There are so many of us striving to do more and more and more.\u00a0 We are driven to be as productive as possible, and when we fail to live up to our standards (or the standards we imagine others have of us) we have this sense of disappointment \u2013 or worse.\u00a0 I wonder if we\u2019ve lost our perspective along the way somehow.\u00a0 We need to learn \u2013 or relearn \u2013 how to make the most of our productivity without losing the critical skill of taking time to relax.\u00a0 This becomes even more essential if you are dealing with health issues.\u00a0 This is important for each day.<\/p>\n
That need for a feeling of accomplishment is more prevalent for people who don\u2019t work in the traditional sense \u2013 whether they work from home, are stay-at-home parents, or do not work.\u00a0 The days can fly by and looking back appears like \u201cnothing\u201d got done.\u00a0 Often this is a matter of perspective, as when they sit down and actually start listing what they did, there are many things, small things that do add up over a day.<\/p>\n
Therefore we need to pace ourselves.\u00a0 In looking at your schedule, there are certain things that are non-negotiable.\u00a0 Your work schedule and appointments can be the structure.\u00a0 The times around these can be more flexible.\u00a0 When you consider your \u201cfree\u201d time, you likely have tons of things you could put into those open spots.<\/p>\n
Since we all have the exact same amount of time to spend in a day, decide what is important to work on.\u00a0 Set a time limit, even setting the timer, so that you don\u2019t get lost in your task.\u00a0 You do not need to finish each project you start, you can dedicate a set amount of time to it every x number of days.\u00a0 You will make consistent progress, without overwhelming yourself, and eventually complete it.<\/p>\n
Just as important as making time for those tasks, is making time for you.\u00a0 Value your energy and sanity enough to leave time for down time.\u00a0 Time to relax and time for your mind to stop running.\u00a0 You can set a timer for this as well.<\/p>\n
Pay attention when your body or mind gets overwhelmed \u2013 then do less the next time.\u00a0 Do you find yourself utterly exhausted at the end of the day (or before then)?\u00a0 Do you need to take a day (or more) to recover from a prior day\u2019s activities?\u00a0 Do you find yourself doing mindless activities when you know you have important things to do?\u00a0 These are signs that you are pushing yourself too hard.\u00a0 You are attempting to do more than you can truly handle.<\/p>\n
Remember, \u201cWe are human beings, not human doings.\u201d\u00a0 Our value does not come from our level of productivity \u2013 or lack thereof.\u00a0 Nevertheless, we do want to use our time to its fullest potential.\u00a0 What that fullest potential is will vary from person to person.\u00a0 We all have limitations, in one way or another.\u00a0 We can make the most of our time and energy, and it requires that we nurture ourselves in the process.\u00a0 Interestingly, this often boosts our productiveness too!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We are often concerned with how productive we are; yet without balancing all our needs, we wear ourselves out. Then we inadvertently behave in the very manner we want to avoid! There is a simple way to prevent that \u2013 to pace ourselves and make time for ourselves each and every day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[10,8,18,22],"class_list":["post-153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-timemanagement","tag-behavior","tag-discipline","tag-goals","tag-productivity"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7p82c-2t","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions\/155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}