Switching Off…

It’s been a tough week.

One of the downsides of being a ‘creative’ is that your brain pretty much never shuts down. Whatever it is that I’ve currently got my attention focused on pretty much becomes the centre of my universe, and until I’m happy that said project is complete, and to my ridiculous standards, it will be the only thing I can think about. I won’t sleep, I’ll withdraw into my own little world and everything else will fall by the wayside until it’s done. This can be a great thing of course, but it can also weigh rather heavily on you if you don’t take time out for yourself.

This week work started tipping into the realm of unmanageable and I found myself sucked into a cycle of work, taking work home, beating myself up for not getting enough work done, a couple of hours of disrupted sleep then rising at the crack of dawn to start all over again. I’m a pretty resilient person – you can’t have spent 15 years working in the pub trade without learning how to cope with lack of sleep and no days off – but by day three it started to take it’s toll. Truth is, the two weeks running up to this hadn’t been particularly restful, so it wasn’t long before I started spiralling into a state of slight delirium. Thankfully I have someone at home who knows the signs. He stepped in before I lost the plot, and on Thursday evening, when the taxing decision of what to eat for dinner reduced me to tears, he forcibly removed the laptop from my vice like grip, packed me off upstairs to pick out a pair of heels (he knows me so well!) and took me out for some much needed respite.

It’s funny how, while in the midst of a tough time, you can’t see the wood for the trees. I was adamant that I couldn’t possibly have time to take a break, but you know what? That mountain of work was still there when I got back, and the fact was, the volume of work that had landed in my lap was at such an unrealistic scale that it really made no difference. Sure, the next day I was back to square one, but a beer, some ginger chicken udon and a movie with the one I love the most didn’t half make me feel better, and I’m certain I woke up slightly more refreshed and ready to take on the challenge than I would have if I’d tried to plough through.

It’s so important to take time out people! There aren’t many things that can’t wait a little while, step back every now and then and take stock of what you have. Work to live, don’t live to work! ‘Cause there isn’t much point having a room full of shoes if you have no time to wear them!

Take it easy…..

In this post: Red suede pumps, Primark (similar) – Jeans, Zara (similar), – T-shirt, H&M – Cardigan, Dorothy Perkins (similar) – Necklace, Dorothy Perkins (similar)