What do you do when all your commitments weigh on you, yet your body decides it’s time to shut down? That’s exactly what happened to me this week, and it has thrown my whole schedule out of whack.
It doesn’t matter what your profession is or isn’t, we all have daily obligations nagging at us like toddlers with endless questions. Unfortunately these tasks and chores don’t magically go away when we are less than at prime.
What’s the answer?
Don’t do them.
Rest.
Our body is sending a clear message and, if we listen, we’re bound to recover more quicker. To ignore it will only prolong the suffering. Can you think of a time you’ve done this to yourself?
August McLaughlin recently wrote a wonderful post on this very topic. She has some fantastic tips on how to better balance our lives to avoid such issues in the future and I recommend you give it a read. Living Well to Write Well When Feeling @%$#-y.
Of course, sick kids bringing home bugs didn’t make her list. 🙁 I’m fairly certain that’s where I got mine, this time. I can say, with confidence, that on the average, I don’t get enough sleep, don’t eat properly, nor exercise sufficiently, all in the name of writing and my platform. Maybe more adjustments need to be made for healthier me. Are you adequately looking out for yourself?
I believe it was Jonathan Gunson who said those of us trying to build and maintain a platform should use 70% of our free time for writing and the reaming 30% for social media. That means on most days I have about an hour to cover everything from Facebook, Twitter, blogging (on my own site and visiting elsewhere), and anything else that falls into that category that I may be neglecting. In other words, we need to have a tight work ethic when we delve into those cyber playgrounds.
Set a timer. Don’t cut into your sleep or personal time. Your creativity will suffer for it.
I’d like to leave you with a few of the posts I’ve enjoyed this week during my few manageable hours….
Emma Baurcart has a beautiful piece about living in the unplanned time in-between. Are you always in a rush to get where you’re going? Or do you allow yourself to take it slow and enjoy the ride? Enjoy The In-Between.
Karen Rought at The Midnight Novelist talks about the pros and cons of audio books. This is something I’ve been very interested in as of late and I found this post both helpful and fascinating: The pros and cons of audiobooks.
Scott over at Kindredspirit23 had me laughing with his four best picks of video laughs. Call me crazy, I especially love the second one. Catch them here: Four of the Best! (?).
If you’re a fan of Calvin and Hobbs, then you don’t want to miss Julie Glover at Threading the Labyrinth, with her post: If Calvin Tweeted.
You can thank my internet connection for constantly disconnecting me last night. As a result I saw this little number by Diana Beebe at Mermaids don’t do windows. Ever wonder why writers are asked to only put in one space when we learned to double space at the end of a sentence in school? Muscle Memory is the Source of All Evil (Extra Spaces, Anyway).
Finally, I really resonated with what Jennette Marie Powell wrote about Twitter and auto tweets in light of the Boston events. As an introvert, I have always struggled with twitter and Facebook, twitter especially. There are some great comments: The Trouble with Twitter.
I’d love to hear what you have to say. Enjoy any, many or all of the links?
~oOo~
Thanks for stopping by! I truly appreciate your support.Until next time, au revoir.
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I came down with something this week too, and I’ve been struggling just to finish the necessities. Social media went out the window. I didn’t post anything on my blog this week. (I had a post written for Monday, but was so tired on Sunday I forgot to schedule it.) Hopefully with a little extra rest I’ll be good as new next week.
Sometimes we simply need to step back and let the body repair itself. You did the right thing. I can assure you, no one is going to forget about your blog. 🙂 You know the work you try to do when you aren’t feeling your best isn’t at the level it should be. You don’t want to miss things and make mistakes. I’m glad you took care of you. 🙂
I hear ya Debra! I got a sinus infection over the last week and have been dragging my butt around. And I’m supposed to be in Fast Draft with Marcy. She’s rockin’ it. I, on the other hand, am sluggish. But I got sick before she did. But I’m not giving up. Yes, please do take care of yourself and get some rest. Take care girl! 🙂
I’m sorry to hear that, Karen. Wow. It sounds like the uglies have been making the rounds. Everyone I know has been getting a touch of something. I sure hope you are getting your pep back soon. I know you have a lot weighing on you. Thank you for your well wishes. I am well on the road to recovery. It helped that I rested on the days where I needed it. You do the same. {{Hugs}}
I wear myself out a lot. Since my stroke, I have been advised to watch carbs, exercise, and get a lot of rest. Hmm, I watch my carbs. Exercise has become less and less – I need to work on that. And, rest – well, rest I get, it’s sleep that eludes me and that hits hard over time. I rest and nap and even sleep at the computer, but it seems to be too little at a time (about 2 hours) to keep me feeling top of the line. I go to bed way too late (last night was about 3am). Our best sleep is supposed to be from 10-2 (yeah, right- that’s when I do some of my best stuff).
Anyway, stay well. I don’t seem to get sick- haven’t really in several years, but I don’t have toddlers nor students – ’nuff said?
Scott
Your hours and habits sound strangely like mine. Except they aren’t blending well with my up late, up early kids. Hmmm. We both need to exercise more. I was on an excellent exercise program before I sat my butt down in the chair and started blogging. It wasn’t writing that messed me up, it was blogging. :/ Maybe we need to tweet a workout chant to get us both going several days a week. 😉
You have things to do next week. 😉 Rest up and feel better.
The timer idea is just what I need! And, thanks for the shout out.
Don’t I know it! One of those things will be meeting you – in person!!! Are you excited? I’m totally excited! I have no idea who I will be pitching to yet. I have my fingers crossed that I get my first pick. I realized today that I switched my second and third choices. How did I do that? Oh yeah, rushed to enter it all against the ticking clock. No pressure there. :O
You are very welcome for the link love, my friend. 😀
Illness pretty much dinged my writing for most of March, and I wrote a very similar blog post. 🙂 Not much we can do except pull back, rest, and feel better – then try to not push ourselves so much. Thanks for including my link – I don’t have a hard time getting off social media, it’s getting on it in the first place! And I was LOL at the post about double spaces – as a graphic designer who learned desktop publishing right after college, I unlearned that double-space habit early. 😀
Ugh! I noticed you had a rough March. I feel for you. I know when things like that happen to me I get terribly frustrated. I’m with you on the social media thing. It is so easy for me to tune it all out. I can sit at my computer staring at it and get nothing done and no one on the other end will even know I am there (FB, Twitter, whatever), but I can also switch it all off and write without any guilt and I am so much happier. 😀
You’re very welcome for the include. I really felt that post. I had a hard time learning not to double tap but I’m getting pretty good at it now. 😉
Give up on sleep? Never! I can’t function witout 8 hours a night, so I give up on staying up late. I go to bed at 8:00 every night so I can get up at 4:00 to write. I have come to realize that the only thing I am missing is TV, and thanks to the DVR I can catch up on it over the weekends without commercials. I don’t have kids, but my day job is working with them, so I have to be careful about germs. I have found that if I don’t get enough sleep, exercise, or if I eat poorly, that is when I get sick. So, now I choose exercise (again, over TV). But the one thing we can’t give up on is our rest, that would be like giving up on ourselves. I hope you get better soon! 🙂 And thanks for the linky love.
When I read about people like yourself that go to bed at eight or nine I get jealous. I can’t get my kids to stay in bed by then. My youngest won’t stay down at ten. My husband usually isn’t home for the job (lately) till midnight. I find myself staying up later and later trying to get anything done during the quiet hours. You’re so very right, though. It’s all so important. I need to work my old routine back in with the new social media plan somehow. Thanks, Emma. Oh, and your most welcome for the link love.
I hope you have rebounded and are back with the living!
My percentages are waaaay off.. I have a lot of blog posts to read and have really fallen behind as I get my manuscript ready to be read. I feel like I have been on the computer for two years straight and am trying to get away for a couple hours every day.
Happy Friday!
You sound like you’re where I was a month or so ago. Don’t try to keep up with the blogs. You’ll drive your crazy. It’s alright to let some or more slip through the cracks. We understand. Most of us are writers and we will understand. We have or will be there at some point. Take care of what you need to. Your writing, then your family. Or is it your family then your writing. 😉 Anyway, you get my point. You are so amazing that you are still working it and keeping up your social presence. I let it slide when I was in the same place as you. I had to put all my focus on my work. I CAN’T WAIT to hear all about your book – when you’re ready. 🙂
Happy Friday.
Sounds like you were hit hard! I also got a bit of a bug this weekend, and slept through most of Sun, which was a bummer since my daughter was visiting from PA. ~sigh~
Anyway, I don’t get sick often, but when I do, I think it is often stress related. Fortunately, I’m up and about today, and trying to catch up on some things.
I think, as mothers, we let stress play too much of a factor in our health. I know I do. We need to be careful and take care of ourselves. I would say I hope your feeling better, but since I just saw you I know you are doing fairly well. I LOVED seeing you, pretty lady. Thanks for being so awesome!