Take it Easy: Slowing Down on the Busiest Days

jade - Sun, March 27, 2011

I am writing this blog post from my comfy sofa while watching an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.  (I controversially prefer Mike to Joel.  Feel free to disagree with me here.)  When I’m finished writing, I plan to lie down and stare stupidly at the screen with my mouth slightly agape.  I will not let myself feel guilty about this.  I have earned it.

Lately, I’ve been so busy I’ve felt like I’ve literally been working from the second I wake up until the second I go to sleep.  Anyone who freelances and/or works from home has probably experienced difficulty knowing when to stop working, and as a freelancer, it’s definitely hard to turn down any work, even if you’re already double and triple booking yourself as it is.

It sounds like common sense, but I’m just going to say it because I have to remind myself all the time:  If you overwork yourself, you won’t do ANYTHING as well.  Tons of people who know stuff throw around statistics telling us that being overworked leaves the worker less productive than if they just took it easier in the first place. Logically, I know this.  But putting this theory into practice can be challenging, especially if you genuinely love your job(s).

I do regularly make an effort to make times for things I enjoy.  I love cooking and doing yoga, but sometimes even these “leisure” activities seem like a chore.  When I get to the point when the thought of frying eggs and washing the dishes after makes my shoulders slump, I know I’m doing too much.

Sometimes you just need to lie down and watch a TV show, or knit, or take a walk, or sit and have a glass of wine with a friend.  Sometimes you just need to do absolutely nothing.  All of these things have their place, and really will allow you to get more work done, and done better than if you’d pushed through the day stressed out and grumpy because you never have a minute to yourself.

Even if you work 9-5 (or, you know, 8-8, depending on your job), you can still take steps to make sure you don’t take your work home with you, or make so many outside-of-work commitments that dinner parties and movie dates start taxing on you as just one more thing you “have to do.”  It can be tempting to try to wring every last but of “fun” from your time off, but knowing when you need to close up shop completely is extremely valuable, and your friends and family will be much happier if they’re getting a rested, centered version of you rather than a grumpy, harried shell.

If you find yourself constantly thinking about what you should be doing even when you try to relax, one technique I’ve found useful is to make to-do lists.  I figure out exactly what I need to get accomplished on a given day, and figure out about how much time I’ll need for each activity (I usually overshoot a little, just to be safe).  I schedule the leftover time as “funtime,” and I often break up the day by sticking the funtime in the middle somewhere.  More often than not when I do this, I wind up with even more extra time than I’d planned for, which I can either use to get some more work done (only if I feel like it), or more funtime.  Everyone likes more funtime.

What are some of your tricks to relax when it seems like you’ve got eight billion things on your plate?