Follow-Up
I just wrapped up week 2 of my Digital Minimalism-inspired digital detox. I accomplished 6 “anchor days” this week (days where I successfully read, write, meditate, and work out) which is far and away the most successful week I’ve ever had when it comes to daily habits. Turns out it’s relatively easy to do those things consistently when you’ve removed almost every other distraction from your life. More to come on this in a future article.
Oh, also, they found our luggage.
Beyond Workism as We Currently Know It
I like work. I studied organizational psychology in grad school, I used to run a website called The Workologist, and I work for a company that helps organizations — and the people within them — work better.
Despite my obsession with the nature of work, I’m on board with those who decry “workism” as defined as a glorification or worship of work for the sake of work. I’m not interested in perpetuating that culture of overwork, burnout, or organizational masochism that has gained in prominence over the past few years.
At the same time, though, I think there’s a whole world of “positive workism,” or what I’ve taken to calling “reformed workism,” that is very much worth our exploration. This is what I tried to tackle in a brief and introductory way in one of the articles I wrote this week. I want to shift the workism conversation toward an internally-focused and subjective experience of work and ask people to wrestle with the difficult task of owning their moment-to-moment reality at work while at the same time helping to create environments, organizational and political, where a healthier relationship to work can be cultivated.
That’s still pretty ambiguous and I think part of this newsletter project and the writing I’ve been doing for the past several years has been poking at the edges of this line of inquiry. There's a lot to untangle, most notably the immense amount of privilege that is just draped over every part of this conversation. It’s something I want to acknowledge and explore without letting it prevent me from following some of the interesting paths that I think we’ve just taken the fewest of steps down.
Good Stuff
Given my focus on workism this week, there’s lots to share about work, why it’s great, why it’s horrible, and better ways to think about it. I’ve shared a few of these in past issues but in the name of keeping a theme together I’ll share them again:
And unrelated, but still interesting:
Closing Round
Drinking: Yes Plz coffee is a coffee subscription (rising from the ashes that once was Tonx) that delivers some of the best beans I’ve tasted in plus a high quality ‘zine each week.
Eating: We, The Pizza has an excellent name for a DC-based pizza joint and they make a pretty good pie.
Listening: I’m firmly back on the Spotify bandwagon and I’ve been exploring some playlists to accompany me during work over the past week. Chill Lofi Study Beats, Mellow Beats, Lo-Fi Beats, Paus., and Minimalism have all gotten repeat listens.
Working: Diving deep into progressive org structure (Niels is always good inspiration) and optimal operating rhythms this week.
Watching: Emily and I are still deep in Brooklyn Nine-Nine land. This is going to be another one of those shows like Arrested Development, Parks and Recreation, and 30 Rock, that leaves a hole in my heart when it finally wraps up.
Playing: As part of my digital detox I’m not playing any solo video games right now, but playing with a friend is okay, so once or twice a week I jump onto Overwatch to play a few rounds with a good buddy from college. There’s depth to this game that I didn’t perceive when I first started playing it.
Your pizza fueled friend,
Sam