Why be productive when you’re sick

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I know it looks like I’m taking this a bit to the extreme, but don’t worry, I won’t have you all working (too much) when you’re down. I do think however that you can do a lot of stuff when you’re sick, like organizing yourself, paving the way to productivity. Even if you do it in small steps, and not only in relation to your work, it’s still worth the time, in the end you have quite a lot of that when your sick right? Let’s take a look at why you should take the time out to be productive, even when you don’t really feel like it, trust me, it’s worth it!

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Why be productive

There are three reasons I think you should get up and do something, unless you’re really sick, in which case it’s bed and tea for you mister (or miss). First of all, you have the time. If you work 8 hours a day and go in to work, you really can’t do much from home, unless you can take it home with you. If you work at home, you can still take some time off, let people know you’re a bit ill. The second, more important reason is that your mind is cleaner, free of worries. Even if you do dwell on something you know you can not, or do not have to do it. This at least takes some of the stress off your shoulders. The third reason is that if you actually do something when you’re under the weather, you will feel good that you have accomplished it. This may give you an extra boost, and you may even start feeling better sooner.

What to do

By being productive and organizing, I don’t necessarily mean working. Sure, you can if you want to, answer the odd email, organize your contacts, create some Excel tables and so on, nothing too drastic. You can turn to your personal side however and tag your photos, organize your music, download album art, try out that new web 2.0 thing you’ve been wanting to and so on. Leading a productive life doesn’t just mean we work effectively, it also means we can live our personal lives the way we want to (I think that’s the goal anyway).

The benefits

First of all, you will feel good about doing something. You will be proud that you stood up and fixed the table, changed the light bulbs, de-clutterd your Windows desktop, or whatever. You won’t necessarily get better by this boost, but you did something productive at least. The reason I do this though is that I get around to doing things I wouldn’t under normal circumstances. Tagging my photos is a great example, I wouldn’t have taken time to do that with all the work going on, but while sick, I felt it was an easy and enjoyable (if somewhat monotonous) task. I have organized over a thousand photos and I am very happy about it too!

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