Low Energy Days and Wasting Time

 

I used to feel guilty about not being productive all the time. But we're not designed for full-time productivity. There is also a cultural tsk tsk about "wasting time" that I want to challenge.

As I've gotten older and faced more physical and energetic challenges, I've realized that my downtime is equally crucial to my creative process: time spent writing, speaking, making music, doing these videos, or any other activity I might label as productive.

My imagination is most available and receptive when I'm not actively making something happen. I'm amazed at how easily ideas come to me when I'm otherwise idle. Those three ideas I had this morning while driving home from the airport are good examples. They would have been less likely to arrive had I spent my time productively.

Today, my other realization was how I tend to see my low-energy days as useless when they're often my most productive in unexpected ways. I've started the habit of finding one thing or one person online to respond to on days when I have a hard time getting myself up to the desk. Commenting on one post. Congratulating a friend's accomplishment. Offering some encouragement to someone who is working hard to improve. Just one thing.

Often this ends up being the impetus to do more. I'm energized by the first thing so much that I do another, then another, then another. My expectations of how productivity needs to show up are the only thing out of order here.

Especially if you're faced with health and physical, energetic challenges - have a lot of grace with yourself and leave the harsh judgment for a more worthy purpose. Show up and do what you can.

#autoimmune #loweneergy #productivitymyths