People who occasionally don't feel like working are smarter

Does everyone around you also complain about being so tired? Waking up and wanting to sleep again? Preferably giving in to afternoon naps? It is well known that ‘tired’ is often confused with just not wanting to do anything at all. And now experts even say that you can actually give in to that a little bit.

It was Monday afternoon. I had just finished a three-and-a-half-hour appointment and was on my way home. In my head, I was going through what I still had to do today. Call back for a consultation, answer that email, and start on a rather hefty assignment. Just the thought of it made me exhausted. But what do you do then? Start on that assignment or make it a bit easier on yourself?

I found it strange that I was suddenly so tired on the first day of the week. Yes, I had packed half my house over the weekend. Yes, I was on a boat late into Sunday night. But to be this tired after such a lazy day of work, while I had a perfectly good night’s sleep? That’s unusual even for me. How can that be? Well, you have to listen to yourself sometimes when you really don’t feel like doing something. It could just be a signal.

Experts talk about two types of fatigue: being physically tired and being mentally tired. In the first case, your body just gives up and you need time to recharge from, for example, lactic acid in your muscles after a boxing class. Mental fatigue is different because it may be connected to the substance glycosine. This is the substance your brain runs on. A deficiency of this substance makes you sleepy. So should you just stop when you’re dozing off over that sleep-inducing task at work? Well, it’s not that simple, says health psychology professor Van Doornen to Psychology Magazine.

Do you have a strong aversion? Then a firm kick under your own butt certainly wouldn’t hurt. But there’s a simple way to check whether you’re dealing with being tired or outright demotivated. If you can’t muster the energy for that last bit of work that day but can sit in the sun with a good book, then you just need to pull yourself together. Don’t think about that good book, but do you just want to lie in the sun to recharge? Then you’re dealing with mental fatigue. And you can definitely give in to that.

Something to remember, the next time you reluctantly finish your work at the office but would rather sleep. Sometimes a nap ultimately yields you much more. It’s just smart thinking.

Source: Psychologie Magazine