Some days I work on lots of little things and feel great because I’ve ticked a whole bunch off my list. I feel a real sense of achievement.
Other days I might do one or two things and just feel exhausted.
I then realised that I was blocking my diary out with things I had to get done but not actually considering the sheer brain power and focus I’d need to do them.
Do you ever think about the quality and quantity of something when you’re organising your day, week and task list?
I realise that not everyone is able to organise themselves in this way but if you try then it really helps to balance out the week and your energy.
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Sometimes I’ll have one big thing to do and it’s pretty straight forward but boring and then other times I have lots of smaller tasks that require a lot of concentration.⠀⠀⠀⠀
In the past I’ve got this mix very wrong and ended up exhausted by 11am or frazzled by 3pm – that was before lockdown, so now I’m also home schooling and juggling childcare.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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I now try to mix my week up so that I have organised my priority list by energy required and my other to do list by length of time.
Another bonus is that it really helps me to stay motivated and keeps the momentum going at a fairly even speed over the course of the week, which is what you need when you’re dealing with a four year old and one year old.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Sometimes everything has to be done at once and you have no choice but to just get on with it, but given the choice I always factor in how I’ll feel after doing a piece of work.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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There’s nothing worse than writing a piece of copy and then having a client call straight afterwards or having calls back to back then trying to home school the frustrated four year old and stop the one year old from climbing up the book case.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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My tip would be to allow time in between to recover and re-energise or at least time to make a cup of tea, catch your breathe and a use the bathroom.