So kids (Sofi and Daniel), there will be crazy weeks in your lives. Crazy weeks where there is no time to eat much, no time to sleep much, no time to watch TV or movies, or do sports. No time to rest, or to hang out with friends, or read a nice book. There are some weeks in life that are just crazy, where you have so much stuff to do that you wonder “how on earth am I going to get through this?” I promise you, you will face such weeks, many many times. Actually, I this is one of those weeks for me. I have slept very little, and I’ve felt that the days just pass me by so fast, and I don’t have time to do all I need to do. So let me give you some advice on how to face such weeks.
First, be intense and feel the urgency. If you have to hurry, run, don’t walk. Sometimes people make the mistake of not understanding they need to hurry! They need to eat faster, walk faster, read faster, and finish work faster, so they can get everything done. They just go at the same speed as always no matter what the circumstances are. If you have little time, then you have to pick up the pace and run to get everything done. At one point you will be able to rest, but until you get there, run.
Second, at some point, drop everything you’re doing, no matter how important it is, and focus on what’s really important. Today I was going through a really difficult homework for one of my classes, and I get this text from my wife saying: kids are going nuts, really tired. She was just venting, but I picked my stuff and head home. I put you (Daniel) to sleep, took you (Sofi) out to get some lunch and gave your mom a window to rest, have a bath and relax. I came back with lunch so she wouldn’t have to cook, took out the garbage, and made sure she had relaxed a little bit. Then I went back to school in a hurry to keep studying. That is actually the most important thing I did all day, and it took me 45 minutes. So know when to stop and balance things out.
Third, stress goes away when you get stuff done. So lots of people procrastinate starting an important task because they’re stressed, anxious, or they just froze in face of a difficult task. Well, let me tell you that the stress and anxiety will go away when you actually start working on what’s making you stressed and anxious in the first place. Sometimes it’s like trying to send a rocket to space: you have to put a lot of effort at the beginning, but once you start, I assure you things will get easier and you’ll get some momentum to help you out.
Finally, know where your energy comes from. Whenever I need to recharge, I just go to you, play around with you, dance to some funny song on YouTube, or take you out to the park. If you feel you have no energy left, identify what you love the most, and go spend some time doing that.