How to Be Productive When You're Sick
Keep reading this post to learn:
⋒ What being productive really means
⋒ Four tips to help you be productive when you or someone in your home comes down with a bug
⋒ Things you can do to prepare for sick days before they hit
During this time of the year (aka flu and cold season) this type of question pops into my weekly Q+A box on the regular.
Then I got this message a few weeks ago in the Hustle Sanely BFF FB group:
“I am so sure there is a post somewhere or some info and resetting routine coming back from illness or something? All of us went down this week– I was sick, toddler has the flu and hubby has the flu. I am gonna be listening to the coaching call soon. We are just all basically out of it. Any tips/strategies?”
And then I kid you not, the week after that, I was guest teaching in a mastermind and someone asked about how to handle their to-do list when their kid gets sick unexpectedly.
I was like alright that’s it, we’re doing an entire blog post and episode on this so here we are!
I want to start off by reminding you how I define productivity – doing the right thing at the right time – not just blasting through a to-do list at the speed of light while you sacrifice your mental health and relationships along the way.
To me, when you or someone in your family is sick, focusing on health and getting well IS being productive because you’re doing the right thing at the right time, you know?
I think hustle culture has really inundated us with the belief that if we’re not performing all the time, that we’re failing – we’re not doing enough. And that’s just not the truth. The truth is, we are humans with limitations. We are humans who require regular rest to operate well. A lot of us need to pause and re-evaluate our relationship with productivity.
We need to understand that we are human beings, not human doings, and that our capacity, bandwidth, and output are going to look different day-to-day – that is normal! That is healthy!
If you or someone in your family is sick, I think it’s important to acknowledge that your main priority when the sickness hits, is getting you and/or your people well.
Okay so that being said, how can you do that? How can you shift your focus onto your family’s well-being when you’re juggling 15 different things at any given time? Because let’s be real – the show’s gotta go on even if someone is sick.
I have 4 tips for you today that are going to help you be productive when you and/or your family are sick.
And real quick – none of this is meant to be taken as medical advice and these tips are also not applicable to someone who is navigating a chronic illness. My intention for these tips is for when you have a few days of a bug that’s got you or someone in your house down so keep that in mind as you read.
Tip 01: Have realistic expectations of what is gonna get done.
Hi, sassy Jess here to remind you that your schedule and routines are tools, not chains. You hear me say that all the time but what am I actually saying?
I’m saying that your schedule and routines are there to support you, not to stress you out.
I’m saying that you’re the boss of your schedule and routines, they’re not the boss of you.
I’m saying that sometimes crap hits the fan and your typical schedule and routines are gonna go out the window and when that happens, your whole life isn’t going to come crumbling down.
We all get sick from time to time – and it usually happens at the most inconvenient time.
And when it inevitably happens, we have to accept that our normal pace of getting things done is going to be slower. There’s no getting around it and the faster you can accept that truth – that you’re going to get sick sometimes which means you’re output is going to tank sometimes and the best thing you can do is meet yourself where you’re at and give yourself the proper accommodations to get well – the better you’ll be able to navigate sickness when it hits.
We have to lean into Key 01 to Hustling Sanely and get our mindset right about how we’re gonna approach this sick situation.
When we’re sick or someone we love is sick and needs our attention, and we try to fight it by pushing through and trying to achieve our normal standard of day-to-day productivity, we’re just making things harder for ourselves.
But when you can recognize that during a sick period, resting and doing what you need to do to get well is actually the most productive thing you can do, you’ll likely recover quicker and be able to get back to your norm.
I saw a quote on Instagram that stuck with me:
Hustle culture tries to tell us that rest is taking our foot off the gas but in reality, rest is putting fuel in the tank.
Mic drop, right??? 🎤👋🏻
So be real with yourself – when you’re sick or someone you’re responsible for is sick, take a minute to think through what is realistic to get done that day. Run through your to-do list to determine what is urgent and to weed out what’s not urgent. Delegate what you can. And then know that the rest will get done eventually.
“Nature does not hurry yet everything is accomplished.” – that’s another quote I saw on Instagram that hit.
When you’re battling sickness graciously keep it real with yourself about what is going to get done and lean into the rest that you need to get well.
Tip 02: Have margin built into your schedule.
This is honestly my favorite tip of them all because carving out space for margin in my schedule truly changed my life. Margin is what keeps me from feeling like I am running around my life like a chicken with its head cut off.
What’s margin? Think about margin as blank space. Margin is breathing room. It's your schedule’s emergency fund for when your bestie calls and needs a listening ear or somebody throws up or you just need to take a breather for a minute.
Margin is unscheduled time that you can use however you want – maybe that’s by doing some self-care, spending time with your family, or doing tasks that got pushed to the back of the priority list when you were sick.
How To Carve Out Margin In Your Day:
~ Build blocks of unscheduled time into your calendar.
I like to have time every week that is dedicated to being unscheduled. I block off 2-3 hours of white space a week. For me, right now, it looks like 2 hours of unscheduled work hours built into my week and an hour of unscheduled personal time built into my week. On Mondays, I have 2 hours blocked off so that I can catch up on any work tasks if I need to. My work days are Tuesday-Thursday right now but if something comes up or takes me longer than I thought, I know I have those 2 hours on Monday if I need them. Then for personal stuff, I use Everly’s naps on Saturdays as my personal catch-up time – if there are tasks that didn’t get done around the house because life happened, I take care of them on Saturdays.
It doesn’t all have to be at once either– you can do 30 minutes here and an hour there if that works best for you.
I like doing this because it serves as a “catch-all” built into my schedule. So if something comes up (like getting sick), I already have the space in my schedule to move things around without totally panicking.
~ Don’t schedule things back to back.
For example, on Thursdays for the next few weeks, I have 2 coaching calls since I’m running a live round of the Hustle Sanely Lifestyle course. I scheduled our coaching calls for the course at 1:30 (they’re 45-60 minutes long) and I also do BFF membership calls on Thursdays, too – so most people would be like okay if your HSLC call ends at 2:30, you can start your BFF call at 2:30 – NOOOO. That is a recipe for me feeling stressed out and stretched too thin. I need some transition time built in there so I have the HSLC call from 1:30-2:30 and then the BFF calls don’t start until 3:00.
~ Declutter your plate for this season if you need to.
If you’re listening and you’re like “cool but I am currently at capacity and there is no room on my schedule for 2-3 unscheduled hours” – well guess what, babe? You’re the captain of the ship – the boss of your life – and that means you get the tough job of making cuts when they need to be made.
If your schedule is busting at the seams, I highly recommend taking a good, hard look at everything on your plate and making a few cuts so you have some breathing room in your schedule.
That might mean that you have to let go of good things so you can show up well for the great things in this season. Making cuts is never fun in the moment but you have to think of your future self and how you’re supporting yourself for the long run.
And remember that cutting something for this season doesn’t mean you’re cutting it forever. Maybe you can’t volunteer in your kid’s class every month right now but you can swing once a semester. Or maybe right now, you’re not able to go to your regular 6:30 AM workout class 5 days a week but you can get in solid workouts at home, saving yourself the commute time to the gym each way.
Margin requires you to make some sacrifices and the reward is not feeling stretched so thin and having time built into your schedule for when things like getting sick come up.
Tip 03: Create a sick day routine.
I’m all about being proactive so that when things happen, I’m as prepared as possible. That being said, it might be helpful for you to have some sort of loose sick day routine in place for when you or a loved one comes down with something. That way your first reaction isn’t to revert to stress but to do what you need to do to keep the show going.
That being said, remember that our schedules and routines are tools, not chains – when someone is sick, you can whip out your sick day routine go over it, and see what pieces of it feel supportive and do those and leave the rest.
An example of a sick day routine might be this:
+ Grab your planner and see if there are any time-bound commitments you need to cancel and communicate to others.
+ Look over your task list for the day and see what you can shuffle around (by delegating or moving to a different day – this is where it’s helpful to have margin built into your schedule) and make note of any tasks that absolutely have to be done that day.
+ Call your support people to lend you a helping hand (spouse, best friend, mom, neighbor, etc.)
+ Get some fresh air
+ Order a nourishing meal
+ Take a nap
Tip 04: Have a game plan for when everyone is back to feeling well.
I am list making queeeeen. Truly my life lists, my Peacefully Productive Planner, and my Google cal are my ride or dies. When I’m down and out for a few days because of a sickness, I open up my favorite note-taking app on my phone (you can check it out here) and brain dump everything that I want/need to do once I’m feeling better.
So my post-sickness brain dump might be something like this:
+ Wash all the sheets
+ Do an all-hands-on-deck deep clean of the house - aka everyone who lives with you and is capable pitches in
+ Check in with tasks that I deferred while I was sick and reschedule them (I use the margin that is built into my weeks to tackle these things)
+ Order groceries
I think half the battle with feeling overwhelmed or like you’re behind on things is having so much floating around in your brain. There’s a lot of power in doing brain dumps and being able to see things laid out in front of your eyeballs.
If I'm sick and I truly need to rest, to get well, it’s hard to do that when stress is consuming me. Doing brain dumps is a way to release stress. Brain dumps help us manage overthinking and anxiety and when we do that, we can focus on resting (which is what we truly need) and when we rest, we’ll get better quicker and be able to get back to our regularly scheduled lives quicker and without feeling so overwhelmed.
And don’t think you’re gonna escape this episode without me singing the praises of Hustle Sanely 5 before you go – I use HS5 to help me navigate both sick days and days when I’m trying to get back to my regularly scheduled programming after being sick.
If you’re new around here, HS5 is a daily routine that is made up of 5 habits:
01: Complete your Focus 3.
02: Move for 30 minutes.
03: Tidy for 15 minutes.
04: Say/do one kind thing for yourself.
05: Say/do one kind thing for someone else.
Doing these 5 habits every day, gives me solid ground to stand on – it gives me something I can count on every day, no matter what season I’m in. Sure, the way I do the habits looks different from season to season and day to day but the framework stays the same. HS5 helps me to make progress where progress needs to be made while prioritizing my mental health and relationships.
When I’m sick, my Focus 3 might look something like: take a warm bath, take a nap, and eat a nourishing meal.
My move for 30 minutes might look like going on a short walk to get fresh air, if I’m up for it, or doing some stretches to help me relax.
My tidy for 15 minutes I’d probably skip on a day I’m not feeling well or I’d ask my husband to do it for me.
My kind thing for myself would be watching a comfort movie and my kind thing for someone else could be texting a friend to see how they’re doing.
HS5 helps me feel like my days have structure even when they don’t go according to plan.
If you want to learn more about HS5, tune in to our podcast episode 169 – that episode dives into all of it!
Alright y’all, that is what I’ve got for you today – how to Hustle Sanely when you’re sick or your kid is sick – don’t forget that the biggest things I want you to take away from this: 01: Your schedules and routines are tools, not chains and 02: your well-being and the well-being of your family tops everything else. Give yourself grace, focus your energy on getting better (or getting your kiddo better), and know that your to-do list will be there when everyone is well. I promise you the world is going to keep spinning whether something gets ticked off your to-do list or not.
Don’t forget to go check out the FREE Chaos to Calm Workshop – I know you’ll love it and you can use what I teach you in that workshop to help build your sick day routine!
INTRODUCING THE FREE
Chaos to Calm Workshop
Learn 5 routines that will make your life less stressful and how to create a weekly schedule with them so you can get stuff done
while prioritizing your mental health and relationships ✨
Loved this blog post? Tune into the full podcast episode below!
