love biking, take your bike and explore a nearby trail.
Or stay at home reading, DIYing a hobby project or spending quality time with your family.
Whenever life gets too monotonous, remember the philosophy of Datsuzoku, and take some time to break your routine.
We all need a break from our routines once in a while. Take it.
