REMEMBERING TO PACE YOURSELF
Last week I talked about life getting in the way of your plans (found here), and this week I thought I would touch on something that is usually only applied to the chronic illness community, and that's pacing yourself. I know that people who are pretty much healthy don't really think too much about pacing themselves, but I have to say it's an invaluable tool no matter your health status.
While pacing can be used for health reasons, it can also just be good practice when you've got a full work load, or you're doing some kind of creative pursuit. Now I don't know the first thing about artistic talent in that I have none, but I do know what it's like to be facing down deadlines when you've got a few different projects on the go. Right now I'm doing revisions on three projects and edits on another. I have varying deadlines for each one, and I know what I want to achieve in any given month, but I also know that to keep moving forward, I need to make sure I don't overload myself.
And that's where pacing comes in. While it might feel like you need to pile on all the things, I promise it will only end up hurting you, and no one wants that. Goals are a way to motivate yourself sure, but they're not supposed to be at the expense of mental or physical health, and even if you're normally healthy, that doesn't mean that pushing yourself to the brink won't bring some physical or mental side effects.
While pushing yourself a little can be a good thing, when you're doing it to the point where it's a detriment to your sense of well being, that's a red flag, and all you're doing is setting yourself up to fail. I get that the urge is to cross all the things off your to-do list, but there is a better way to do this. What is it? Lemme break it down for you.
#1 MAKE A LIST OF WHAT YOU NEED TO DO
This is as simple as it sounds. If you know that you have a bunch of things that have to be done by a certain date, or different dates, then just write it down. Make that list, and put everything you can think of on there, and make sure it's as complete as it can be.
#2 ORDER IN IMPORTANCE
Obviously there are going to be some tasks and deadlines that are way more urgent than others. If you have a lot of different deadlines, then the ones due first are going to be the bigger ones to get done. The idea is to make sure you have as much time to get the things done as possible. Try not to add things that aren't really necessary to get done in the time frame. If this means moving things to a different list, then do so.
#3 SET UP A WORKING DAY
So I know that I can, mostly, only do one work thing a day. I just don't have the mental and physical energy to do more than that. I make sure that some days I have two things, like when I'm doing dev edits, I'll always have a two tasks a day but it's not sustainable constantly, so I need breaks, but on the majority of my days, I will make sure to only have the one important thing to get done. If I can do more on the day, that's something different, but the pressure is off to try and accomplish all these varying things.
#4 PARCEL OUT EVENLY & GO
Make sure you don't overload certain days, and no matter what you do, allow for days off, and allow for days when you might need to catch up from another day. I suggest both because you will need time off, everyone does, and that's not something you have to earn by using your days off as catch up days. We're all human, we all need breaks, and we all need to time to unwind.
I hope that helps, and good luck with pacing. Any questions? Lemme know in the comments!
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