Productivity Hack you Need with Fibromyalgia

This is the productivity hack you need if you have fibromyalgia, chronic pain, chronic fatigue or are just super busy. Following the concept of pacing, we discuss micro tasking and how it came help us be more productive.

Our guide to micro tasking and how it enables me to be a business owning, chronic illness thriving, mama to four children under eight years old.

Micro tasking is breaking your to do list down into manageable chunks so that you can fit the important things into your very busy life.

Productivity Hack You Need: Micro Tasking and Pacing

https://youtu.be/hQyBZ_Q8q9c

Micro tasking is my use of pacing in every day life.

Pacing is a concept that enables people with chronic fatigue to learn to use their energy wisely. In our case, we are going to use the concept in order to use our precious resources as well as possible – time, energy, money etc.

It simply means using your energy and abilities wisely. This is a big concept and there are entire courses helping people with chronic illness to understand and achieve.

As a person who uses pacing to help me in many areas of my life, and who had a chronic illness before they had children, the concept is no less useful now.

Pacing means having a good overall balance of work-rest ratios according to your symptom levels. Another term might be a work-life balance. It helps maintain better health, less stress and avoid the boom-bust cycle we can get into.

Research is showing that women are increasingly suffering from burnout, being diagnosed with chronic conditions and still doing more household management tasks than men.

I have about 60-70% of a “normal” energy level (and a wonky charging capability). So I get about 6-7 good, productive hours in the day if I am wise about how I allot them.

if you need to learn about pacing – check out my full, free training here.

This is where micro tasking comes in.

By cleverly changing up tasks, taking a rest break after lunch (and many other self-care measures) I manage a small business, four children under eight years old and all the rest of the things.

How does one do this (change up tasks, plan their day, achieve goals)? Micro tasking.

1. Take your goals.
2. Break them down into key objectives.
3. Break those down into micro tasks.

For example, I am a writer and content creator. But I am a mama first. So, I have created systems for how I create content and get it published, using micro tasks, around my children.

I take my pockets of time – particularly 10am each morning at the moment – and continue momentum with micro tasks.

My master to do list is in Google Keep. I transfer this to a monthly To Do list.

Each day I give myself 30 minutes on the computer to compete one or two tasks from the list. This morning I scheduled a newsletter for my email list for next month.

I take pockets of time in the day for my writing. Nap trapped (stuck under sleeping baby) time is for writing or learning (upskilling is important to me).

If my husband takes the kids out and I have some time to myself, I know exactly what I need to do. My list of micro tasks is always ready.

What can you micro task?

• Your health promoting routines and symptom management plans
• House hold chores – you can break them all down into 10-15 minute increments and you can also set a timer and spend 10-15 minutes at one time.
• Business and hobbies
• Learning – I love to learn so instead of saying, “I’m too busy” I fit it into my life. This can mean watching a YouTube video about how to design a graphic in canva or an online course about creating a course on Udemy. There are many ways to achieve this.
• Exercise – my 10 minutes a day series will help you with this

So what do you need to do?

1. Plan well – create a master list of objectives, break it down into smaller To Do lists (monthly or weekly works well)
2. Create one time that can be habitual – one 15 or 30 minute time for micro tasking (this gives you your habit and teaches you what you can manage in your time slot, helping improve your ability to break things down into micro tasks).
3. Do the tasks!!

If you need to work on your pacing first – then check out this free training here. Otherwise get to planning!