Happy Tuesday loves!
I hope the new week is treating you well so far, and if it’s not, there’s still time to turn it around :)
Today I got the urge to write about how I’ve been feeling lately… Calm. And though it doesn’t sound all that noteworthy. It is, for me. I normally have so much going on (not because I’m so super busy and everybody needs something from me- mostly because I’m a chronically poor manager of my time) that I am constantly walking around in a state of anxiety without even realizing it. I am a fairly mellow person so when there’s too much going on, I’m overwhelmed. I’m also easily excitable but that’s a topic for another day lol. I am quite literally a bag of opposites but somehow they work together to make me, me! Lol
But on the matter of being anxious & overwhelmed… you know what exacerbates that? Not getting enough sleep.
Not getting enough sleep is probably one of THE top reasons why productivity suffers- mine anyway. I wake up, I’m tired… So I slowly get on the things I have to do for that day. Get distracted by non-essential things and social media because that doesn’t take much mental energy at all… Next thing you know, much more time has passed than I realize so I beat myself up for wasting that much time again. I don’t want to go to sleep without getting x number of things done, so what do I do? Stay up super late until x number of things are complete. But of course it takes me longer to get these things done because I’m tired. Then I fall into bed and wake up the next day exhausted because I went to bed too late… aaaand repeat the cycle. Because something is always due, work needs to be done, and when you’re self-employed, true breaks don’t really happen.
So how can I change it?
I’ve been waking up lately (as in the past 7 days), not thinking about how much I have to do and how little time I have to do it all, but truly trying to move through my days a bit more mindful. What brought about this radical change? Sleep.
The only thing I can attribute to this new calmer space I’m in is the amount of sleep I’ve been getting. I was working in Atlanta for the past few days and every night I had a full night’s rest. Prior to going out of town I started going to sleep early as well, and when I came back, I kept it going! Though my diet is still a work in progress (I don’t eat horribly- probably just more sweets than I should), I am already thinking and feeling better JUST from getting more sleep.
The reason I titled this the “Art of Doing Less” is because to be well rested, I have to be okay with shutting down. I have to be okay with not getting everything done. And what this past week has taught me is that it is indeed okay. I do not subscribe to the philosophy that in order to be successful you have to work around the clock/ not sleep/ be on the “grind” incessantly. That is actually quite literally the recipe for disaster because our bodies are not designed that way. We NEED rest to think clearly and make wise decisions. All nighters are necessary sometimes, but I am really trying to make an effort to move away from that being my standard mode of operation because I can say from personal experience now that being well rested feels so much better than getting everything done :)
Sorry this post ended up reading more like a novel lol. But clearly I am passionate about this topic lol.
What’s your sleep philosophy? I’d love to hear :)
Stay tuned for the next Truthy Tuesday!
-Danni