How to Make the Most of the Upcoming Summer Break

Summer is starting, and I think a lot of us hit this time of year expecting ourselves to magically feel relaxed and happy the second life slows down.

And at first, it does feel good.

The alarms ease up.
The calendar opens up.
There’s finally room to breathe again.

But something weird also happens with too much unstructured time: days start disappearing.

You wake up, scroll a little, run an errand, watch something, maybe tell yourself you’ll do something “tomorrow,” and suddenly it’s somehow mid-July.

None of that is bad, by the way. Rest matters. A lazy day is not a wasted day. I think people forget that sometimes.... especially me !

But I do think summer feels better when at least some of it is intentional.

Not packed.
Not over-scheduled.
Just… a bit... purposeful.

The summers people remember usually aren’t the ones where they optimized every second. They’re the ones where they were actually present for parts of it.

A random concert.
Late-night talks on a patio.
Learning something for no reason other than curiosity.
Reading outside.
Road trips.
Morning walks.
Starting a project you may or may not finish.
Actually texting the friend you keep saying you miss.

Small things, but real things.

I’ve been thinking lately that a pretty good framework for summer is probably just:

Rest a little.
Connect a little.
Grow a little.

Sleep in sometimes.... I mean I'm going to try for 6:30
See people you care about.
Try something new.
Get outside more.
Let your brain breathe for a minute.

You don’t need to “win” summer.

You also don’t need to accidentally sleepwalk through it either.

Because time is strange like that. The older you get, the faster it seems to move. And I think part of that is because routines make weeks blur together.

Presence slows things down.

Attention slows things down.

So this is probably my reminder to myself as much as anybody else:

Don’t let the whole summer happen in the background.