Guilty of thinking you can do it all? Join the club. We’re supposed to always be going, going, doing, doing, right? If we’re not we have this strange idea we’re being lazy.
The other day I crashed. I was so tired I didn’t care if the to-do list doubled while I took the evening off.
The next day my brain still felt fuzzy. I was just about to force myself to attack the to-do list when I said: No, it can wait. I turned off phone, computer and plopped on the couch to read and take a nap. Obviously I felt a lot better afterwards and somehow the world didn’t end! I know!
It’s so easy to think the world will end if we take a break. I mean, we’re that important right? We actually are. Just ask your family. But we are no good exhausted. Our creativity goes down. It affects our health. Our mood. When we are tired and exhausted it affects everything in a negative way.
Still, we have these expectations of ourselves that we can just push through that fatigue, cram everything in and keep going. It’s always…do more, be more, get more done. In addition to that we are always supposed to be available, even on vacations!
It’s expected to answer emails, texts and notifications right away. We’ve been fooled into thinking multi-tasking is the way to do it all. It’s insane!
As I was laying on the couch I realized the only one to blame for my busy time was me (don’t you hate when that happens?)
After all, who is creating your schedule?
Who decides what to put on your schedule?
Who is forcing us to add extra curricular things to our already busy work-life schedule?
Who is forcing us to say yes to everything?
Who is forcing us to believe we can build Rome in one day?
Who is forcing us to be available 24/7/365?
We are. Which also means we can fix it by eliminating things from our schedule, decide not to be available 24/7 by turning the phone off, learning how to say no, tune out and incorporate quiet times.
Leave the office, go for a walk and let your brain reset. Delete things that are not urgent off your to-do list. Ask yourself what the essentials are. Put yourself first and practice self-care. Plan in daily, weekly and monthly renewal time when you give your brain a real break away from the busyness.
Now tell me. Do you feel guilty when you take some time off doing nothing? Share in the comment section below.
This is a repost of a post I wrote in 2014 before I learned the proper way of energy management and how to avoid such things as crashing, exhaustion and burnout. For more information on how to learn how to work smarter instead of harder so you can avoid feeling as if you’re spinning in circles check out my Accountability Get Stuff Done program.
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