Earlier this week, I was overwhelmed with ‘stuff to do’ and I sat at my desk, ‘pushing through’ to get more done…and in reality, I was working ineffectively and simply kidding myself that time at my desk equated to productive time well spent.
Yesterday, Daniel had no exams so was home all day…study leave, they call it. He only has two exams left (well, one after today) and after nearly five weeks of exams and revision, he was getting a bit deflated and bored by the whole thing.
So we spent the day working in short bursts followed by pauses – and by pauses, I mean proper time off, away from the work, just doing other things. We worked for an hour, then took a 20 minute break…rinse and repeat (for 8 hours)! He had his phone alarm timing the work and my phone timed the breaks.
Of course, it comes as no surprise to you that this method really worked. I managed to get through my entire work schedule for yesterday…and I did some drawing/colouring in my breaks, which really gave me the chance to pause, reflect, switch off…and recharge my batteries.
I found myself being super efficient and setting mini goals for the work to be achieved in the next hour and then I stayed super focused to get that work done…because I then had a pause to enjoy…how indulgent is that! And Dan really enjoyed it too, saying he was a lot less bored…
It is never too late for an old dog to learn new tricks – I will be modelling that pattern again today because even though it is counter intuitive to take so much time off when there is a lot to do, it really does work!