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Usually an off day is for kids or other urgent matters, such as water leak or basement backflow. Our invisible middle aged family man/woman does not have the luxury to be "off".
Can’t take a sick day either, need to save those for the kids.
Or, if there is something that absolutely has to get done, I suck it up and get it done, so I can go do nothing when I’m done, while not having to think about it anymore.
Usually an off day is for kids or other urgent matters, such as water leak or basement backflow. Our invisible middle aged family man/woman does not have the luxury to be "off".
Just do small stuff that normally fall trough the cracks. It's also during these days that my brain comes up with solutions I can then implement during more productive days
Just like getting sick there's not much that you can do about it once you have it.
Once you have an off-day it's better to accept that you won't be very productive and inform your superior, instead of trying to force something and having to make up for that lost productivity the following days.
Just as with getting sick, the best thing you can do is prevention. Make sure you have a healthy sleep pattern, eat varied and in moderation, exercise regularly, and take care of your mental health.
If you feel like you have a lot of off-days try to figure out why that is. Are you sleeping well? are you stressed or anxious? Make a note of these things on your off-days (it can be hard to accurately remember emotions) and try to see if you can discern a pattern.
If I'm emotionally off, I leave all work aside and take myself on a date. That usually means cycling to a breakfast place I like, going to a museum, getting drinks with friends or reading in a pleasant place.
Above all, I accept that not every day will be productive, and that forcing myself to produce consistent output is not a good idea.
Reading and trying stuff out can give me that spark. Finding a dozen messages from people wanting 'a quick chat' drowns it.