Happy Friday all! Here’s a roundup of some articles we’ve enjoyed this week.
Work Is My Self Care by Anna North – New York Times
As a white woman, I’m suspicious of an idleness that’s historically been both reserved for us — nonwhite women have been far less likely to be able to avoid working — and forced upon us by men who dictated what our brains could handle.
Also, chilling out just doesn’t work for me the way work does. I’ve never found a relaxation technique that relaxed me. I like yoga, but when it’s time to lie still in corpse pose my brain always starts to spin. Give me too many empty hours and I’ll see, if not women in the wallpaper, then danger around every corner — bankruptcy in my computer and death in the fridge.
We’re also reading Tiffany Dufu’s book Drop the Ball: Achieving More by Doing Less. Check out this article about the book by friend-of-Bullish Laura Vanderkam.
What To Pick Up When You Drop the Ball by Laura Vanderkam – LauraVanderkam.com
At one point she created a sticker chart of chores for her husband (seriously), and he got a sticker when he did the task during the time frame she deemed appropriate. The kicker? She never actually gave any of the tasks a deadline. He was just supposed to know when she wanted them done. But of course he didn’t know, and at one point expressed bafflement as to why he received stickers seemingly at random. Clearly, this incentive system wasn’t working.
Eventually, Dufu realized they needed to try something different. So she made a list of all the things she did around the house, and created a “Management Excel List” with a column for Kojo and a column for her (and a column for no one – which turned out to be a key breakthrough).
Related articles on Bullish:
Maybe Work-Life Balance Means You Should Work More
When Is It Appropriate to Ask People About Their Jobs?
How to Maintain Your Resist/Work/Life Balance
Have a great weekend and do a little patriarchy-smashing for us.
