I was talking to a client about how to judge when too much is too much — and then I didn’t.

This client was talking about how he generally does better if he takes a quarter to a third of the days off in a month.

He wants to try to do that on the scale of a week instead of a month as an experiment to see if it results in less health flare-ups. Instead of working hard for 3 weeks and taking a week off, he’s going to try taking 2-3 days off a week. He suspects a combination of both approaches will be beneficial.

I then went on a trip and made a point of pacing myself in helping family with tech stuff (I bet some of you know what I mean).

Then I came home and worked without resting properly until I crashed, hard.

My client can tell he’s doing too much because he starts having physical symptoms. I also get physical symptoms with a kind of mental tension, sometimes with unusual emotions. When I notice myself getting irritable, it’s time for a break.

What signals do your mind and/or body give you when it’s time to take a break?

Josh

P.S. There was no email last week because I’d been traveling and overdid it upon my return. I probably should have intentionally skipped a week for the trip as per usual.