You’ve sure had that productive day where you were able to get a lot of important tasks handled. I’m talking you were at the peak of your game, your efficiency radar was on a 100.

So why does that gut wrenching and soul crushing feeling swoop in and suddenly you aren’t doing enough, you aren’t being productive enough and you could be doing so much better.

Let’s get into this feeling and why it still comes to play even on productive days.

The life of a remote worker isn’t always easy. Because you can never have highly functioning productive days all week round. It’s filled with highs and lows, some days you can get everything done and some days you can’t even get out of bed. It’s the cycle of working from home.

In the past, I would hate myself for taking breaks, I wanted everyday to be even more productive than the last but that was simply not possible. There will be highs and lows of emotions, energy levels and stress.

Hence why on Day 1, I can begin working from 8am – 2pm then take a 4 hour nap after. And then on day 2, It’s an internal struggle to set up my workspace and even dedicate 2 hours to working.

Yesterday, I had a very productive day. I’m talking all my tasks were handled. I woke up by 6, did some personal development reading till past 7. Then I got to work till around past 1pm, in between 7am and 1pm I got on an hour long call with my older brother because we hadn’t spoken in a minute.

Then I took a nap, and woke up by past 4. Tell me why despite having such a productive morning/afternoon, I woke up and left like the laziest person alive. I was so down and pissed at myself that I was sleeping whilst my peers were working. I felt like I was slacking off.

And then I picked up my laptop worked a couple hours, watched some tiktoks, then worked some more, it’s was well past 2am before I finally get into bed.

But let’s zone in on that feeling that ate at me after my nap. It’s second nature of have that voice grill me when I’m having a lazy day and I just decided to relax to blow some steam off but it irks me when I feel that way on a day when I felt like I did my best.

I’ve come a long way from beating myself up about not being productive to the point where I can tolerate it and not let the voice get to me when I’m on my break and for that I am proud of myself.

However Yesterday made me realise that whether or not I am working, being productive or efficient, that voice will always try to belittle it and make me feel less, and it is my job to remind that voice that even I need a break sometimes.