Archive for May, 2021

Everybody has the occasional unproductive day. After all, everyone gets sick once in a while, or just can’t get motivated. A lot of people struggle to start work on Monday mornings, or can’t be found online late on Friday afternoons.

What I rarely hear people talk about are the long stretches of time when someone slows down at work. Yet we all know that happens, and anyone who is in the workplace long enough will eventually experience something that takes a toll for weeks or months. People go through divorces, have deaths in the family, suffer from serious health issues, or struggle with other long-term problems.

I’ve had a few times in my career when I wasn’t anywhere near the top of my game because I was going through something big in my private life. Major life stuff can make it hard to concentrate.

During those times, I was worried about not being as productive as usual. But when I reflect back now, I recall that I still met my deadlines, showed up to meetings, and did the work I was hired to do. I just didn’t work at the fast pace that I normally do, and wasn’t striving for perfection with every task. I did what I needed to do at work while expending more energy on what needed to be taken care of at home.

And that is fine. That’s the way it should be, since we’re human and not robots. Life eventually stabilizes and work will take up as much time and energy as you are willing to spend on it.

What I want to remember is that lulls happen for everyone. But more importantly, we don’t always have to be working at our highest level. Save energy for what matters most. Sometimes that may be a work project and sometimes it is not.