To SLOG or to SLEEP - That is the question!

“Activity and rest are two vital aspects of life. To find a balance in them is a skill in itself. Wisdom is knowing when to have rest, when to have activity, and how much of each to have. Finding them in each other - activity in rest and rest in activity - is the ultimate freedom.” ― Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

I am very much a believer in the principle that if you are going to set your mind to doing something, you do it properly. You give it your all and you never give up. Perseverance for the WIN! - For the most part, this approach to life serves me very well. Progress is always made quickly and I get the desired results a lot sooner than I would without my tireless efforts.

However, lately I have been pushing myself really hard. Between my business and seeing to the family, I have also been publishing between one to two posts a day here on Steemit. Now anybody on this platform that contributes quality, content heavy posts will know that these can take up to 5 hours to compile from start to finish. It is hard work!

Doing this after 4pm in the afternoon whilst still seeing to my son, his homework, cooking dinner, bath time, packing lunches etc. can be quite taxing on one’s energy levels. And after you have published your post there is generally an initial influx of comments which personally, I like to reply to straight away… but again… all of this takes time and energy.

Over a stretch of two or three weeks I have found that my energy levels have become practically non-existent and have been walking around in a constant state of complete exhaustion. In fact last week I actually burst a blood vessels in my eyes because of the long hours sitting in front of my laptop. Lol… no really!

I was utterly depleted! Now this makes absolutely no sense. Not only does this state deprive you of any creative thought whatsoever, but it also leaves you feeling absolutely RUBBISH!

Whilst I am acutely aware of how many successful people not only survive, but thrive on minimal sleep, some of them seem to achieve this with a few “power naps” throughout the day – which I simply do not have the availability of time for… so onward I push…zombie like and all…lol

Yes, the rewards make the continued efforts worthwhile, but at some point you simply HAVE to allow yourself some “down time” and if you don’t, what I find - is that your body will force it upon you by way of illness or emotional breakdown.

When I am repeatedly sleep deprived I become VERY emo! lol

It is amazing how lack of sleep affects us on every single level – physical, mental and emotional. Thankfully I decided to be sensible and after two nights of relatively decent rest, I feel almost human again…yay!

The best bridge between despair and hope is a good night’s sleep. - E. Joseph Cossman

Although there seem to be two very contrasting opinions when it comes to rest and sleep habits.

On the one side of the coin there are those that seem to function with far below the advised 8 hour daily quota, and these are some of the most genius and successful people alive (or to have lived). Nikola Tesla and Donald trump as examples, apparently survive on 2-4 hours of sleep per night.

Then you get the likes of greats such as Leonardo da vinci and Thomas Edison that used the intermittent power naps approach to managing their sleep.

Then you get me lol… that pushes and pushes for about 3 weeks straight with little to no sleep – begins walking around in a sleep deprived state of wander until eventually collapsing into a heap on the floor, getting some rest and then starting all over again. Haha!

I have read countless articles by different people explaining the benefits of going to bed early so that you can start earlier and refreshed rather than ploughing through the night, only to wake up feeling depleted and yes, it IS wonderful to wake up in the morning feeling like a full battery… but this is definitely not a “one size fits all” subject, so whilst I can do that for a while, I cannot do it on a continued basis because I find I simply have too MUCH energy. lol

I think that finding the balance between the two is probably the most logical approach (for me anyway) and after this last two week “stint” – I think I am prepared to at least attempt to find a little more balance…besides, I don’t look particularly attractive with burst blood vessels in my eyes haha!

There are no problems – only solutions and although I would prefer not to walk around in a comatose state too frequently, I am also not really prepared to take my foot off the accelerator in terms of efforts, which got me thinking about how to best manage things moving forwards.

I am fortunate in that I do not have anybody to “answer to” at work, so I have decided to try and allocate myself some time throughout my daytime working hours to do a bit of writing and prepare my blog posts – this takes an enormous amount of pressure off me at the end of the day with trying to put a post together in-between everything else going on around me.

I did it yesterday (although yesterday’s post was not particularly content heavy…) it was my first day of “recovery” so the fact that I produced anything was actually miraculous. Lol – but it was wonderful to get home and just be able to focus on exploring other peoples posts, reading, commenting etc. whilst getting dinner ready, playing with my son etc.

I was A LOT more relaxed. I did not need to be as focused, so instead of feeling “required” to sit at the dining room table, I kicked my shoes off, and planted my rear end on the couch with my laptop and a glass of wine! It was a GOOD evening! If my daytime hours afford me the gaps to continue to do this, then I certainly will.

Step one on the road to a more balanced approach – CHECK! Yeah baby YEAH!!!

Sleep is the golden chain that ties health and our bodies together. ~ Thomas Dekker

I would love to hear how those of you that work full time and are simultaneously serious about blogging manage this aspect…

Until next time...

Much Love from Cape Town, South Africa xxx