This is What I Learned from Analyzing my Sick Days (Featuring a Lot of Details)
Within four years, I Minimized my Sick Days to Only 2 Days
I would get sick when I worked too hard (exhausted my energy) and did not take good care of myself. And I would always miss out on days of work (my life) on which I could impact other people’s lives.
I should probably start by saying that we cannot control all factors of life and, therefore, cannot fully control if we get sick or not. At the same time, there is a small part within our circle of influence regarding getting sick.
Also, I should clarify that I am not talking about general (long-term) health when I speak about getting sick, I am talking about the days that I missed because of a cold, flu, or physical injury, missed days that could have been prevented and I now minimize.
It all started in 2013 when, in an urge to feel some sense of meaning out of being sick and missing out on work I wrote down the circumstances leading up to me calling in sick.
Which I then continued to do until today: whenever I do not feel well, I write it down together with factors that might have played a role. And once in a while, I will analyze this document to see if there are any factors within my circle of influence on which I can improve. In 2014 I started with a google sheet + google doc to keep track of my sick days.
The Steps I took:
STEP 1: document your sick days
To give you an idea of how I started and I still keep track of my sick days:
The months in blue are the flu season, and I use different colors for feeling exhausted, sick+ work, and sick+no work.
This google sheet goes together with a much longer text document, of which I will give a short example:
2014 (2 times sick+no work and 1-time sick+work) (total 11 days)
14–15 Dec (2 days) due to exercise (too much physical exertion)(did not miss any work )
Saturday: training — befit workout of 23 minutes, high intensity
Sunday: woke up with a lot of muscle soreness. Ate breakfast, lunch: soup + nuts, then went into the city to buy some clothes. At the store, I started to feel tired and could not concentrate well. Upon arriving home, I felt terrible. No hunger; food felt like a brick in my stomach, feeling feverish. 10 minutes later, I had to vomit. I had a fever. I went to bed at 21:30.
Monday: Woke up, no breakfast. Went to bed and slept until 15:30. Drank lemonade and ate a banana. I went to bed early.
Tuesday: back to work, no symptoms.
10 Sept — 13 Sept (4 days) (2nd time sick in 2014)
Tuesday: feeling tired, sore throat, cannot concentrate.
Wednesday: feverish, sore throat, dry throat, in the morning I thought I could go to work, glad that I did not!
Thursday: feeling even worse! Sore and dry throat, fever
Friday: sore chest, still very tired and feverish.
Saturday: still tired. My throat and chest are feeling better.
10 Feb — 15 Feb (5 days) mid-season show! (1st time sick 2014)
Sunday: felt tired
Monday: teaching class felt very tough!
Tuesday: sick
Wednesday: sick, did go to work to teach Tw/aer class
Thursday: sick
Friday: sick
Sunday: sick
2015 (2 times sick+no work and 1-time sick+work) (total 14 days)
6 Aug — 17 Aug (11 days) (on holiday in Amsterdam)
Thursday: woke up as if I was hit by a bus, but did not give it too much attention. Did some studying. Went to visit my grandma-in-law at 13:00. At her place, I started to feel feverish: muscle pain, loss of concentration, and feeling agitated and tired.
Friday: the night from Thursday to Friday was terrible. During the night, I was delirious, woke up many times, and took two paracetamol at 00:00. Felt constipated. Friday, I rested the whole day, studied, and watched some tv series.
Saturday: brother-in-law picked us up in Amsterdam and drove us home
Sunday: sick
Monday: sick
Dinsdag: at midnight went to the emergency department of Antoniushove hospital after consulting with my doctor. They expect it to be a heavy stomach flu. Left stool sample.
Wednesday: I started to eat again.
Thursday: could study a little bit again. Still, my stomach aches when moving.
20 Aug: received anti-biotic, six days azitromycin, 500mg per day
My thoughts at the time: Reason — hygiene: On Wednesday, I ate a salad from AH. The day before, I prepared chicken and beef in the kitchen. From Thursday, I started to feel sick and constipated. → they found salmonella & e.coli in my stool sample. But only I got ill. Perhaps I also overtired myself? I worked very intensely the weeks before my holiday. And I did not take my rest during the holiday. We had a meeting with friends or family every day, I studied for 3 hours every day, and I undertook trips with my girlfriend in Amsterdam, all on the same day every day.
11 June — 13 June (3 days) due to too much work w39(36) 2 weeks before show week (1st time of this year)
Sunday: I noticed a sore throat and difficulty breathing.
Monday: challenging to breathe, tired. Thought about staying home and decided to visit N and K.
Tuesday: I felt tired, no appetite.
Wednesday: I felt exhausted, could not concentrate, did not eat during the day, and was feverish.
Thursday: hesitated in the morning; stay home or work? Went to work. Difficult to teach the class. Halfway through the day, I was finished: very tired and not feeling well.
Friday: sick, no work. I do a lot of sleeping at home, watching a movie, reading a bit, eating reasonably regular,ly and showering in the evening.
Saturday: sick, no work. Rested at home and did some Toastmasters preparations for the meeting on Tuesday.
Sunday: I started to work again. Did not feel 100% well. Still a bit tired. Upon arriving home, I felt drained. Rested in the evening.
I think that I became sick because I exhausted myself. In the weeks leading up to 11 June: Work at TLG, did extra work for TLG at home, worked for Toastmasters from home in the evenings and weekends, Tuesday evening Toastmaster meeting cleaned the house, visited friends, studied for business school, did not watch any tv shows to relax.
3 Feb — 6 Feb (0 days) due to too much work mid-season show!
Tuesday: woke up tired, feverish, did go to work.
Wednesday: slept for 12 hours, feverish, did go to work
Thursday: less fever, went to bed early on Wednesday, this helped, worked on Thursday
Friday: tired, worked
Saturday: tired, worked
Reason: The week before the 3rd of February I taught an extra class on Friday, worked an extra day on Saturday (classes+open day), and worked on my Toastmasters speech on Sunday, Monday I practiced my speech many times and went to visit M. in the Evening. And again, I became ill before/during the show week/same period.
STEP 2: analyze your data
Depending on how often you get sick, I would say you could start analyzing your data after a year, maybe 2. I wanted to know if I was calling in sick too often compared to the average and if this could get me in trouble, so I benchmarked my data. I found these numbers through google for most countries.
In 2014
Average % in the workforce in The Netherlands: 2.8%
Average % for Health Care in The Netherlands: 4.7%
My average %: 4.58%*
The average frequency of calling in sick in the workforce: 1
My frequency 2014: 2
*(40 hours pw * 52 = 2080 hours — 20 days = 1920 hours worked in 2014)(11 days sick+no work * 8 hours = 88 hours) (88 hours/1920 hours*100 = 4.58%)
So I saw some room for improvement: get my frequency and % down to the national average. Although I was not calling in excessively sick compared to the % in my market.
I then analyzed the periods I would get sick most often and found:
- I do not permit myself to be sick.
- Even during periods of so-called rest, I still do a lot of stuff (too much).
- There seems to be a limit to the number of activities I can do before I get sick.
- The flu season is a real thing.
STEP 3: Decide on measures you will take to minimize your sick days
- Give myself permission to be sick. Stay at home. Rest. Watch Tv. Do not visit friends. Do not go to work. Do not study. Do not exercise.
- Take my rest during evenings, weekends, and holidays.
- I am not superman; I need rest. No more superhuman weeks of 60 hours of work + exercise + visiting friends + studying + toastmasters.
This process I have repeated a couple of times, other measures I took:
- Check the weather app before leaving the house and dress accordingly
- When it gets cold, I wear a scarf, knitted hat, and gloves to keep my body warm
- I go to bed early and sleep at least 8 hours (according to my Fitbit)
I now have more days to practice my leadership, write and be fully present for my loved ones.
