Surprise, surprise – I have a cold again. I hate colds probably more than any other person you know. Yes, having a weak immune system (no matter how healthily I try to eat or how well I try to take care of myself) and getting colds a lot more often than anyone I know is truly annoying.
Even though my cold symptoms aren’t typically that serious, they are bad enough to limit my social life and decrease my productivity nearly to zero.
Being a one person-company doesn’t help either. After all that’s how many freelance writers operate. We write, edit, research, query, organize, brainstorm, market and a lot more. Having a head that feels like 40 pounds or feeling dizzy as soon as you get up doesn’t really help with any of our tasks.
But while there is not much I can do about the colds, I can at least think of the benefits (and lessons learned) to avoid feeling blue and frustrated.
1) You save money. Assuming you have a solid insurance, having a cold means you don’t go out much and therefore you don’t spend much. This way you have a lot more to spend when you are feeling all energetic and healthy. Maybe you can put some of them in your saving or traveling accounts. And I am not making this up. You should see how good my account balance is right now.
2) You can procrastinate, and not feel guilty about it. There are many ways to procrastinate, and despite our best efforts we find ourselves doing it. I know that we need our relaxation moments but we often spend a lot more time resting/delaying/dealing with less challenging stuff/depressing over queries more than we should or need to.
If you are not feeling terrible, there are of course productive things you can during a cold. But chances are you are not going to be nearly as efficient as your healthy self. So take this time to procrastinate away. Watch mindless TV, feel upset, eat some comfort food….
3) You can reach a whole level of motivation and drive. The longer a cold sticks around, the more driven I become to do more for my career, and do it sooner and faster. You realize how important time is one more time, and when you have the energy to do things to reach your goals, you should just do so.
4) You can get the not-so-exciting tasks done. Not all tasks require much energy. Try organizing your desktop, getting rid of all the resources you don’t need, rearranging bookmarks, going over your markets lists. Note all your ideas. Go over your old posts to see what you have covered so far.
Once you get your health back, you can get back to work with guns blazing.
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How do you deal with your colds?