I. It’s pumpkin spice and new notebooks season. Maybe I was just a nerd, but I always enjoyed getting a new Trapper Keeper growing up. There was an excitement to starting work afresh and digging in again.
II. My first full-time job was teaching 7th grade math and I LOVED it. So much so, when Friday afternoon came, I actually felt a kind of come down, as if I was withdrawing from the serotonin infusing my brain from a week of feeling needed and creative and grown up. Call me crazy, but I honestly looked forward to Monday. I’m sure my partner at the time felt awesome about that.
III. I love the days when I go into the SYP office. Like, “Was this here all along? My friends are all around and we get to hang out and create stuff that makes the world better!”
Don’t get me wrong, more often than I’d like I’m screaming inside saying STOP THE WORK I AM TIRED ITS TOO MUCH WHERE IS THE PAUSE BUTTON. And then some late nights, chicken fried rice, and grumpiness ensue.
But the times when I’m genuinely excited for work are the times when, through intention or circumstance, my life crops have been rotated.
The idea of literal crop rotation is that different crops suck different nutrients from the soil, so planting different crops on a single plot of land over the years ensures the soil isn’t overtaxed. If any of you are casual farmers, feel free to further educate us about this in the comments :)
I. The start of school season feels good to me because my summer crop of vacation and a lot of family time (while wonderful) leaves me craving structure and productivity and maybe not being the sous beader of dozens of friendship bracelets.
II. My first job felt so energizing and addicting because my previous crop of college and summer break left me craving the ability to contribute, to feel grown up and professional, to earn a full time salary!
III. Being in the office feels straight-up fun because my previous crop of flexibility and working in bed leaves me craving camaraderie and the energy of jamming as 3D humans.
But this all only works if you rotate the crops back after a while. I am psyched for summer when it comes around, psyched for NOT having to contribute and feel grown up after a work sprint, psyched for working horizontally after a commute.
Round and round we go.
The trouble comes when we extract it all. When we work til we drop week after week and then take a long weekend to sleep—that is not crop rotation. That is sucking your field dry and then trying to restore it with some low-grade fertilizer. And it’s not all about work versus rest. It can be about the kind of work we do, the kind of thinking, the rhythms, the spaces. Proper crop rotation looks like:
Taking vacation regularly not as a means of recharging to do more work, but because you HAVE A LIFE YOU GET TO ENJOY
Trying a new project or a new role that flexes your brain in a new way
Taking a mini-retirement! (easier said than done)
Changing your work location or hours or rhythm
Trying a new hobby that is the opposite of your work (e.g., if you work as a data scientist, try pastels; if you work as writer, try the trapeze!)
And if you are a leader, consider the crop rotation needs of your people. How might you help them try new types of work, new rhythms, new skills? How might you model your own crop rotation and how you prioritize your life vs your work at different moments?
Happy harvest season.
Fabulously said Bree,
Thank you for sharing.
Humbly,
Rodrigo
Maybe this adds even another layer to the metaphor, but it's not just that different crops draw different nutrients out of the soil... Some crops (e.g., legumes like beans and peanuts) actually return nutrients into the soil through "fixation" where certain bacterias interact with their root systems to create pockets of available nitrogen in the soil.