It all starts with a sniffle or a cough. You ignore the warning signs and power through anyway. Finally, your body starts to rebel, and your head feels like it is in the clouds. Let’s face it: you’re sick. You need rest. We’ve all been there. What can you do to be as productive as possible?
Admit You’re Sick
Once you admit you’re not feeling well, you can manage your expectations. This is quite possibly the most important step toward being productive. Why? You may need to take some time off to rest and heal. Being as self-aware is a foundational element of your personal productivity, so just be honest with yourself. Working too hard when you’re under the weather can do more harm than good. You can actually shorten your illness by getting the rest you need.
Allow Others To Step In
I know it is common to try to do it all on your own, but in most cases, the best move is to ask for some help from your co-workers, team members or family members. Ask for a deadline extension or to reschedule a meeting. You may even want to set up your email autoresponder to let people know they won’t receive a response for a few days. In most situations, you’ll receive grace and empathy.
Build Yourself A Buffer
You can give yourself some breathing room by working ahead whenever possible. (Working by mode is very helpful for this, but I’ll talk about that more in a second.) Let’s face it: no one plans on being sick. And if you have kids, as you know, when one child gets sick, soon the rest of the family gets sick, right? By working ahead you can give yourself some breathing room in your calendar and stay more productive over the long-term.
Be Okay With Taking Some Time Off
We all have a tendency to want to do more and be more productive. It’s not a race; we are not in competition with one another. Remember, productivity is personal. Rest is an important part of life; in order to perform at high levels, rest is a requirement.
TimeCrafting Can Help
Let’s assume that you got sick on Meeting Day or Admin Day. TimeCrafting offers you the flexibility so you could simply change out one day for the other. You may even be able to simply reschedule tasks you missed on Monday to next Monday. If your schedule does not allow this, you can always try doing a Weekly Sprint when you return to work; you could schedule meetings or admin work for a specific one-hour (or another fixed amount of time) slot each day. The great thing about Weekly Sprints are that they give you a sense of rhythm by working on the same task at the same time.
Check out this YouTube video where Mike explains how you can be productive when you’re tired (which you will be if you’re sick).
All of these tips can help you be – and stay – productive when you’re sick. Try any one of these the next time you feel under the weather and see how they work for you.