January (and now February) has been one long string of disruption. Illness invaded my house and has not yet left. First Preschooler had a stomach bug, then me, then my husband. And no sooner had we all gotten over that than Preschooler was down with a cold—which I now have.

Add to that incessant snowstorms and Arctic temperatures in our area. Luckily, we have not had a truly paralyzing storm, but it has been enough to force constant school closures or two-hour delayed openings—and a delayed opening means no school for Preschooler.

So between the illnesses and the school closures, my writing time has been scattered and minimal. When I had the stomach bug, my co-bloggers at The Author Chronicles picked up the Thursday post I normally compile. That’s one great benefit of having a group blog—people can pick up the slack if someone has something unexpected happen.

But, even though my time was crazy, I still managed to get everything else I needed finished, too. I’m not quite sure how, but things got done. Which makes me think that the lesson here is that we don’t need as much time to do things as we think we do. Certainly, you do need to have focus and drive in the smaller window of time you have. But maybe we can step away from the rat race a little more than we think we can, and still find success.

Because success isn’t always measured in output. Success can also be found in nursing yourself with a good book and a nap, or snuggling with a feverish 4-year-old to make her feel better, or going out to play in the snow. None of those things can be plotted on a productivity chart, but all are necessary for our success as human beings.

How about you? Are you spending more time and energy being “busy” than you need to? Are you spending enough time on the things that connect you to your emotional life?