Never Retire: What I Do All Day (And Why It’s So Hard to Explain)
Designing days that actually work: The foundation of Never Retire
The other night a Spanish friend asked me when I take vacation from work. This isn’t the first time she was curious about how many hours a day I work and my overall structure.
Each time I have had trouble explaining that I don’t work on a traditional schedule. I generally work 3 to 5 hours per day, five or six days a week. And, on the other one or two days, I’ll do something, usually totaling an hour or two. Even when I’m “on vacation” I’ll knock out a little work—maybe a draft or an entire article—spending about an hour or two on my computer or phone.
I have difficulty expressing this to her, probably because of my inability to clearly articulate things in Spanish. Though, she speaks good English, something still gets lot in language, cultural, or professional translation. She does more traditional work where—I think—she gets a generous amount of time off.
Europeans and their time off—
The envy of hustle culture—even if the hustlers and “idiot America”—don’t know it.
The next night another Spaniard and I were talking about work.
People do discuss work here, but it’s rarely the thrust or focal point of the conversation; it almost always centers on the more attractive aspects, such as creativity (when applicable) and working less, while managing to live well.
Anyway—
I’m not sure how it came up—(probably because I often get lost in flowing conversations)—but we talked about not only what we do, but how—and for how long each day—we do it. This guy is a successful illustrator. I’m a freelance writer. In terms of organizing work, our gigs have similarities.
It sounds like we pretty much work the same way. A couple to a few hours in the morning. Another couple to a few later in the day. With some additional time spent setting or touching things up no matter the day—even if it’s a “day off.”
I would assume that—like me—there are days when he does nothing. And, even on those days, he did something. Set up, touch up (without even thinking about it), or generate an idea or two that you’ll get to during your next unofficially official 1-to-3 hour work spurt.
This is something I want to talk to him—both of them really—about in the future.
The way we work—as humans, in different fields, in clearly distinct cultures—interests and even fascinates me.
Part of the problem I have in these conversations is fully expressing myself. It has nothing to do with the language. For as long as I remember—”the rain been comin' down—I have never be super comfortable or open to sharing with others exactly what I do for work.
I’m sure some people walk away from these conversations wondering if I’m a drug dealer.
Why am I like this?
As a kid and an adult, my Mother had/has the tendency to lead with what I do for work—and gush about it—with people I hardly or don’t even know. That makes me uncomfortable to this day.
For whatever reason, when I talk about my work, I feel this strange mix of why would anybody care/I don’t want to sound like I am bragging.
A sense of self-awareness that not everybody does what I do (something creative) with so much flexibility (even if I never fully explain the extent and structure of that flexibility. To that end, I don’t want to come off as promoting myself.
Maybe it’s modesty. Maybe it’s fear that people will go looking for my work and not like it. Maybe I just don’t want to come off as self-promotional, even though I’m building something out of my work and putting it out into the world every day.
But when I really think about it, here’s the truth:
I don’t clock in, but I do work hard. I work in bursts. I know what gets done when, and I know what pays for what.
That’s not hustle culture. And it’s not retirement. It’s somewhere in between. It’s one way to define Never Retire.
In America, society uses work ethic to define you.
It can be tough to embrace the idea that working less lets you do more.
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