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When Hyper-productivity Makes Fitness Suck

Monday July 6, 2020

In exchange for a massive bout of productivity this morning, my exercise plans were absolutely detonated. BOOM. (In my house, this type of explosive psycho-chemical reaction tends to leave Pop Tart residue everywhere.)

This is a new thing for me. If I need to be super-productive, I cancel my morning exercise plans and try to wake up in spike mode. About 4-5 sleep cycles, and no attention paid to waking on-cycle, will do it. Then I pour my exercise energy into my productivity. It’s a conscious exchange, and it mostly works really well.

The problem is that productivity has this addictive, feedback-loopy element to it, and it can suck the entire day’s energy dry.

And indeed, all of my energy had been sucked bone-dry as I tied off several projects, laying absolute waste to my to-do list. It was so epic guys. The results were practically terrifying to my feely-side. “How did you even manage that, you sexy thing,” she asked, quivering with each pleasurable wave as she counted the completed items. One…two…oooh, here’s a hard one, was it hard?…three…oooh

(‘Cuz day-to-day productivity is this hyper-sexual signalling device, or else my local Top 40 radio station obviously wouldn’t have all these songs which sound a lot like ExFPs waxing lyrical about why they found their adorable yet absolutely uncaring IxTJ so sexy in the first place. RIP and you deserve way better, and this blog is so about that)

After wrapping things up, I had this thought: OK, my intuition is telling me that exercise would be a really bad idea right now. I can feel it in my bones. So…maybe I’ll feel more like getting some exercise if I get out of my chair and walk to the house. Sometimes it helps.

I walked inside, mopily. Mopingly? Sluggardly. Hoodie most definitely on, and pulled down to the brows.

Mere minutes later I found myself in bed, wondering how to save my day. lol

Save the day? Nope, my hero energy was shot. I needed to save my day. Unfortunate, but very real.

I did my Fi-recapture thing, and started lol-ing my way through various Youtube videos. Took some ibuprofen, because I really outdid myself and could feel the pain coming.

And also somewhere there’s this scientific paper I read, which basically justifies my reaching for Pop Tarts at a time like this. Something about the brain really loving salt and fat and sugar when life circumstances and energy levels are just at “ugh” levels. Accordingly, I ate the Cherry Pop Tarts, which were accordingly very comforting.

So my Fi-parts, thanks to Youtube and the Pop Tarts (promising band name), were now in the Spiritual ICU because I had way overdone it, in service of goals that my attention toward Se wanted to see achieved, or even over-achieved.

Even if the work wasn’t the smartest, it came off well, and this resting period was good.

Well. FOUR hours later I’m recovering from all of this. Man, it was a day. And yet, it was also a day saved. And given a case like today, I think that missing exercise in order to recover general energy stores is 100% worth it, especially when combined with some reflection and planning for that exercise in the future.