Productivity When You’re Exhausted – TPW451

In this episode we're talking about how to be productive even when you're exhausted. Productivity when you're exhausted--it can be done The day before I sat down to plan this episode was a challenging one. My husband and I traveled several hours to help our daughter move with her four daughters from one house to another. Moving, of course, is always a tiring project. In this case, the endeavor was made more difficult by a severe storm that had traveled through the area the night before, leaving most of the metropolitan area where she lives without power. That meant, among other things, that there was no air conditioning on a day when the temps were in the 90s F (around 33 degrees Celsius) and the humidity was very high. After a long day of working in that climate, we had to drive several hours back home because the hotel we’d planned to stay at was also without electricity and thus closed. After a quick but badly needed shower, we collapsed into bed very late that night.  I woke the next morning knowing I had several things to get done, one of them being preparing for this episode. As I sat at my computer, pondering what to talk about, all I could think about was how exhausted I was. Which got me thinking about how we can get stuff done when we’re exhausted . . .  I realized then that last week we had talked about staying productive when life is chaotic. I hadn’t planned to start a series on productivity despite challenges, but this week’s topic kind of fell into that category. What do I mean by exhaustion? Definition: * 1 a state of extreme physical or mental fatigue   * 2 the action or state of using something up or of being used up completely.  My exhaustion was physical--it came from physical exertion on a hot, humid day. Exhaustion can also be mental or emotional. Healthline describes emotional exhaustion: “Emotional exhaustion is a state of feeling emotionally worn-out and drained as a result of accumulated stress from your personal or work lives, or a combination of both." Healthline describes mental exhaustion: “mental exhaustion can happen when your brain receives too much stimulation or has to maintain an intense level of activity without rest.” Here’s how Healthline distinguishes the two:   “Generally speaking, 'mental' tends to refer to cognitive skills, like thinking, memory, decision-making, and problem-solving. 'Emotional,' on the other hand, has to do with feelings, including your ability to identify, process, and express them. You might notice emotional exhaustion when navigating difficult, painful, or unwanted feelings, such as * grief  * sadness  * anger  * loneliness  * anxiety Both mental and emotional exhaustion can leave you feeling detached, unmotivated, apathetic, and trapped. The challenges you’re facing might seem impossible to overcome, and you might feel too drained to keep trying.”  WebMD describes some symptoms of mental exhaustion: anger and impatience; inability to focus; “zoning out”; poor sleep; unhealthy choices (like drugs or alcohol or a junky diet); depression; worry; making more mistakes; body aches and pains.  According to