When You’re Hungry, Eat, When You’re Tired, Sleep

• Tweet
• Sharebar

It’s productivity time again!

Have you ever tried focusing on something while you needed to pee really bad?

I have.

And I just couldn’t focus.

And yet some people insist on trying to work or study while they’re hungry, or thirsty, or tired. Hey, I used to be that way too!

I used to try to do real work at the computer while I was tired. And then I used to wonder why I always ended up browsing reddit and slashdot and using StumbleUpon, and not getting anything done. (Mmm, now that I think of it, I still spend way too much time on those sites. Maybe I should dabble with my browser’s config and redirect them all to goatse :p)(If you don’t know what “goatse” is, don’t look it up. Seriously. Just don’t )

Listen to your body

Your body is sending you messages. When you get the feeling that you’re hungry, that’s a message from your body. When you start yawning and feeling all mushy – that’s also a message from your body.

If you ignore the message, your body will wait for a bit, and then try again. But it will use a louder messenger this time. It’s like the first time it sends a polite notice by mail, then a smooth talking englishman stops by your house to politely remind you, and next thing you know a SWAT team is busting down your door, yelling “Dude, this stuff is URGENT.”

Don’t let it get that far. Listen the first time, and do something about it. You should have a VERY good reason for ignoring any of the messages your body sends you.

Procrastination

Did you realize procrastination is also a message that your body is sending you?

It means this: “The stuff you wanna do is boring. Make it fun, please.”

Thankfully, I have written an article dealing with just that! Making Work Fun – Cure Procrastination Now

Common messages your body might be sending you

Here’s a list of some common messages from your body you might be ignoring:

1. Hunger
This one often happens because of the three-meals-a-day mindset. That leads to you first being distracted by hunger, then eating a huge meal, and then being groggy after the big meal because all the blood in your body is used for digestion. You might find a way to pull off three meals a day, but I personally much prefer 5 smaller meals.
2. Tiredness
This often happens when people get trapped in measuring their progress by how much time they spend on a task. For example, deciding to “study” for 2 hours. That won’t lead anywhere, because studying isn’t about how much time you put in – it’s about how well you learn your stuff. That’s why I wrote the series of articles on Learning Mastery.
3. Boredom
Yeah, sometimes you have to do boring stuff. But more often than not, you can turn it into fun. In the article on making work fun, I give you an example of how at first I couldn’t bring myself to sweep the floor… and ended up jumping around one foot talking to myself in weird voices, while sweeping the floor! Almost anything can be made fun!

Summary

So listen to your body. It’s sending you messages for a reason.

And once you take care of all the urgent messages, your mind will be totally free to do the stuff you really want, instead of coming back every couple of seconds saying “I need to pee”. Remember…

When you’re hungry, eat. When you’re tired, sleep.

Tweet