Enjoying life with the 9-5
Ever since joining the workforce back in 2018, post college graduation, I've struggled with living and enjoying life with a 9-5 job. Pre-pandemic was a nightmare, my entire week was spent commuting to work, being forced and stuck in an office (taking meetings at my desk in WebEx), and commuting home, then being too exhausted to do anything else besides feed myself junk and get ready for bed to do it all over again. When the weekend rolled around, I spent that time doing all the chores I neglected during the week due to being so tired from commuting and the draining fluorescence lights and stale office air. The cycle was rinse and repeat until our little pandemic happened.
To be fair, I didn't get the hang of work from home until a little bit later. 2020 was a major mental struggle for me (reasons outside of work) and 2021 wasn't much better but I was slowly improving my mental state and health through therapy and movement. It wasn't until 2022-2023/now where I hit my stride and was finally able to enjoy life more while working the 9-5 job. Now, unfortunately, companies and executives get the ick when they see their employees have TOO much freedom, so of course, all the progress and revolutionary changes we made during the pandemic for work/life balance is regressing. My current company is forcing us back to the office 2 days a week in end of April/early May. It makes me sick to my stomach just thinking about it as this is a forced mandate to ALL employees with risk of being fired for not complying BUT that's something I'll deal with/worry about later. For now, I want to talk about how during this time I was able to finally enjoy my life while working a 9-5.
I got into my flow of life during late 2022 to 2023/now and the biggest shift was how I identified myself and my hobbies. Before that and before pandemic, I really didn't do much outside of work but consume content in forms of shows and video games and the occasional book. There's nothing wrong with consuming content and there's nothing wrong with after an exhausting day to sit down watch a show or play a game, but when that's the only to look forward to in life, things quickly become to feel stale. It was just a never ending cycle of wake up, work, watch show/play game, and sleep and in most of 2020 and early 2021, things continued on that path even though I wasn't wasting so much time commuting every day. But something clicked in 2022 where I decided that I was no longer someone who wanted to be in shape or someone who lifted weights to I AM someone who lifts weights and my hobby is weightlifting after being inspired by a woman who told me that was her hobby. I stopped thinking about the person I wanted to be and just decided that that's who I am and I started doing those things to become that person.
I utilized the free time I had since I no longer commuted and started working out at home and slowly but surely created an identity that was completely outside of work or anything related to my job. I did more research and learned so many things about health and fitness and became passionate about something for the first time in a looong time. Then in late 2023, I expanded my realm of hobbies to include more creativity and learning new skills. I learned to crochet, did my own nails, revisited hobbies that brought my joy when I was younger such as drawing and writing and I made an effort and priority each day to do at least one of those things.
Starting in 2024, I wanted to continue this laser focus on my hobbies and wanting to just do these hobbies for the sake of enjoyment (no strings attached of hopes for making money off these things or becoming well known). So each day, I try to draw SOMETHING, even if it's a tiny little doodle and to write something, even if it's just one sentence, and to crochet while I'm stuck in long meetings at work. It's important to take time during the work week to make sure you do things that bring joy outside of work for your own health, just like you brush your teeth every night (hopefully).
As I'm writing this, I'm starting to think that this is obvious and should've been obvious from the start. Of course you need enjoyment and hobbies outside of work but it was difficult bringing myself to do anything after a draining day being stuck in the office every single week day. I could barely function enough to do chores throughout the week let alone do something creative for fun. Working from home drastically changed my life to where I feel like I can have a true balance on my own terms and I'm very sad and disappoint to learn my company is regressing like every other company. It's only two days and it's not like I wasn't going into the office recently last year and this year, but it was my own choice to go into the office and not some forced mandate. That being said, I plan to keep up my hobbies, whatever it takes. I plan to still take creative breaks at the office, I plan to bring my iPad or sketch book to draw and my journal to write and to take long breaks and go outside and enjoy the sun while the weather is warm. I refuse to go back to life like it was before where I ruled by exhaustion and mentally drained by repair.
If you find yourself struggling with enjoyment outside your 9-5, just start small. Find that one thing that sparks your interest and focus in on that and shift how you identify yourself. You're not just someone who works at X company, you're an artist or a dancer or a powerlifter or a writer, anything at all and just start doing those things that that person would do even on those days that you're tired or try waking up earlier before work and do your passions before 9, anything to spark joy and healing. You work to live, not live to work.