Having just celebrated Earth Day, many of us have been thinking about how much stuff is wasted. And while wasted stuff is a huge problem, I also found myself thinking about how much time is wasted. We scroll endlessly, we swipe, we tap, we watch stuff on Netflix we don’t even like. Most of it doesn’t leave us feeling good about ourselves.
That’s partially because ‘junk time,’ like junk food, squeezes out room for the more important things. If our time diet is filled with junk, we have less room to be creative, to think deeply, to actually connect, in reality, with our friends and family. And we’ll probably forget to make time to call our mothers (friendly reminder: Mother’s Day is coming up on May 13!).
By no means is all junk time nor everything on the internet a waste. Here are a few bright spots we loved spending time on this past month:
- this video of Buzzfeed reporter and self-proclaimed extrovert experiencing true solitude in the woods
- interviewing artist and photographer Noah Kalina about the temporary sculpture series he calls ‘bed mounds’
- discussing work-life balance with leaders from some of our favorite brands like Headspace and Virgin
In addition to thinking about junk time, we’ve poured through all of our feedback emails, as usual—144 this month.
Here’s one that really moved us:
“My husband and I came here for some quiet time. Our jobs have been draining us lately and with each passing day, we are finding it increasingly more difficult to go through our 9 to 5 routine. Things are so difficult at work…I personally find myself almost crying every day and I can see the tiredness grow in my husbands’ eyes…you thought of every little detail from the books to the cell phone lockbox to the commitment page. BEYOND PERFECT, if there is such a thing, is what this weekend has been. Thank you for all that you’ve had to do and endure to make Getaway a reality. You will never know how much this place truly means to us now,”
Our jobs have been draining us lately and with each passing day, we are finding it increasingly more difficult to go through our 9 to 5 routine.
We were touched deeply by this note and relate all too well to a lack of work-life balance. Stories like these are why we’re on a mission to create a counterbalance to our lives not only at our tiny cabins, but in our own offices and homes, and hopefully in the everyday lives of our guests. More on this to come.
As we move into May, perhaps try to keep a list of how you spend your time. How much of it is ‘junk time’? How can you make an effort to spend more time on the things that really matter?
Below are a few links to things we’ve been thinking about lately. As always, feel free to get in touch if you have feedback or ideas.
Be well,
Jon, CEO + Founder
ITEMS OF NOTE WORTH TAKING THE TIME FOR
Driven to Distraction — Cozy up in a chair to read this powerful essay by Rebecca Solnit that tackles what it means to live in an uber-connected society. “Even our ability to find our way through a given landscape has been outsourced to devices.”
Work-Life Balance as a Social Media Manager — Managing social media as a career can be a tough challenge for work-life balance. We speak with leaders from companies we admire from Headspace to Virgin to Away.
How Boredom Can Lead To Your Most Brilliant Ideas — Set aside a solid 16 minutes to watch this brilliant talk by Manoush Zomorodi on how being bored can spur your creativity.