Balancing Work with Play
by Steve Ghan, Guest Blogger
Steve Ghan, playing in nature
I enjoyed a productive career as a climate scientist. One key to that, I hope to demonstrate here, is that I always set aside time every day to play. By playing every day, specifically through biking or hiking, I’ve been able to consistently engage in both my paid work and in my volunteering with energy and enthusiasm.
Biking took almost no time away from work, because almost all of my riding was for commuting to work rather than for recreation. I always chose to live close enough to my workplace so that I could bike to work every day: rain or shine, day or night, sleet or snow. Thirty minutes of riding each way gave me time to transition between home and work, preparing myself for work on the way and letting go of it on the way home.
As I rode, I thought about what to focus on during the day, so I was ready when I arrived. What are the challenges and commitments for the day? Have any inspirations come to mind that I should investigate? By moving my body as I rode, oxygen was pumped to my brain, powering the processing I needed for such thoughts. Mental clarity flourished.
On my way home, I thought about the people I’d meet when I arrived. I let go of the disappointment of a proposal rejected or the frustration of an inscrutable bug in my climate model code, and instead looked forward to greeting and holding the people I loved.
I suppose one could apply the same transitioning method to a commute via car, but it’s much more enjoyable on a bike. As I biked, I remembered, and even felt in my body, the same sense of freedom and empowerment that I experienced as a fifteen-year-old on rides on my first road bike out of Bellevue to (back then) sleepy towns like Carnation, and up Whidbey Island to Anacortes and the San Juan Islands. If the wind was blowing in my face, I recalled the headwinds I faced riding up the Methow Valley on my first and only long road trip, and pushed through the wind. If the bike path was covered with snow, I loved the challenge of keeping my bike upright, and avoiding injury if my bike went down. Nothing stopped me from riding and the empowerment that came with it! Moreover, biking causes the release of endorphins, which improved my mood, calmed anxiety, and reduced chronic pains. The extra flow of oxygen during my exercise improved my creativity. So, when I biked, I arrived at work much more invigorated and ready to go than if I had used a car to commute.
Steve, hiking on snowshoes
My parents introduced me to backpacking, and I love trips that are long enough to help me forget about the troubles of the world. But daily walks also feed my soul. We notice so much more of nature at the pace of walking! As John Muir famously wrote, “People ought to saunter in the mountains - not 'hike’”! I am not a slow hiker, but I do stop to take a closer look at a flower that charms me, to take in big views across the landscape, and to stand in awe of enormous trees. That feeds my soul.
While I primarily walk for recreation, I found that walking at work improved my thinking process. When I was stuck on a problem, walking helped me think it through. As noted by Robert MacFarlane in The Old Ways, Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote “When I stop I cease to think; my mind only works with my legs.” After quoting other thinkers on walking, MacFarlane concluded “Walking is not the action by which one arrives at knowledge; it is itself the means of knowing.” In purely physiological terms, walking gets the blood flowing, pumping more oxygen to the brain. If I am hit with a major setback (like an election that didn’t go my way), I’ve learned that going immediately on a long and vigorous walk helps me to process what happened and to develop an effective strategy for how to respond.
For people who’ve experienced major traumatic events in their lives, such as the death of a loved one, multi-month walks as long as the whole Pacific Crest Trail offer both the time and the physical release needed to process the pain and come to terms with it.
The ultimate for me is to integrate biking and hiking. I don’t bike to trailheads often, but I always feel invigorated when I do. Carbon-free exercise, particularly when powered by a vegetarian diet!
Work can be demanding and exhausting. But if we set up our lives so we can play when taking care of necessary tasks (like commuting to work and exercising our bodies) and improving our work performance, we can balance work and play.
