Making Time for Downtime: The Millennial’s Guide To Slowing Down

It’s not news that millennials are by the far the generation that struggles most when it comes to downtime.

Without being able to enjoy assurance in things like the job security our parents’ experienced, many of us live life on constant alert – permanently switched-on in fear of missing a work development, networking opportunity or side-hustle advancement.
All of this is confounded by our (over) reliance on our smartphones, which mean we’re online twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week – and so everyone assumes we’re perpetually available, whether it’s for work, instant messages or for dating apps.

However, it doesn’t take a genius to know that, at some point, we’re going to burn out when we’re always on the go. With the inevitable burnout comes an overwhelming sense of failure, which, once we’ve forced ourselves to power through it, continues the cycle. It’s the millennial condition.

That’s why making time for downtime is so important. But how does a busy millennial with one hundred and one things to do at once set aside time to do… nothing? From my experience, it begins with a case of switching off little and often, until you can eventually work downtime into your weekly routine. Here are a few tips to help you slow down.

1. Exercise for pleasure, not because you feel you have to

Being a millennial, we all feel an immense pressure to be hyper-successful, hyper-productive, hyper-healthy… but it can be incredibly difficult to live up to these standards when we’re not taking proper care of our physical and mental wellbeing.

You might be thinking, ‘I get up at 5:30 every morning and go to the gym at 6am every day before work’ and so think this doesn’t apply to you, but it’s important to ask yourself, why are you doing this? Are you doing it because you genuinely enjoy that crack of dawn CrossFit class, or are you doing it because you feel you have to?

When it comes to my physical health, I know I’m guilty of giving in to the pressure that I should be doing it because everyone else is. Even when I was at my physical best, my mental wellbeing wasn’t in good shape. The benefits of exercise on your mental health are all too well known, so if you’re working out all the time and you’re still feeling low, maybe you need to find a form of exercise that doesn’t feel like a chore.

2. Make time for face-to-face socialisation

Even if you’re not working from home and you’re surrounded by colleagues you genuinely class as your friends on the daily, it’s important that you don’t consider this a trade-off for proper socialisation.

When it comes to finding the time, work with your loved ones – both work pals, old friends and family – to find a time that works with all of your schedules to dedicate to switching off and having some downtime in the company of others. The best thing about hanging out with friends is that you’ll all feel the benefit of letting off some steam as a group. You’ll be killing two birds with one stone: you’ll have made time for socialising and downtime at the same time.

3. Consider a social media detox

This one goes hand in hand with the last one. With our attachment to our smartphones and our complete presence on social media, it’s all too easy in a busy life to socialise with friends and family via Snapchat or in an Instagram comment.

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Whilst the likes and the comments may be gratifying in the short-term, that positive feeling doesn’t last like it does from direct contact with people.

Besides inhibiting our socialisation, social media is often both a trigger and a push factor for living a non-stop lifestyle. We publicise our whole lives on the internet, and whilst we all know we only publish the highlights, nonetheless we all compare ourselves to each other, with the consequences of which usually being negative. We reprimand ourselves for not managing our side-hustle as well as she has, or running that marathon for charity like he has, before promising ourselves that starting tomorrow, we’re going to dedicate every ounce of our energy and commitment into every single avenue of our lives. But that’s impossible.

The only thing with social media is that, for a lot of millennials, it possesses an intrinsic connection to our careers, whether we’re working for an internet start-up, marketing agency or retail brand. In that sense, it might not always be realistic to have a month-long social media detox, but even just turning off push notifications for an evening can do a world of good.

4. A little self-care goes long way

Speaking of social media, contrary to what Instagram might suggest, self-care doesn’t have to mean a weekend-long luxury spa break. Even if it’s just an hour in the bath on a Sunday night with a face mask and a candle, that might just be the downtime you need.