Subscribe Feed (RSS)Productivity Tip: Take a Day Off and Work Better Tomorrow
May 20th, 2007 by Joshua Dorkin | Filed under Commentary, Productivity.
Sometimes, a small, irrelevant, event in our lives can completely alter our thoughts on work, family, etc. On Friday, I slammed my finger in the door while leaving my garage; while this left me with a minor bruise, it was quite painful typing. As a result, I took it easy and slacked a bit. Given the opportunity to rest my hands a bit, I decided to actually take a full day off yesterday and did nothing but the most essential work on my websites.
You Can Drastically Increase Your Productivity By Simply Taking a Day Off
It is amazing how a little rest can help out:
- Rest Your Hands – As a blogger and web guy, I type all day! By taking a day off, I’ve given my hands a much-needed rest, one that I should probably give them much more regularly. I’m pretty sure that I’m not alone in having achy, tired hands after working online all day. Given the chance to rest and stretch a bit, the definitely feel better than they did just a few days ago.
- Rest Your Eyes – I used to be a professional stock day trader, but had to stop because I would get terrible headaches after a day of staring intently at my monitors. Over the past several years, I’ve found myself also starting at monitors all day. While they are much better for the eyes, I still feel eye strain after hours of work. By taking the day off, I allowed my eyes to rest a bit, which will certainly allow me to work better today and tomorrow.
- Rest Your Mind – Most importantly, by taking a day off, I’ve given my head a chance to rest. I’ve got to tell you, it feels great! Not since moving from Los Angeles to Denver a few months back have I actually taken a full day off. My mind and body seem to have re-aligned themselves. I’ve got tons of new ideas streaming through my head and I see things that I did not see before. I feel like I could just blog all day (but I won’t), and I’ve got a ton of new ideas for growing my various sites. Resting your mind is essential for productivity, as otherwise, you will not be as sharp or fresh.
I realize that this post is more about me than about people in general, but by reading it, I think people can see the benefits of a little rest. I know that I’ve done myself some real good, and I hope others can follow my lead and give themselves a bit of a break every once in a while.
Hey I have another tip to rest your eyes, mind and hands at the same time while still working with your blog: try drafting your blog post by hand.
- Writing by hand doesn’t require all of your fingers to tap continuosly on the keyboard. Your finger joints can rest peacefully for a while
- Your eyes don’t have to look at the monitor all the time anymore.
- And writing by hand allows your thoughts to flow smoothly, you don’t have to race with your typing. Which means you write with leisure. And actually you will even enjoy writing more.
Sometimes when I’m tired with my college work and other stuffs on the computer, I just take a pen and work on paper for a while. It’s more relaxing.
This was a great post. Thanks! I also think it is important at times to take time off to increase long term productivity.
You’re right. We do need to rest our bodies and our minds to be at peak performance. I usually take the full weekend off and do something completely different.
I also have a special mouse pad with padding to rest my wrist. It really helps when I’m using the mouse a lot. I find that using the mouse makes my hands more tired than typing.
We all need to give ourselves the physical and mental help we need to be productive. I recently posted about business productivity on my blog. The URI links directly to that post.