Productivity tips to build resilience for your unique life. How do you deal with fatigue during your busy days at home? When are you most productive?
Homemaking, being a stay at home parent, writing, homeschooling, working remote, or online contract work can easily become overwhelming. Any job working from home can have unique challenges especially when the day feels difficult.
Today we break down the details of what to do when we do not feel at our best.
Smart and highly productive people may seem like they are high functioning all the time. They actually are not.
The secret is –They plan ahead for those times when they are tired, low on energy, and worn out.
I have been managing myself, my household, my kids, and my homeschooling for over 18 years. Most of my adult life has been doing jobs that I have not been paid to do. [shout out to all the SAHM’s out there.🎉You rock!]
Managing myself is hard. I have learned that my energy and my time are the most valuable assets for me to keep an eye on.
I only get so much each day. When it gets used up, it’s gone.
When I have a kid-free moment of time; I assess my current emotions, my energy level, and my time. I choose what’s most important for that block of time and then I focus on that task. (I promise it is more organic and freeform that it sounds.) When something new comes up I put it on a list to tackle later.
The High-Energy List
Let’s start off by defining the opposite of a Low-Energy List.
This is the day that we all expect to have. The birds are singing, my kids are busy, I have lots of spunk and ability to tackle the tasks for the day ahead. This is the type of day assumed by all of the 5 AM morning routine gurus and productivity hustle-culture experts.
The majority of my High-Energy Tasks are focused on two of my jobs: Homeschooling and Writing work. These get priority in my day.
I usually start getting worn out in the late afternoons and evenings. Around 5 pm I go into “low-power mode”. I shift from Homeschooling and Writing to my third job: Homemaking.
Also, sometimes what I need most is to drink some water, eat a healthy snack, and have 5 minutes of quiet alone. I often take that moment of practical self-care to slow down and check-in with myself.
Then I check my Low-Energy List.
And now to the good stuff!
The Low-Energy List
There is no perfect task or right way to approach Low-Energy Mode. The key is to do something that doesn’t require your full effort or attention.
When I am “Low-Energy” a few of these things may be true:
- feeling worn down socially or emotionally
- kids running around
- it’s late afternoon or the end my day
- able to work on small things
- slightly multi-tasking
- between other scheduled events
- interruptions are expected
There is power of planning for our future selves.
Do not believe the lies that you must always be at your best. That is not humanly possible. Even for an overachiever.
Low-Energy mode is when I’m unable to think clearly or do hard things. I don’t have the mental space to do major planning or organizing but, I can still get things done. I want be effective and efficient with my time. I know that I’m not quite ready to sit and relax.
My typical Low Energy Household Tasks:
I focus on the priority for that day and I pick one from the list. Whatever I don’t get to today will be there tomorrow.
- Dishes & cleaning the kitchen (along with a podcast)
- Food prep, meals, lunches packed
- Shopping to get done / errands to run
- Expenses tracking & budget updates
- Checking email, paying bills, paperwork stuff
- Laundry – sorting, washing, switching, folding (along with a YouTube video)
- Research – looking up info for kids camps, RV trips, summer activities
- Relationships – people to call/text/write
- Cleaning – basic tasks that need done once a week (bathrooms, floors, sheets, couch blankets, vacuuming)
- Taking care of our farm animals and basic yard work
- Healthy habits – chopping veggies, prepping fresh fruit, long walk, workout
- writing in my commonplace notebook – more about that here
Most of my week days as a homemaker contain a mix of High-Energy and Low-Energy tasks. Decision fatigue can steal away my time. Having this list makes a huge impact on my productivity.1
Reflection Questions:
– What time of the day do you feel low on energy?
– When in your day do you have time for Low Energy Household tasks?
– How can you try this idea in your home?
I would love to hear your Low-Energy List ideas!
Please share in the comments. ⬇️
📖💙- April
Cover Photo by pure julia on Unsplash
1 This idea comes from GTD with David Allen. He loves to share that he enjoys planning in order to be highly productive because he enjoys his time off. He is smart about when he strategically plans and mentally organizes his work.
Getting Things Done by David Allen (New York, Penguin, revised in 2015)
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