Working while tired or sick - sometimes necessary but seldom wise

I play poker with friends every week.These are friendly games, ten cent ante, ten cent bet unless a pair is showing or it is the last bet, and a limit of three raises per card. So for 7 card stud with seven players, the most that could be in the pot at the end of the hand is $25.90 (70 cent ante, $2.80 on the first up card, $5.60 on each of the next 3 cards and $5.60 on the last card). That's if there was a pair in the second up card and maximum raises that everyone calls. That doesn't happen often, but we came pretty close to that one night last year.

It was pretty obvious from the table that three of us probably had flushes in different suits and two of us had trips showing and no matching cards anywhere else - strong possibility for full houses or even 4 of a kind. I had 6 clubs myself, but on the fourth up card I had to believe that at least one of those people with trips showing had the full house or better because they were not backing off the bets. My flush had to be beat so I sighed and threw in my cards. I was very tired, which probably contributed to my accidentally flipping one of my down cards. That's embarrassing but fortunately it wasn't a card that affected anyone else's possibilities - except to show yet another card that didn't match what they had showing and therefore increasing the odds that they did have the boat or quads.

The card that flipped was the Jack of Clubs. My four up cards were the 7, 8, 9 and 10. Yes, of Clubs. I realized what I had done immediately after doing it, but of course that is too late.

That is the only straight flush I have ever had without wild cards. And I threw it away. I can see those cards plainly in my mind right now. I threw away a straight flush.

One of the full houses won the pot. I was a little numb for a few hands after that. I really shouldn't play poker when I am tired.

So why do we "tough it through" so often?

If I can throw away a straight flush at a poker table, imagine what other bad decisions I could make. Although we like to convince our selves that we can "tough it through", the facts are that we make more mistakes when we are tired.

I once had an employee who'd I'd catch working overtime. He was on salary, so it wasn't that he was trying to earn more money. He was just a conscientious kid who liked to go the extra mile.

I'd yell at him. He was doing programming and I told him he shouldn't do that when tired because he'd make mistakes that would cost him more overtime later. I spoke from experience: I had done that myself far too often.

Tired people make mistakes. It's tempting to "put in the time" and get more done, but is it worth the increased likelihood of making a major mistake?

I think the answer is simple. Don't do it.

But stuff has to get done

Working while tired or sick sometimes seems unavoidable. Unfortunately, the mistakes and inefficiency that doing this can cause can also create stress and worry that can interfere with sleep and therefore cause a seemingly never ending cycle. You do lousy work, you go to bed worrying about it and of course you don't sleep well.

Breaking that cycle can be hard. I find that simply refusing to work solves it for me: I force myself to take a day off. Unfortunately, outside pressures of time or a boss can make that difficult or impossible.

If you can't take time off, at least try to do less challenging tasks. Accomplishing the "easy" stuff may soothe your mind enough to get some much needed rest that night.

Yes, there are times when you have to work through being sick, being tired or both. Most of us can handle a small amount of that, but it's easy to push ourselves too hard.

Challenges are fine

I'm certainly not suggesting that we should never rise to a challenge. Pushing our limits is how we grow and obviously there will be emergencies where we need to push our selves very hard. I'm not suggesting that you coddle yourself excessively.

However, too many of us think we are "pampering" ourselves if we give in to any weakness at all. That viewpoint is actually dangerous - don't fall for it. A little bit of stress may indeed be good for you now and then, but too much is not.

Only you can decide what you can handle, but we do tend to overestimate our own capacities. Learn not to make that mistake.

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