Day 624: Need to take into account mental exhaustion
I had a bit of a flare-up on Saturday and only got the bare minimum done both then and on Sunday.
Earlier, I had blogged about trying to get work done in small bursts even on days I wasn’t feeling well. After all, there are always small pockets of time where the IBS pain dies down and I can spend a little bit of time working. It’s especially easy because my manuscript is online on 4thewords.com, so I can access it even on my phone.
However, I had forgotten how much the IBS discomfort takes a toll on my energy, not just physical but also mental. I tried to be aware of when the flare-up started dying down so that I could perhaps get more done when that happened, but by the time I felt better, not only my body but also my mental state was exhausted. I absolutely couldn’t get more work done on Saturday and ended up going to bed early.
I had been a bit too optimistic about being able to get work done even on days I wasn’t feeling well. I had forgotten that sometimes even if I’m not physically feeling pain, I might not be mentally able to do something as challenging as writing.
I don’t think all of my flare-up days will be like that—on Sunday, I wasn’t feeling well in the morning but started feeling better in the afternoon, and I wasn’t as exhausted as the day before, so I probably could have done some work. However, I didn’t do any extra writing on Sunday since it was my rest day (except for the bare minimum).
I think that my productivity will just have to depend on how I’m feeling that particular day. I think there will be days I won’t be able to get more work done later in the day, but there will also be days when I’ll feel okay later and be able to squeeze in a bit more work. Well, I’ll have to try it and see.
Yesterday, I felt a bit better after I woke up, and I got over 500 words written. But in the middle of blocking, my IBS started feeling uncomfortable and I also got mentally very tired all of a sudden. I only did about an hour of blocking. I also had a bunch of cooking that needed to be done yesterday, so I ended up not getting more writing done later because I was too tired. I went to bed early again.
I still felt a bit of discomfort and pain today, but I was able to do both writing and blocking on my Regency series. However, I’m feeling tired and decided not to do work on my Hawaii manuscript.
Regency series:
Editing: Time spent: 15 minutes
Writing: Time spent: 48 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 638 words
Writing streak: 103 days
Blocking: time spent: 3 hours, 21 minutes
Blocking streak: 97 days
Hawaii series:
Outlining: time spent: 0
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 0
My takeaway for today: My plan for writing in small bursts on days when I’m not feeling well isn’t that straightforward because of exhaustion. I’ll have to see how I feel, but some days I may not be able to write more because of mental exhaustion.
Earlier, I had blogged about trying to get work done in small bursts even on days I wasn’t feeling well. After all, there are always small pockets of time where the IBS pain dies down and I can spend a little bit of time working. It’s especially easy because my manuscript is online on 4thewords.com, so I can access it even on my phone.
However, I had forgotten how much the IBS discomfort takes a toll on my energy, not just physical but also mental. I tried to be aware of when the flare-up started dying down so that I could perhaps get more done when that happened, but by the time I felt better, not only my body but also my mental state was exhausted. I absolutely couldn’t get more work done on Saturday and ended up going to bed early.
I had been a bit too optimistic about being able to get work done even on days I wasn’t feeling well. I had forgotten that sometimes even if I’m not physically feeling pain, I might not be mentally able to do something as challenging as writing.
I don’t think all of my flare-up days will be like that—on Sunday, I wasn’t feeling well in the morning but started feeling better in the afternoon, and I wasn’t as exhausted as the day before, so I probably could have done some work. However, I didn’t do any extra writing on Sunday since it was my rest day (except for the bare minimum).
I think that my productivity will just have to depend on how I’m feeling that particular day. I think there will be days I won’t be able to get more work done later in the day, but there will also be days when I’ll feel okay later and be able to squeeze in a bit more work. Well, I’ll have to try it and see.
Yesterday, I felt a bit better after I woke up, and I got over 500 words written. But in the middle of blocking, my IBS started feeling uncomfortable and I also got mentally very tired all of a sudden. I only did about an hour of blocking. I also had a bunch of cooking that needed to be done yesterday, so I ended up not getting more writing done later because I was too tired. I went to bed early again.
I still felt a bit of discomfort and pain today, but I was able to do both writing and blocking on my Regency series. However, I’m feeling tired and decided not to do work on my Hawaii manuscript.
Regency series:
Editing: Time spent: 15 minutes
Writing: Time spent: 48 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 638 words
Writing streak: 103 days
Blocking: time spent: 3 hours, 21 minutes
Blocking streak: 97 days
Hawaii series:
Outlining: time spent: 0
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 0
My takeaway for today: My plan for writing in small bursts on days when I’m not feeling well isn’t that straightforward because of exhaustion. I’ll have to see how I feel, but some days I may not be able to write more because of mental exhaustion.
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