The Productivity Secret No One Talks About

Ever feel guilty for taking a break? That nagging voice saying you should be folding laundry instead of closing your eyes for ten minutes? You're not alone.

This episode dives into the radical concept that rest isn't laziness, it's an essential component of productivity, especially for busy parents. Drawing from personal experience battling illness while juggling four kids and dealing with my father's recent cancer diagnosis, I share why prioritising rest before exhaustion hits is crucial for sustainable energy and wellbeing.

Think about how you treat your phone. Most of us don't wait until it's completely dead before charging it, yet we push our bodies and minds to absolute depletion before allowing ourselves to rest. This mindset shift (seeing rest as preventative rather than reactive) can transform how you approach your daily rhythms and ultimately help you show up better for everyone who depends on you.

For fellow mums who struggle with the guilt of screen time or leaving housework undone, this episode offers permission to prioritise your health. Those clothes can sit unfolded a bit longer if it means preserving your wellbeing. The house doesn't need to be perfect when you're running on empty. Remember: you can't pour from an empty cup.

Ready to rethink rest? Listen now and discover how intentional breaks can actually make you more productive, present and purposeful in all areas of life. Your family deserves the best version of you and not the exhausted, depleted one.

Chapters

• 0:18 Welcome to Beyond Organised
• 1:08 Life's Unexpected Challenges
• 2:46 Permission to Use Screen Time
• 4:16 Rest as Part of Productivity
• 5:54 Prioritising Rest Before Illness
• 8:51 Conclusion and Call to Action

Transcript

Mel: 0:18

Welcome to Beyond Organised, the podcast that helps you simplify your life and amplify your purpose. I'm Mel Schenker, life coach, speaker, founder of She's Organised and, more importantly, a wife and mom of four little kids. If you've ever felt overwhelmed, like you're constantly juggling everything but never quite catching up, this is the place for you. Here we go beyond just the tidying up and creating systems. We're talking about real life strategies that bring order to your life, but also we talk about the things beyond the organising, the things that really matter, like your parenting relationships and so much more. So grab your coffee and let's dive in. Welcome back to another episode of Beyond Organised. Back to another episode of Beyond Organised. As you can probably hear, I am not 100%, so I am going to actually just do a short episode for you.

Mel: 1:11

Today. I actually wanted to talk about rest, so I thought that's something that's on my mind at the moment, as I've been focusing on my own health. We're coming into winter here in Australia and it's getting pretty cold, and I caught a cold and it's been a bit hard to shake it, unfortunately. But I have also had a lot of other things going on too. Unfortunately, the last couple of weeks my father has been quite unwell and in hospital and just got the diagnosis of cancer. So you know, been dealing with all of that as well and sometimes life can just throw a lot at you. And so I wanted to talk about rest because I think for mums in particular, we can go, go, go and then we're done and we've got nothing left and we can be sick and we still can't rest. So, like for me the other day, I was just so exhausted. Baby went down for a nap. I still had my toddler around and I just closed my eyes for 10 minutes and I literally like conked out. I just I was out. It was only 10 minutes, but I woke up to this deafening silence which anyone that's had a toddler or has one knows that that can be actually quite terrifying, but thankfully she was right where I left her in front of the TV.

Mel: 2:46

Now I would love to be one of those mums that you know does all the homeschooling and has veggie gardens and you know the kids are never on technology and just play with wooden toys and stuff. I think that is so cool and I think if you're one of those mums, good on you for being able to live that life. But that is not me. I am a working mum, my kids go to school, but also because I do not trust their future with what I could teach them educationally and I am someone that will use TV or an iPad or something every now and then to like I will shove it in front of them just so I can have a bit of a break. Now, I don't do it all the time and I, you know, try not to, but when you're sick, I'm telling you you have permission that if you need to put on a TV to give yourself even half an hour or an hour of downtime, then I say, do it. You have permission because we are juggling so much as mums every day, trying to do what's right, taking in all the feedback of what everyone else says our family, our friends, society and when it comes down to it, there is so much part onto us that rest has become something that is frowned upon and is seen as an ugly thing.

Mel: 4:19

You should feel guilty, all that kind of stuff. And it's just. It's so much further from the truth. And for those of you who read your Bible, understand scripture and things like that, you know when I think about how God rested on the seventh day. I don't think he rested because he was tired, like I mean he created all of life as we know it in six days. I get that, but I believe he was more modeling that structure for us.

Mel: 4:53

So I wanted to emphasize today that rest is a critical part of your productivity system. It's not something that should just be an afterthought. It's something that actually needs to be intentionally focused on throughout your day, your week, your month, your year. It's not an afterthought. Think of it like you've got your phone. Do you wait till it goes flat before you charge it? Most people don't. If you're like my husband, maybe you do, but then you're without a phone for a bit. Most people will charge that phone before it gets flat. Now, sometimes you might leave it down to like one or 2% and you are taking big risks, or you just plug it in overnight while you're sleeping. The same goes for us. We are better off plugging in, recharging, resetting before we're completely drained, because then you're out of action for a while and you're no good to anyone.

Mel: 5:57

So I want you to start seeing rest as not something to feel guilty over, not something to feel is a weak thing, nothing like that. Actually seeing this as a productive part of your cycle. It's critical, and the more that you have going on in your life, the more critical it is to make time for it. I don't care if you need to schedule it in or if you're someone that's just spontaneous and takes it willy-nilly. You need to make it happen, though, and for me, I've been quite intentional with taking some time to rest, and I still got unwell.

Mel: 6:37

But life can throw a lot of things at you and you can end up with a lot of unexpected stresses, like with my dad that you don't necessarily see coming. That literally happened overnight, kind of thing that came out of nowhere for us, so it's been quite a big adjustment. It's been quite unwell with other health things as a result, and so you know, as a family, we are processing that and working through that, but I need to be able to look after myself first, so then I can show up for my dad, for my mum and sister, but also my kids and my husband, my friends, my business, my work, all of it. So I wanted to encourage you today that, if you're feeling a little bit low and maybe you've got kind of the wrong perception on rest, I want to encourage you to start rethinking it, start seeing it as an actual action, that it's not a weakness, that it's not something that we do when we're at the end of our rope. It's actually something that we should be doing little bits daily and being intentional about it. So it does make things a lot easier for me to rest when I know my house is in order and everything else is in order.

Mel: 8:01

But I can tell you even lately my house has not been as organized as I would like. I have not been able to keep up with the washing and things like that as much as I would like, and I can tell you now that even not that long ago I would have gone too far, to the point where I would have got the washing done and I would have kept cleaning and I would have pushed myself to the point where I was just completely done and I would be no good to anyone for days. But you know what? At the moment there's even a little bit of washing sitting on my couch. There is. You know, the dishwasher got turned on in the morning instead of the night before because I actually have been prioritizing rest and now in this case it is actual physical sleep, rest to try and get better.

Mel: 8:52

But even if you're not sick and all of that, you are allowed to rest. In fact, I'm encouraging you to rest before you get sick to prevent getting sick. And if that does mean that load of washing sits on the couch or the table for an extra 12 hours, for an extra 24 hours and it just means a little bit more catch up the next day when you're actually feeling a bit better, then I'm actually giving you that permission to do that. Now I'm not saying leave it there for a week and everyone picks off their clean clothes from the pile on the couch and that. But at the same time, if you are sick and if you are feeling quite low, then you do what you need to do because, at the end of the day, you're the one living your life. No one else is living it for you. No one else is coming around to help you with these things. Well, they might, which is fantastic, but for most of us, no. We are dealing with our household chores and all of that, and we're dealing with our kids and everything whilst we're sick. So we need to be smart and we need to be wise in how we actually make the most of that time, because you are better off going.

Mel: 10:10

I'm feeling a bit burnt out, I'm feeling quite worn down. I feel like I might have a cold coming on, whatever it is, and actually go. I need to stop and I need to just take a few minutes for myself, or an hour for myself, or whatever it is, however you do it, so then you can get back on and you're not taken out for days or weeks. So I really wanted to encourage you today on rest and I hope that this shorter episode has helped you in being able to prioritize that a little bit more and give you that permission. If you love this episode, don't forget to hit subscribe so you don't miss what's coming next. And if you want to continue the conversation, you can connect with me on Instagram at @shes. organised, or, for some free resources, head over to beyondorganised. com/ toolkit. Remember, organising is a tool to live the purposeful life beyond it. See you next time.