suggestion I gave to my hungover friend about his weekend work

I've been on a little unplanned hiatus from posting recently. I have been busy but it's January and cold (well, cold for Atlanta) and people tend to do less this time of year so it's really been more about me not being able to articulate any concrete ideas, even just in my head. And since I don't really want to get in a habit of posting just for the sake of posting, enter hiatus.

This seems to be a theme of January for me considering the post I wrote about what to do when feeling unmotivated and about the importance of rest. Basically I've been tired and lazy all month and have been rationalizing it on my blog. I'll call myself out.

Though yesterday I got to thinking that this wasn't such a bad thing. I also got to thinking that my train of thought might actually make a valuable post...

I've said before but I'll choose to be redundant: taking a break can be just what you need

Yesterday while a friend was driving me home from brunch he was telling me/complaining to me about all work he had to do that afternoon. He wasn't feeling well (okay, he was hungover) so he was extra dreading what his Sunday would look like.

I suggested to him that he go home, relax for an hour or so, and then spend a couple of hours working. Reason being he'd be able to clear his head and enjoy part of his Sunday afternoon which would enable him to be more productive once he actually got work done. He told me he had far too much to get done and needed to begin work immediately.

 

Breaks let you think about and use your time differently

I don't understand this sort of thinking. For me it's about being smart about your time; if you're not feeling your best (ill, hungover, simply distracted, whatever) you're not going to work to your full capacity or full potential. Things will take longer.

Say you have 6 hours in your Sunday available for work but you're not feeling your best, chances are you'll get the amount of work done in those 6 hour that "normal you" might accomplish in perhaps 3 or 4. But if you take away one of those hours and allow yourself to relax -- at least for me -- chances are you'll maximize the next 5 hours and get the closer to the amount of work done that "normal me" would get done in 4 or 5 hours. Resulting in equal or more work getting done and having time for yourself.  

 

Sure, there's a risk that you'll get sucked into a House Hunters marathon on HGTV (a very real problem for me yesterday...) but that comes down to a prioritization and a will-power issue.

So rather than posting mindless things or beating myself up and forcing myself to sit on blogger and come up with something, I've given myself the freedom to take a few days and just relax. And look what it resulted in: A fresh, not mindless (???) post!