This post originally appeared on Anna’s 1st blog, Annamotion.
If you want to succeed and have maximum productivity in your life, then you need to push harder by: working the extra hours, bringing your work home with you, sleeping less, studying through meal times, working through breaks and days off, and devoting every moment of every day to your work. There is no time for rest and relaxation because it would be a waste of time and completely unproductive. You can be more productive if you keep pushing through.
This is a lie you may have heard in your head or felt in our culture.
I’m going to be completely honest with you: this is one of the biggest lies that I believe. I struggle with it every day. It is a constant battle to remind myself of the truth.
I’ve turned into a productivity monster!
One quality that I love about myself is my natural desire to want to put my all into everything I do. If I am going to do something, then I am going to do it well. I will give it everything I’ve got!
However, this good quality can quickly turn into an unhealthy perfectionism if I’m not careful.
I am a full time student and often have too much homework than I have the time to do. It was a real struggle to come to grips with the fact that I literally cannot give 100% of my time and effort to 100% of my work. It’s just not possible.
However, sometimes I still try. There are days when I work on homework almost literally every waking moment of my day, leaving me feeling completely drained, exhausted, and stressed.
This way of living literally made me sick. The stress caused my cortisol levels to be high and my immune system to be weakened. Every time I lived in this state of pushing myself so hard with no break, I’d soon get sick and be knocked out for at least a few days.
It took me getting sick like this several times to finally take resting seriously. I learned the hard way that my health was better and I could be much more productive when I took a break each day than if I pushed through with no time to myself.
Your brain is just like the rest of your body. What if you didn’t sleep for days straight? Your body would feel exhausted and gradually shut down. Or what if you ran for miles and miles straight without stopping? Your body would eventually make you stop running…and probably pass out.
It’s the same with your brain. If you don’t give your brain a break, it will wear out and eventually stop working for you all together.
Productivity studies would also tell you that taking a break actually makes you able to be more productive in a week than if you were to not take a break. This is a concept Greg McKeown talks about in his book, Essentialism.
Whaaat? So you’re saying taking time to NOT work will help me get MORE work done??
Yes, my friend. Yes, indeed.
Have you ever gotten to that point in your work when you are having trouble thinking and concentrating? Or have you ever been frustrated because a task took you 2 hours that would have normally taken you 30 minutes?
Then it’s probably time to give your brain a little break.
Take a short nap, read a fun book, paint a picture, just sit and think, watch an episode of your favorite tv show, go play disc golf. Whatever makes you happy and energizes you. This will help your brain to relax and recharge.
Then you will be able to come back to your work the next hour or the next day with even more energy and brain power!
You’ve probably heard this before.
If you’re like me, then you’ve probably heard this many times before, but you just haven’t done anything about it.
There have been days that we’ve let our own health suffer for the sake of an unreached goal. There have been days that we’ve let our families and friends down because we chose work over time with them. There have been days that we’ve heard the words of truth, but instead followed the actions of the lie.
BUT TODAY IS NOT THAT DAY, MY FRIEND!
TODAY, we will take action!
You and me. We are in this together.
This is still a huge struggle for me, so I am going to be taking these action steps right there with you.
Action Steps
Do not work on your day(s) off work.
I know it is tempting. It’s easy to open up that work email app on your phone or think of a million things you need to do. But DON’T DO IT. Turn off your phone if you have to. If you think of things you need to do for work, write them down to save for later and then forget about it.
Any work that you have can wait just one more day. The break will benefit your health and recharge you to be more productive when you go back in to work. Remember that.
Schedule your breaks.
If you’re at a job or doing the kind of work that will allow you to do this, then plan out your breaks, schedule it in, and stick to your schedule.
Need a calendar or task list? Check out these posts for some free resources:
Free Calendars and Free Task List
Figure out what’s best for you and then DO IT.
Since all people are different, sometimes we work differently. So figure out what kind of break routine works best for you.
Whether that’s a 5-10 minute break every hour, a 30 minute break every 3-4 hours, or taking the whole evening off after having a good, long, focused time of work during the day. Figure out what’s best and most productive for you, and then DO IT.
Share this post.
You have friends who are still stuck believing and/or living this lie. Share this post so you can help them conquer the lie and break the harmful cycle.
To share through social media, you can click one of the icons at the top of this post.
Or here’s a premade, quick tweet for you:
Instagram what you like to do to relax and recharge
While you’re taking your break, take a picture and Instagram it! Use #MovementMyths to spread the truth of the necessity of taking a break. What are your favorite ways to take a break? I’d love to hear it!
Feel free to tag me in the Instagram comment or check out my Instagram for what I like to do to recharge. @TheReelAnna
Also, feel free to comment here about what you like to do to rest and recharge, share about how this lie has infected your life, and/or tell us about how the truth and acting upon the truth will change your life for the better. 🙂
This is great stuff! It’s so important to take time to rest and get replenished. Hard to do when you like to be productive and see results, but otherwise we will burn out!
Thanks so much for sharing this. I really struggle with allowing myself time to take a day off or relax (I work 3 part-time jobs). Just the other day I told myself I would quit taking a day off because I have to work so much harder the other days to make up for it. This was a good reminder that I truly need to rest and that’s it’s better for me in the long run.