Maintaining Productivity When You’re Feeling Unwell
Productivity is a huge focus in the modern workplace. However, sometimes personal life just doesn’t cooperate with your professional goals. This is especially true during the coronavirus pandemic, where work-from-home employment has completely upset the status quo for so many workers.
If you find that you or a loved one are feeling unwell, it may challenge your ability to stay productive at work. While PTO can often ameliorate the issue, at times you’re going to need to set aside your personal considerations and focus on the time-sensitive work in front of you.
Here are a few suggestions for ways to help you maintain your productivity when you have to work while you or a loved one are feeling unwell.
Prioritize Your Responsibilities
If you find that your productivity has been thrown off by how you’re feeling, the first thing that you should do is prioritize your responsibilities. After all, if you only have a limited amount of energy and focus, you don’t want to fritter it away by finally reorganizing your office or answering emails when you have an important assignment due by the end of the day.
Go over your current to-do list and find the time-sensitive items. As you do so, keep an eye out for anything that can be put off until later. Additionally, if you find tasks that are easy to pass along to someone else, do so.
Prioritizing and delegating responsibilities is an excellent way to stay on track, especially if you’re trying to maintain productivity while you’re feeling physically unwell or integrating back into work after a traumatic experience.
Communicate How You’re Feeling
Communication is essential to a properly functioning workplace. This is true even when it comes to normal day-to-day operations, particularly when everyone is working remotely during a quarantine.
When it comes to facing adversity, communication is a vital tool for maintaining productivity. It doesn’t matter if you’re dealing with a head cold, a sick family member, or a work injury, you should report your condition to your employer as soon as possible. This can alert them to the fact that your productivity may slump a bit as you’re getting back onto your feet, which will naturally take some of the pressure to perform off of your shoulders.
Stay Organized
If personal life or an illness is making it a struggle to focus and stay productive at work, you should stay as organized as possible. Lean on things like morning rituals and daily routines to help you build and maintain some much-needed momentum throughout your day.
Make sure to find an isolated and dedicated workspace where personal life will intrude as little as possible. If you have an office to commute to, this can be easy. However, if you’re feeling under the weather during the pandemic, you’ll likely be asked to work from home. If that happens, make sure that you have a dedicated and organized workspace to use as you work.
Review Your Schedule
Much like your priorities, your schedule is a key to productivity success when you’re feeling unwell. A well-maintained schedule can help you remain aware of important responsibilities and deadlines.
It can also help you plan in time to take regular breaks. This can be instrumental in keeping you on your feet throughout the day.
Reach Out for Help
Help is always important when you’re feeling unwell. If you still need to work, it’s that much more important that you reach out for support from those who you can trust.
If you have kids who need babysitting, try tapping in a friend or family member on the shoulder. If a coworker can take on a job for you, don’t hesitate to ask. If asking for help makes you feel guilty, remember that you can return the favor later. If you’re feeling unwell on the job, one way or another, look for the lifelines that you have available and then use them.
Take Care of Yourself
Finally, remember to take care of yourself, as well. Self-care isn’t just fun, it’s a priority — especially when you feel unwell. You don’t want to survive today only to feel worse tomorrow.
As you navigate through your workday, make sure to lean on that prioritized to-do list and restructured schedule to ensure that you have enough time to tend to basic self-care items like rest, sleep, and food.
Finding Productivity Amid Challenges
Hopefully, your employment situation is flexible when it comes to things like sick and personal days. However, when those days roll around where you have to work, even though you’re under the weather, it’s still possible to be productive within reason.
By prioritizing your work, restructuring your schedule, communicating with your employer, and reaching out for help, you can still manage to get things done without falling to pieces.
Most importantly, if you’re the one who’s feeling unwell, always make sure to carve time out for some basic sickness-self-care. Stay comfortable, get plenty of rest, eat healthy food, and sleep as much as you can. If you can manage to approach the situation strategically, you can still stay focused and productive, even when you have to work in the worst of conditions.
