Feeling tired, uninspired?

I’ve been feeling tired lately.

No single reason for that. It’s been hot. I’ve been sleeping badly. I had some bad family news that I’m still processing. I had a big deadline. A self-imposed one, but a deadline nonetheless. 

It’s been.. a lot. And it slowed me down. 

So yesterday morning, instead of writing my weekly newsletter as planned, I went for coffee with a writer friend, then for a walk along the seafront. It was bliss. 

And that evening, I wrote the newsletter in under an hour and it went out 24 hours later than usual.

No one complained. I doubt they even noticed. The world kept spinning. But I felt so much better than I would have if I’d pushed on through.

Clients have come to coaching sessions with similar feelings.

They’re tired. Overwhelmed. Feeling a bit grey, dull and uninspired.

We’re halfway through the year, and most of us are ready for some proper time off. To add to the load, many parents in the northern hemisphere are working double hard right now, in order to hit deadlines before the long school holidays. 

And we all have the global news to process. Which is a lot for everyone, right now. 

Many of us also work for ourselves.

Which means we often work for a demanding, unfair boss who judges relentlessly, pushes constantly, has absurdly high standards and expects far more of us than we’d ever expect from others. 

My clients are brilliant people, many of them very successful in their creative fields. And yet when they’re tired, I notice that they often double down and work even harder. 

This is rarely effective. Unsurprisingly, they get very little done. Then they get snappy with loved ones, play the martyr or victim, beat themselves up and wonder if they’re broken in some way. 

Perhaps this is a familiar pattern to you, too? It certainly is for me.

So here are some truths you might be ready to hear. 

You don’t need to earn a break.

You are human. You get tired. This is basic biology. 

Stop fighting it, and rest when you need to, rather when you feel you’ve done ‘enough’. 

Replenish your energy regularly, and you might find you actually get more done. Certainly, you’ll be more able to enjoy the work while you’re doing it, and laugh off problems when they arise. 

You don’t need to deserve to rest.

This isn’t about morality, about being ‘good’ or ‘bad’, ‘productive’ or ‘lazy’. It’s just common sense. 

When you’ve done something draining, take time to recover before moving on to the next thing. 

This might mean a few days pottering about and tidying up if you’ve finished a long project. Or it might mean just taking a few deep breaths, making a drink or going out for a quick walk as you move from one task to another in your day.

You don’t need to clear the decks first.

It’s an impossible task. Even if you do get those decks cleared, the clutter quickly reappears and new tasks pop up. 

• Get your in-box to zero, and it soon fills up again (including all the replies to your speedy replies). 
• Ticked off everything on your to-do list? There will still be just one more thing you’ll find to do before you can relax. Then another. That’s life. 
• Finally lived up to your own high standards? You’ll soon raise the bar.

You don’t need to finish everything, before taking time out. 

Still got a mountain to climb to hit that deadline? 

Instead of pushing through grimly, consider taking a break before tackling the work. Then you’ll be fresh and ready for that final sprint, instead of staggering on exhausted, and getting lost in procrastination and busywork. 

How often to do tell yourself that if you just push through for a couple more days, you can rest? Then two weeks later, you’re even more tired and still struggling to finish the same project?

And you don’t have to replicate a 9-5 day.

Freelance work is often irregular. It comes in bursts. 

We’ve all worked late into the night and over the weekend to hit a tight deadline. Yet we still feel the need to put in a regular eight-hour day Monday to Friday, as if we were office drones or working on an assembly line. 

I think many of us feel we don’t have a ‘proper’ job. Or that our friends, family, neighbours don’t believe we do. We feel we have something to prove. 

So we don’t let ourselves go work in a cafe, go swimming in the afternoon, or take a day off to do something fun or interesting, because that would make us look/feel unproductive, lazy, unserious.

And yet.. exploring new things, finding fresh ideas and creative play isn’t an indulgence, a break from work. It’s an essential part of creative process. It is the work. Or a part of it, anyway. 

Everything has its cycles.

Respect your rhythms, and try to work with them. It’s always easier to swim with the current rather than fighting against it.

• We all have circadian cycles, different times of the day when our focus is at its peak. (Mine is 8-10am.) Find yours, and protect it fiercely. Don’t squander it on admin, busywork, chores. Use it for your most important, focussed work. 
• If you menstruate, there will be times of the month when you have more energy than others. Even after menopause, I find I follow a similar pattern, only stretched over six weeks instead of four. 
• Our energy levels also vary with the light, the seasons. 
• Your creative field might also have rhythms, predictable times of year when you’ll be busier, or work falls off. Plan for these!
• Every big creative project also has its predictable cycle, from the thrilling beginning to the messy middle, the fear of finishing to promoting the work once it’s out in the world. Each stage has its own pitfalls and energy drains. Get to know yours – and plan the rest and self-care you need to get through to the next stage. 

My challenge to you, today.

If you’re tired, take a break. A few hours, but preferably a whole day or more. If you’re really pushed for time, try these ideas for micro-breaks. 

If you’ve just met a big deadline, been travelling or had a day of draining meetings, build in recovery time afterwards. Just as an athlete rests after training, you need to replenish after doing focussed work, or after an activity that drains you. 

Get curious about what refreshes you best. There are many different types of rest. Explore them. Find what works for you. 

You can stay in bed if that’s what you need. But also consider a long walk (or even a run), a day trip, a few hours lounging in the sun, reading. Or whatever else feels fun and re-energising. 

If you think you’ll never get anything done if you rest more, run an experiment. Try adding more breaks for the next 30 days. See how you feel – and how much you get done.

And let me know the results!