Cut Yourself Some Slack

Photo by Jan Willem Stad

Some days are just not quite 'it'. And sure, we can beat ourselves up about it, and feel miserable about all the lost productivity and the total waste of time, but that never seems to help either. Yesterday was one of those days for me. I pretty much felt tired from morning to evening, even though I did take two naps in between. Half-way through the day, I decided to just give in to the feeling and let myself have an off day.

If you feel low on energy, or slightly depressed (can be weather-related as it often is in my case) how about just allowing yourself to take it easy for a while. Take a couple of minutes to clear as much from your schedule as possible, so that you can focus on relaxing, sleeping and resting for a couple of hours. 
Perhaps, these little 'downward curves' are just a way for our body to tell us it's time to take a break and recharge the batteries. 
Don't beat yourself up if you need some time to just do nothing. There's no point in doing anything but using this time to just veg out on the couch.

If you can't clear your schedule, just go through the motions. Chances are, you already know how to do your job pretty well, and there's no need to always perform at 110%. Allow your skills to carry you through the day, until you're back in bed and looking forward to a new day which can only be better. 

There is a strong stress on performance these days, for everyone. My students feel it, my fellow teachers feel it,  my family and friends feel it. The people around us and the systems in which we work come with high demands. It's not unusual that at times we need to be able to just go through a day without giving in to all these expectations and demands.

Do you ever have days like this? Where it seems like you have no desire to do anything but sleep? How do you handle it? Do you try to motivate or energize yourself, or do you just go with the flow?
I bet people handle this kind of thing very differently depending on who they are.