Day 642: Being productive while waiting to feel better

Lately, I’ve been waking up feeling sick from IBS, and so I have to take medicine and then just wait to see if I feel better. But that wait period can be anywhere from 15 minutes to 2 hours (although usually not that long).

It also means I don’t get started on work right away, and so it feels like I end up having fewer hours during the day to get stuff done.

Realistically, I have plenty of time since I don’t write for a full 8 hours. Even on a regular day, my actual writing time is rarely more than 6 hours since the other two are for writing-related things like reading to refill the creative well or do research. Also, I count my Japanese study time as part of my workday since it relates to my writing, although lately I’ve only been doing the bare minimum of my Japanese since I haven’t been feeling well. Also, even if I have home chores, I can sometimes shift them around to do them on other days if I’m really short on time.

But just starting work one or two hours later still makes me feel pressed for time. (Maybe because usually by then it’s afternoon—since I tend to wake up late—and so in terms of daylight, it feels like I only have a few more hours left.)

Anyway, I know that being patient and learning to wait to see if I feel better is the only way I can continue to write with a chronic illness, but I don’t want that waiting process to cause any kind of stress or make it harder for me to get work done. If I can use that waiting time productively, I think it will reduce that stress I feel.

So it occurred to me that I should try doing something different during that waiting period. I can read a research book or a Regency novel (so I can refresh my memory of the language and vocabulary of the time period). I thought that it would be better to do something easy like read a book rather than something harder, such as doing my Japanese flashcards. That way, the easy activity will take my mind off the pain and discomfort rather than be distracted by it. Then when I finally start work, I still might feel pressed for time, but I might feel a bit less desperate if I also got writing-related work done during that waiting period.

Anyway, I decided to try it today and see how I did. When I woke up, I actually didn’t feel as bad as I did the past few days, but I still had a bit of discomfort. I did some Regency fiction reading and waited until I felt well enough to get to work.

I feel rather refreshed to have done some Regency reading before starting on the writing. Maybe because the words of the time period and genre are in my brain and stirring around. To be honest, I also think I’m a little less stressed today since I’m starting work a little earlier than I did the past couple days, since the discomfort wasn’t as bad today.

If the pain is ever really bad, I don’t know if I’ll still be up for doing this kind of productive work while waiting for the medicine to kick in. But at the moment, with the level of pain I’m feeling, it seems like a good idea to try to stay busy with writing-related tasks if I’m not mentally up for writing. I suppose I’ll have to continue to try this and see, although I earnestly hope I actually won’t have many days where the pain keeps me from writing right away.

***

I had another chance to be productive while waiting for the medicine to kick in. While I was blocking, I had another IBS flare up, but I took medicine and read a Regency novel, and within 15 minutes I was feeling well enough to get back to work. If I hadn’t decided to try to wait it out, I probably would have thrown in the towel and stopped work for the day, since the pain was kind of bad, but I didn’t mind reading a novel while waiting, so that made it easier to make the better decision. It was also really helpful to read a novel in the same genre I was writing, since it kept me in the same mindset and I could quickly go back to work when I felt better.

I ended up getting a lot more work done today than I have in the past several weeks!

Regency series:

Editing: Time spent: 7 minutes

Writing: Time spent: 49 minutes

Writing: Total number of words: 536 words

Writing streak: 121 days

Blocking: time spent: 2 hours, 26 minutes

Blocking streak: 115 days

Hawaii series:

Outlining: time spent: 1 hour, 30 minutes

My takeaway for today: When I feel too sick to work right away, do some research reading or Regency fiction reading while I’m waiting until I start feeling well enough to write, so that I can still be productive during my wait times.