We all know that working from home has both benefits and drawbacks. Today, I am going to focus on one of the drawbacks of working from home – what happens when you are sick. Sure, summer is not yet over and the chilly days of winter have not yet arrived, but that does not mean that perfect health is guaranteed. A nasty head cold currently has me feeling like I am trapped inside my aching, stuffed up head.
As much as I do not like to take cold medicine, I would normally take some on a day like this. However, as a nursing mother, I am rather particular about what I put into my body and I choose to avoid cold medicine. Since today is a Sunday, I do not have a whole lot of work on my plate, and I am thankful for that. However, there are always things that I could be doing and those definitely are not being done tonight.
Although the head cold that I am suffering from right now is not going to have a huge impact on my ability to do the work that I must get done today, it made me think about what could happen in the future. I am sure that this is not the last time that I will ever get sick, and I know that my workload varies from day to day. There is likely to be a time in the future when I get sick at a very inopportune time. What am I going to do then?
My exact response to future illnesses is difficult to predict because some illnesses are more debilitating than others are, and as I mentioned before my workload varies from one day to the next. Nonetheless, I feel that I should at least rehearse in my mind what I could do as soon as I feel an illness coming on. The first part of my plan is actually ongoing, and that is to take good care of my health by eating a nutritious diet and exercising so that I can avoid illness as much as possible and bounce back more quickly when I do get sick.
The second part of my plan is to recognize and acknowledge illness early, instead of pretending that I am fine like I normally do. Upon acknowledging that I may be falling ill, I plan to asses what kind of illness I feel and what steps I can take to nip it in the bud – can I drink extra fluid, take vitamins or supplements, or make time that day to get some extra rest? It is my hope that by taking quick action I could minimize the severity of some illnesses so that I will be back on my feet again sooner.
How do you take care of your business when you are sick?