So we haven't done a call in a while. - Yeah, it's time for a call. - Yeah, let's hear someone's voice. - We have Kevin from Minnesota. - Excellent. - Basically asking about when's a good time to rest. - When you're dead, Kevin. - This is Kevin from Minnesota.

I'm a bit of a writer and a teacher and a learner and love the Deep Questions podcast. And here is my question. I always appreciate how you put hard edges on topics and nuances that help us improve. And my question is, how do you know when it's time to rest?

And I mean, in terms of the work itself. So sometimes you get a little fatigued and whether it's writing or some other piece of work, and I don't know whether I should push ahead and get it done, or it's time to just put it aside for a day or two and let it kind of percolate a bit.

So love to get your nuances. And if you will, a little more edge on thinking of the question about how do you know when it's time to stop, pause on something versus push through and get it done. Thanks. - Well, yeah, Kevin, there's a couple of facets to this.

So how do you know when to take a break from a particular thing you're working on? There's a physical facet. So know your body, know your mind. I mean, if you're feeling, if you're tired, if you're sick, you can just feel that you're not getting traction even that you do your rituals, you get into the work, it's time blocked and not much traction's coming on, then you need to give your brain a break.

All right, so I think there's the physical aspect to it. There's also the, I would say the non-physical sort of creativity aspect to it. I'm not quite sure what the right word to use here. So let's just use creativity, which is you feel fine. You're not sick, you're not tired, but you're not rolling, you're not making traction.

Like for me, what this looks like with let's say article writing and I have a relevant story that just happened to me, I think it's relevant to this, is I feel fine, so I'm working, I'm writing, but it's not gelling. It's just I'm going through the motions of like, I need to get this done by this point.

That's my weekly plan that's part of this bigger strategic plan. I need to get this article draft done and I'm writing, writing, writing, but I know it's not working. And for me, I feel it as a physical unease. This is how I am with writing. If it's not completely, if it's not working, it just doesn't feel right.

So there's this creativity, cognitive aspect. And again, without giving too much details about things in progress, which I always try to be very careful about keeping private, I've been working on an article and I was just locked in, like I need to get this done because I have this whole strategic plan of finish it this week so I can start on this next week, et cetera.

I grounded out, I felt fine, so I grounded out and the thing ballooned 7,000 words and it's for a magazine, right? And it just, it wasn't working. It just wasn't working, you know? And I, at some point I said, okay, I got to pull the rip cord on this, take a couple of days off, take a weekend off, come back to it fresh.

I came back to it fresh and hand-grenaded the thing in the fragments, took the fragments I liked, rewrote it from scratch, took me an extra week, but it's much closer to where it should be. So that's the other fear is like, I have energy, but my mind's just not there.

And there, that's another instance where you say, I need to step back, take a couple of days, come back, come back at this fresh. And in this case, it was a walk. I took two days off and in one walk, 20 minutes long, I just, the structure, the structure fell into place.

It was like, oh yeah, cut that, cut that, cut that, start on this, intertwine this, make that shorter. 20 minutes, the whole thing was redone. But I think without the 48 hours before that 20 minutes, I wouldn't have been able to have the insight. So Kevin, that's what I would suggest.

Physical fatigue, you gotta, you know your body. You're not gonna get anything by forcing it through except for more tiredness, prolonged sickness, and work you're not proud of, but then also creative fatigue. Give yourself a couple of days, come at it, come at it fresh. All right, so good luck.

Good luck with your writing. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)