The Important Item People Leave Off Their Daily Schedule… But Really Shouldn’t
Freelancers, WFH’ers, and anyone else whose days are full… remember to include this.
Your to-do list is probably finely tuned to make your day as productive as it could be. You may have spent months or even years perfecting its format and what tasks get placed on it and where.
But did you forget something?
Possibly.
Have you taken any time for yourself?
I know you’re busy, but hear me out.
Running the marathon
Sometimes the hustle of freelancing, the feeling like you always need to keep up while working from home, and work-life can seem like you’re running a marathon.
But marathons have finish lines.
Chances are high that every time you see your finish line approach, it moves down the road another 26 miles.
That’s unfair, isn’t it?
Constant work is not sustainable. You owe it to yourself, your clients, your bosses, and everyone else in your life not to crash and burn. That’s why it’s important to schedule some off time.
When the workload gets unsustainable
First, don’t think of this as slacking off. This is honest self-care we’re talking about here.
I used to spend my day slogging through one task to another, and despite what should have been a very productive schedule, I fell behind.
Why? Probably because I was burning out. As much as I love freelancing writing and book design, it can get tedious. Especially when I need to run a few hundred images through Photoshop to make them ready to print. Or putting together my third whitepaper in a single week about cloud computing platforms.
It gets to be much, and I was slowing down a bit and then growing to resent my work. I dreaded each task as I dragged my way through it. I’m not happy to say that quality dragged a bit as well.
And that threatened my ability to get future work.
So… not sustainable.
What to do if you’re not going to be working?
When I realized I was on the verge of burning out but still had a schedule to keep, I made a conscious effort to get away from my work area and find something else to do.
Among those alternatives to work were:
- Take my kid to the corner playground
- Sit in the backyard with my wife
- Play a short video game that was not also on my computer
- Draw in my sketchbook
- Play at least one side of a vinyl LP
- Read a chapter from a trashy novel
Things I did not do were:
- Chores
I started feeling better about things almost immediately. An hour away from work — in the middle of the day — turned out to be quite refreshing.
Until I stopped doing it.
What I forgot to do and what I did about it
I neglected to actually schedule in the “me time.”
I mean it. I got so busy again that I forgot about the restorative power of a genuine break in my day.
Then I approached burnout again.
So I retook proper breaks.
But this time, I also wrote them on my daily to-do list.
Seriously. Tucked in there between “Edit Marshall book,” and “Update invoice spreadsheet,” I have the words, “Get up and dance!”
Okay, so I don’t really dance, but the phrase by itself inspires energy and fun, and it’s my personal reminder — in the middle of my workday — to step away from work and do something fun either with my family or just myself.
Because self-care is essential.
Get up and dance
What does all of this have to do with you?
It’s my urgent suggestion that you take some time for yourself every day. And that you actually include this as an item in your list or schedule of things to do.
If you prioritize your tasks, this should — at the very least — be number 4 after your Big Three Very Important Tasks.
What would be better is if you made it number 2 or 3 and shift the other Important Tasks accordingly.
Self-care is as important as anything else, and it goes a long way in supporting your ability to remain fresh and energized about your work.
It’s not enough to mentally remind yourself.
Get it down on paper, or in your productivity app, or whatever.
Remember to push away from work and go have some fun.
Each and every day.
Cheers!
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