KNOWING YOUR LIMITS

9 March 2020

Learning the fine art of productivity is an everyday struggle, some have figured it out and some are still trying to get the hang of things. I would imagine this is different for everyone but knowing when to stop or slow down and when to pick up your slack is a hell of a ball game. Is it 2, 3 or 6hrs into a day of work, no mater what you do produce, dance, paint, draw, gig at what point do you start doing more harm than good?

You’ll find it interesting that a hand full of European countries like Netherlands, Germany and France have an average working week of anything between 25-30hrs. In Spain anywhere between 2pm - 5pm they take a siesta otherwise know as I nap, while you’re struggling to make it to the end of your day! So you end up getting home absolutely exhausted with yet still so much to do with people that you want to see but cant because you have to do laundry on a Friday night. Meanwhile Spain is nocking all that out in the early afternoon and having themselves a late night fiesta.

I can see how shorter hours make a more productive and accurate use of time but surely taking an hour nap might be overkill, I don’t know about you but that “to do” list is till long and nap isn’t on it (yet). I’v recently played around with some different hours of work/rest time and have found it’s a lot like working out. I believe the majority would agree that an hour is a good bench mark, just enough time to push yourself in order to stretch and build muscle but anything more than that you start getting tired. Therefore loosing proper form and putting yourself at risk of an injury with repercussions that would put you right back to square one.

Taking a break isn't a bad thing, work hard but don’t go burning yourself out just to preach to everybody about how hard you “hustle”. It’s almost impossible to stay focused for 9 hours straight so when you notice your attention start to dwindle maybe its time to take a break and come back with a clear head. Then just to add some balance into your productivity remember, that you won’t build muscle if you don’t add more weight so you’re not learning anything if you’re not challenging yourself. Over time you’ll get better at your practice, what might of taken you 30mins to complete now only takes 5min. Leaving more room to try new things and improve overall productivity, it’s just a matter of getting to your limits.