Hello, and welcome to the traveling introvert. Today I'd like to talk about having enough time to play. I am trying to new thing this year where I am working for set amount of hours per day in a very focused manner. And then there's going to be other time that I can use however I choose. And I was talking with a friend today about their plans for the year. And they also mentioned the fact that they work in it and they spend a lot of their time managing their company, and they went to an event. Now last year, we've actually got to spend time playing with tech instead of managing tech, and how they didn't realize how much they missed playing with tech. Because I think a lot of the time when you start a business or you start doing your thing, you're generally playing or you're playing on behalf of somebody else. And when you play for yourself, it's okay it's kind of a low stakes and low risk when you're playing for someone else on behalf of somebody else. ends up being very, you know, there's a lot at stake possibly in you, you you pay more attention, and it's less play and more implementation. And then you end up like managing the thing. And so the play is no longer there. But do you do anything in its place to keep play in mind. And so we were talking about the fact that how play is important for innovation and creativity. But you can't play unless you give yourself the time, and headspace and availability to do so. So we were talking about how our lives are going to be different this year. And what we're, instead of talking about what we're planning to put in and all the things that we're planning to do, we actually ended up talking about all the things that we are going to take out, to leave a space to breathe for other things. And I think this is a wonderful thing because it's the start of the year. And people aren't about planning or looking back at the last decade or year and planning what to do and all the things to stuff into your calendar for the next three 6, 12 months or beyond. And that's great and all. But now we should take that time to reflect and think, Okay, well, last year I planned all of this stuff. Did I do it? No, do I feel bad about it? Maybe? Is it worth me feeling bad about it? Probably not. Because more often than not, we over schedule ourselves. We only have 100. And I think it's 67 or 77 hours per month that we can fill that stuff. And really, we should be aiming to fill about 50% of it with stuff bit personal work, to leave room for error, flexibility stuff happening, but also to have time to sleep, eat, breathe, and to play. And to play you must have that time and flexibility and that space and not be overworked and overwhelmed all the time. And that's when sometimes you get the best ideas. Have you ever realized that you get a lot of ideas when you're in the zone doing something else, like having a shower, you're doing something very automatic, like cleaning yourself, which you probably do every day. And that's when your mind rooms free and you have these ideas. Some people have installed sort of pieces of paper, not paper, like whiteboards in the in the showers that can write down their ideas when they have them, because that's when they get the awesome ideas. And there is a reason for that because you're on autopilot and you're free thinking and you're just like, you know, scrubbing yourself and getting some some soap and detonated editor. And your mind gets to let go and not be focused on a thing. And it's not quite the same as meditation. Meditation is a very different thing, and it is actually very focused in a certain way. But when you're just autopilot. That's wonderful. So think about the last time you let yourself autopilot and what happened, what ideas you had and the other part of playing is giving yourself a chance to try something you haven't done before or try something you have done before but in a different way. So like my friend was saying they work in tech, but they never got a chance to like play and they got to make this musical jukebox thing. And, and he was excited about it and used it and all sorts of things afterwards. So think about what you do and how you can turn on its head or look at from a different point of view, or talk to somebody else and find out what their point of view is, and how you can play with things. That's where innovation comes in. That's where joy comes in. And that's where you get your best ideas. take a pause and think about that. So thank you for listening. This was Janice from the career introvert, helping introverts shine. I look forward to answering any of your questions, please email me at Janice@carrerrintrovert.com. Have a great rest of your week.

Book recommendation for this episode is Pause by Rachael O'Meara