I looove the topic for April, this is exactly what I needed.

I am facing two challenges that I would like your advice on.

1. What do you do if you become ill? Do you reschedule, and how? This is not a once in a blue moon event for me, for two reasons. I live in Norway, where pretty much everyone will get sick several times from October – April, more so than in a warmer country. I have been sick for about 1 week so far this year, meaning too sick to do anything. The kids also will be sick for 10+ days out of the year. How do you reschedule? Another thing is that I have complicated migraine with aura and paralysation. This is a genetic condition, so although stress and thought management and diet, exercise, trigger management and all of that is important and something I prioritise highly, I still have a medical condition that can leave me non-functional for anywhere from 2 – 48 hrs. I am used to pushing through illness as well, including migraines, but I am working on not doing that so much anymore, because I got to good at it, and ended up really sick for two years. I am still not completely back to my old self, eg. I can’t do hard exercise yet, without collapsing. And when my body says that it’s tired at night and can’t do any more work, where I used to be able to push it for a few more hours, now I have to rest immediately to avoid falling down, paralysis etc. Luckily, I now know that if I take my medication and rest for 2 hrs, I will be able to work for the rest of the day.

I know Brooke says you can probably get twice as much done as you currently do. I’m the kind of worker that always over-delivers and gives 100% and I want to unleash my potential (which lies in better schedule and planning/producing results, not tasks). But I don’t want to plan for exhaustion either, and I see I might overfill my calendar, leaving little room for relaxation.

2. How do you know how much time to allocate to a task? I find I leave too little time, and then fall behind. I am planning B- results, but still find it takes me way too long to read and write about research articles for my thesis, etc. I love the idea that tasks take the time you allow them too, but I’m not succeeding in this area yet. Do you allocate a generous amount of time, so that you know you can get it done if you work efficiently? I’m struggling with this one.

Thanks,
Siw