Naomi the Wordsmith

Take the breaks you need

This is one of those “do as I say and not as I do” moments.

I suck at this.

As I’m slowly recovering from a hideous bout of flu and a pain flare up, my mantra these last few weeks has been “be more productive”. And I fall asleep beating myself up, berating myself with “why didn’t you do more, why did you spend all day lying down in bed, just because the pain was bad?”

Oh yeah, I was resting because the pain was bad. And resting is good for recovery. But I always find a reason to be mean to myself about it.

This is something I’m trying to get better at. I’m trying to reframe my thoughts from “I did nothing productive today, just rested” to “I was productive today, I rested”.

When you need to rest, resting gets you back in working order faster. Productive rest is a thing.

Pace yourself

Pacing myself is one of the main ways that I balance my pain and fatigue with all the stuff I need to get done.

Pacing yourself means not overdoing it when you’re feeling great and trying to do something when you’re feeling rough. But the key thing to remember is sometimes you need to rest productively. Don’t force yourself to work when your body is screaming out to you to stop.

The aim is to create a slow but steady pace. Tortoise beats the hare after all.

But how do you pace yourself? It sounds great in theory, but what are the practical steps?

One way to pace yourself is the Pomodoro technique

The Pomodoro technique can be a real boost to your productivity, without having to focus on nothing but one task for hours and hours and hours and oh no all of a sudden you realise you forgot to eat.

It’s great for people that have too many other demands on their attention so they just can’t commit that time.

Here’s what it involves.

1. Work for 25 minutes on your task.
2. Enjoy a sweet five min break. Take a deep breath. Enjoy the sound of kids playing. Whatever you like.
3. Go through this cycle 4 times then take a nice, long 15-30 min break. Do whatever invigorates you with fresh energy anew.
4. And on and on the cycle goes until you’re a productivity god and you’ve smashed that task.

There’s two issues with the Pomodoro technique I can see straight away. If your time isn’t your own (like at work), then you can’t do the cycle. And if you’re like me, with too many things clawing at your attention, then you just can’t work for 25 mins straight.

Sometimes I can. But sometimes, on days like today when the pain is so bad I can’t move my neck, I can only manage 20 mins, 10 mins or even just 5.

It’s surprising how much work you can get done in 5 mins if you max your focus in that time.

I’ve written this post with bursts of 5 mins, here and there. It’s taken me longer than normal, but as wise old Aesop said – slow and steady really does win the race.

The trick to make the Pomodoro technique work for you is to adapt it for you. It doesn’t have to be the time blocks it names. You can make it yours.

Keep motivated when the going gets rough

The problem with slow and steady wins the race is it makes the race last longer. This can make it hard to stay motivated. Sometimes you think “If only I did more, faster, I’d be more productive and successful.”

The thing is, even if you do all the work in hardly any time in an insane focused burst – every high has a down. You’ll crash. And you’re not gonna get much more done for a while.

The hare in Aesop’s story was so worn out by his speed he needed to sleep during the race. The people depending on him, cheering him on, needed him to keep going but all he could do was sleep. And so the tortoise won.

So you know that slow and steady wins the race. You know you’re doing the right thing. You’re able to be productive in your own way, getting stuff done despite all the responsibilities screaming at you to pay attention.

But knowing you’re doing the right thing doesn’t always mean you feel good about it.

When my pain is really bad, I live life according to “should”. “Should” is supposed to be a verb of possibility, but we can use it as a club to beat ourselves down.

And if you beat yourself down, you’re not motivated to get stuff done. Slow and steady or fast and wobbly – if you don’t want to do it, you probably won’t.

So how do you stay motivated?

This is different for everyone. I can’t tell you what works for you, but here’s what I do.

I reframe my thoughts to be less “I should do this” and more “I get to do this, when I am ready.”

I give myself little treats when I reach a milestone of progress. So for this blog post, it’s when I create the headline, or finish writing a section, or figure out how to write an awkward section.

And I remember how far I’ve come.

When I started writing this blog post, all I had was a blank page and the pain I’m feeling trying to tell me I can’t do it. And now I’ve finished writing it.

That’s pretty damn motivating.

If you want some extra motivation, click here to listen to a song for you.

Oh, and before I forget, that tip about opening a stuck jar. It doesn’t help when you’re opening it for the first time. Sorry.

Put Vaseline on the inside of the lid where it touches the jar. Suddenly, opening it becomes a lot smoother.

This works for Vaseline jars too.

Now you can pretend to people you’re really strong.