For the past few years I’ve found myself getting a nasty sinus cold around the first week of April—two years ago after a long day of exploring a cherry blossom park in Joetsu, Japan, and last year when I was preparing the pre-orders for MFA Thesis Novel. And this year, the same thing happened again.
I’d been getting a bit of a sore throat in the mornings and at night for a week or so, but it never lasted long. Last Wednesday, though, I found myself with a bad runny nose that got worse throughout the day, and after crashing hard that night, I woke up the next day too tired to do much of anything.
I write about this in detail not because I want to share a play-by-play of being sick (because not only is that gross, but it’s unnecessary storytelling-wise), but to emphasize that sickesses come up unexpectedly, often at bad times when we have other things going on, creating real repercussions for how we deal with them. Charging forward with your regular routine even when you’re sick is rarely if ever a good choice: not only will you not be at your best and likely make mistakes, but you’re also likely to prolong the sickness and make things more difficult for yourself. (Plus, in the age of COVID, people are less forgiving of others who are sick in public places, providing good encouragement to stay home!)
Instead, we have to cancel plans, reschedule appointments, and shift our priorities while we take time to get better, which is exactly what I did on Thursday. Because I realized (albeit after some stressful considering) that I needed to spend the day in bed, that meant rescheduling the two appointments I had that day, which I just did from bed by sending an email and a text. I also pushed back some editing work I’d planned on doing that day, which I was able to easily do since I’ve been working on my different projects in order according to their due dates.
I will say, though, that deciding to take the sick day wasn’t an easy decision: I went back and forth that morning, staying in bed far later than usual before I made the final call. In the future, I’d really like to be better about making that decision more quickly and easily, so I have peace of mind about working or not working that day. (Usually, though, if I have to think about it for long, it’s probably a sign I should stay in bed…)
This sickness was actually bit of an odd one—after taking a day off on Thursday, I felt ready to go back to my work routine on Friday, which felt like the right decision. However, on Saturday I started feeling tired and listless again, so I crashed hard that night and spent most on Sunday in bed as well—a return to my time-out state.
My big regret is that I tried to jump back into a regular routine on Saturday by doing some catchup work I’d fallen behind on. By pushing myself too hard, I’m pretty sure I burned myself out and postponed my return to my normal routine even longer.
If You’re Sick, Rest!!!
This is something I want to remind everyone reading, just like I need to remind myself. If you’re not feeling well, you should take time off and rest so things don’t get worse. Not only will it help you feel better faster, but it’ll lead to a bigger time save overall, since you’ll end up taking less time off in total. I share my story here to illustrate this, and in hope that people will learn from it.