My husband has been away all weekend and my son has been happily gaming in the study. Great I thought. I will have lots of time to get heaps of work done.
But it didn’t happen. Saturday was ok, but yesterday afternoon I found myself sat at my desk, not really achieving anything or getting any actual work done.
I flicked through my social media channels to see if it would inspire me. It didn’t, but I saw a cute puppy picture, learned how to make a snuffle mat for my dog out of fleece and a sink liner and stared in awe at some beautiful dance costumes on my Insta feed.
Fun, but not really what I would consider a productive day in the office.
By teatime when Chunky (my husband, yes that’s his name) came home, I realised that I probably should have finished work at lunch time and had some downtime for myself. It would have been far more productive than just sitting at the computer, hoping that by some sort of magic my social media posts would write themselves, my blog post would get edited and my new flyers would be designed and sent to the printers.
It did not happen.
I wasted a whole afternoon achieving zilch.
Why do we do this to ourselves? Surely it would have made much more sense to step away from the computer and take a break, rather than sitting there and hoping for the best.
This morning I came into my office, sat at my desk and just felt completely drained and exhausted; with no motivation or creativity to be seen anywhere.
If only I had given myself a break yesterday, I would have been much more refreshed today and been able to crack on with having an excellent day of work.
Luckily Chunky spotted the signs and suggested I nip out in the car for an hour just to run some errands. I didn’t want to go, I thought that if I went out I would be giving up somehow and not putting in enough effort to get the work done.
Eventually I swapped my slippers for my trainers, grabbed my car keys and headed out. I was only gone about an hour, but I feel so much better for it now. Just writing this story has been more productive than the total of what I achieved (or didn’t achieve) yesterday.
My point is, I should have cut myself some slack much sooner.
What I was experiencing was a mixture of burnout and creative block. Creative block isn’t just about the creative work we do, like designing and making dance costumes, it’s also about having the freedom to allow our creativity to serve us.
Creativity helps us to problem solve and find solutions to whatever problem we are experiencing, and you can’t do that while experiencing burnout. My mind was just too chocker block full with all the things that I knew I needed to get done, but I didn’t have the mental space to allow my creativity to do the work.
We hear so much about ‘self care’ these days and it’s not something I think a whole lot about. When you live with a chronic illness you get used to just cracking on regardless. If I have the energy to get dressed, then I feel like I should make the absolute most of it and get loads of work done.
There are so many times that I am unable to work at all because of the MS, that I forget that it’s ok to not work when I’m having a good day health wise.
I’m sure a lot of small business owners can resonate with that, even if they don’t have a chronic illness. We all need to cut ourselves a bit more slack. Self care isn’t just about taking a bubble bath and putting on some relaxing music, it’s about balancing life and creating time for ourselves and our families.
When was the last time you took some time off, just to do nothing?
Do you ever schedule time away from your work or is it all hustle and bustle either with work or kids and family stuff?
Take some time this week to stop work for a little while and have a really good look at your diary and work schedule. Is there anywhere you can cut back a little, just to save yourself from burnout?
If there is, schedule that time in for yourself, before it gets eaten up by some other domestic task. Make sure you prioritise your own needs and it will help you be more productive when you are at work.
