The 6PM Shift

What does your 6pm shift look like?

For some people, 6pm means going home.

For others, it means the day is only half done.

Maybe you're heading to a run, climbing, CrossFit, Pilates, a workout class, dinner with friends, or somehow squeezing in a side project before bed. Maybe you're standing in the MRT dreading the long journey home. Maybe you're debating whether to flake your workout plans. Or maybe you already did.

There's no perfect version of a 6pm shift, and that's kind of the point.

We spend most of the day moving through things we have to do because it's our job. Work. Meetings. Deadlines. Messages that somehow became urgent.

Then somewhere around 6pm, the time becomes ours again. (or at least we'd like to think)

Everyone has a slightly different routine.

Some head straight to the gym after work and have dinner at 9pm. Some go home and whip up a simple but satisfying dinner. Some meet friends and chat over a drink. Some continue working till ungodly hours. Some just want peace and have some alone time.

Our routines may look completely different, but there is something familiar underneath all of them. We're all trying to fit a lot into this very small window.

Work takes one version of us. Then after 6pm, we try to become all other versions again.

The athlete. The friend. The partner. The daughter. The son. The parent. The person with a side hustle. The person trying to lead a healthier life. Or simply the person who wants to doomscroll in bed without feeling guilty about it.

Sometimes we talk about being busy like it's something to be proud of. But maybe life was never supposed to feel like one long productivity challenge.

Most of us aren't trying to “hustle harder”. We're just trying to keep up.

Keep up with work. Keep up with rising costs. Stay healthy. Save a little. Maintain our friendships. Have some sort of life outside our jobs. And somehow, all of that still has to fit into the same 24 hours.

Maybe that is why the hours after work feel so precious. They're not necessarily about doing more. Sometimes they're just about trying to take a little bit of our time back.

Since when did time start feeling this scarce?

The Good Chaos has always been about people trying to make room for the things that matter, even when life doesn't leave us much room to begin with.

We are not trying to execute everything perfectly. We are just trying to make it work.

That small stretch of the day after everything we have to do, and before tomorrow starts asking things from us again.

A very precious pocket of time that belongs to ourselves. The 6pm shift.

What does yours look like?