The Pineapple Chicken Blog

Hey Everyone!

I hope you are having a wonderful start to the week. It has been a depressingly grey day in London; so this has resulted in me looking out the window, sighing and, having random thoughts.

Before I resume my usual blogs of travel and art, I wanted to share something I had learned at work and some counter-arguments to the lessons learned in the book Life Leverage from my previous post.

For those who have not read my ‘About’ page, I currently work in financial services which unfortunately is often associated with high stress and long hours. The concept of Life Leverage (not an ad) is to minimise time doing things you do not enjoy and maximising the time available to do complete an ‘income generating task’.

One criticism of this is that the theory does not really consider the concept of recovery. I work in a very forward-thinking and caring company. During my time at work, they have provided resources for my colleagues to manage work-related stress. I had an opportunity to go on a course held by Cognacity (not an ad) and they introduced me this concept of recovery.

This is obviously not new, athletes completely value and understand the importance of recovery for long-term performance. However, this is something that is not ingrained for people at a desk job.

• How many of you check work emails after office hours? Or even on holiday?
• Do you think about work when you have left the office?
• Do you bring your stress and anger home to your loved ones?

I think society today expects you to perform at your maximum output consistently. Have you found that the better you do, the more work you are given? It is this endless spiral! The expectations are always higher. You can never reach your “full potential” and you can always be more “effective”.

From one of the quizzes, it was identified that I am a very “should” person. I wonder if any of you share this trait with me?

Do you feel guilty when you are taking some downtime?

This weekend I had to catch up with some household chores and self-care (my nails were looking hideous). After that, I spent most of the time relaxing. However, I had this nagging feeling that I should be doing more.

• I should go to the latest art exhibition instead of watching TV so I can write about it on my blog
• I should be doing the dishes and cleaning the house
• I should be tidying my room in and continue my pursuit for a minimalist lifestyle (struggling)
• I should be reading or thinking of ways to make money
• I should be studying or finding something new to learn.
• I should be… Etc.

I realised that I have been doing this a lot and this has caused me quite a bit of anxiety. The guilt I feel when I am not doing something “productive”. I have had instances where I have crammed so much in a weekend I am exhausted by Monday morning because I have done too much or socialised too much. As an introvert, a busy weekend with others can be extremely exhausting, no matter how much I love the company.

I am definitely struggling between being effective vs. feeling guilty when I need recovery.

Remember, recovery is just as important as being productive/effective. So next time, take time for yourself and put your feet up 🙂 do something that really relaxes you or whatever to energise yourself. You totally deserve it!

Have you ever thought about how you can incorporate recovery in your daily life? Are you are “should” person?

I would love to hear your experiences, whether you are a total zen yogi who has life sorted out to someone who struggles with the balance.

With Sweet & Sour Love,

Pineapple Chicken x