You know what, I love doing nothing. I’m actually pretty good at it, and when I’ve been busy it’s just great to sit back, do nothing and relax for a while. I’m a great schlepper, and I’ve come to see that schlepping is a key piece of what makes me productive.

When I started freelancing alongside my coaching I thought I’d make use of my commuting time to write, and that if I took my laptop to work with me I could sit in a coffee shop at lunch time and take care of emails. I tried to squeeze more time out of my day, all of which added to my stress levels and didn’t get me any further ahead.

I was stressed out, waking up in the middle of the night worrying that things aren’t getting done and that the world will fall apart if I don’t’ do them.

I felt bad that things were getting on top of me and that I wasn’t able to do everything. I started seeing myself as failing to get things done, that somehow I was less than because even though I was on the go for 16 hours a day I wasn’t delivering what I wanted to deliver.

Recognise this?

Many of my clients sure do – this is one of the many confidence-impacting problems that I deal with every week. The bottom line is that if you keep on going full steam ahead, trying to do everything with the notion that you ought to be able to do it all, you’ll burn out. You’ll lose yourself in the middle of everything you’re doing, and you’ll find your focus and sense of what you’re about slipping.

Let that ride and your self-confidence will suffer as you focus more and more on what you’re not doing and where you’re not seeing things happen as you’d like them to.

The belief that you need to deliver consistently without ever stopping is a deeply flawed one. It WILL get in the way of what you’re working on, and it WILL impact how you see yourself and your level of confidence.

So stop it.

I want to spell out to you that it’s okay to not do things. It’s okay to slow down, take a break and nourish yourself. More than that, it’s dangerous not to.

One quick distinction to make – don’t think for a second that slowing down is the same as procrastinating. Far from it. This funny little film shows you precisely what procrastinating is.

Procrastinating is busying yourself with all kinds of other things so that you don’t have to ‘get your stuff done’. Slowing down is making a deliberate and positive choice to take a break and nourish yourself.

As I’ve come to see. slowing down can be an amazing strategy for being more productive.

Tell me – Do you have problems slowing down or feel bad that you’re not getting everything done? How do you refuel, recharge and nourish yourself?