Can I get a bit of susceptible right here? For years, any time I had a ton of initiatives, deadlines, and even pesky “life” duties, I’d undergo the identical optimistic suggestions loop with my to-do listing…
1. “Okay, I’ve bought this! I simply want to arrange every part…”
I smile as I comply with the old-school prioritization framework and add all my pressing and essential duties to my digital venture planning device (another ClickUp followers on the market?). I breathe a sigh of reduction.
2. “Yikes, these items are taking me for much longer to do than I assumed and even extra stuff is piling up…”
All the pieces now appears twice as pressing and essential. I begin jotting issues down in my pocket book (Productivity Planner from Clever Change fan over right here) and creating Google calendar “working session” occasions with myself so I don’t overlook to comply with by on #allthethings.
3. “What was I specializing in once more?”
When there are such a lot of issues with tight timelines, I are likely to overlook my priorities and find yourself engaged on random duties that pop into my head as a substitute.
Alongside the best way, I neglect every part else–my self-care, my associate, texts from pals… As for my to-do listing? I revert to writing a number of to-do listing Notes on my cellphone, and when it will get actually unhealthy, I slap sticky notes throughout my desk to seize my consideration and focus.
Ultimately, I get (most) issues performed and the stress subsides. I deal with myself to time away from plans and to-dos…and perhaps even a couple of episodes (or let’s be actual, a complete season) of a feel-good present.
Even after the metaphorical busyness mud settles, nevertheless, my thoughts and physique nonetheless really feel the consequences. I discover myself needing to skip out on social plans and go to mattress early or sleep in or each to compensate for the vitality I simply spent.
Primarily, I sacrificed my well-being on the altar of Busyness, and now I wanted to get well ASAP.
Paradoxically, that prolonged restoration time often units me again with any incoming duties, and as soon as they pile up, I begin the cycle once more. Welp.
Have you ever been there? When you’re feeling like this to-do listing spiral is all too acquainted proper now, know that you just’re not alone and it’s not your fault. Significantly.
Right here’s why…
First, these previous frameworks of prioritizing what’s probably the most pressing and essential don’t work as a result of once we’re burdened, every part feels pressing and essential.
(It’s why I developed a greater solution to prioritize to-dos utilizing your instinct––and it’s extra enjoyable too. Get my 3-Step Intuitive To-Do List Guide here >>)
And second, we’ve been fixing for the fallacious factor: getting extra shit performed versus the emotional and energetic toll of busyness.
Simply have a look at what will get probably the most consideration: productiveness hacks, instruments, and apps. We see them on advertisements, billboards, and social media. Mates and coworkers suggest them as what is going to repair our issues. Within the Western world particularly, we’ve solved for what we’ve been conditioned to worth: the productiveness fable, and we sacrifice ourselves within the course of.
Okay, okay…perhaps that’s a bit dramatic. However take into consideration this for a second…if you’re continually on this spiral of attempting to get extra performed and letting go of shifting your physique, consuming nicely, sleeping, and all of the issues that hold your humanness operating easily…what occurs after some time?
Nicely, I’ll inform you what occurred to me: I burned out. In 2014 to be precise. I used to be working 14hr+ days at a tech startup, and I had misplaced observe of what actually mattered in my life whereas I pursued OKRs and the golden promised land of the company ladder.
As a result of right here’s the reality that kinda hurts:
Busyness results in burnout–usually earlier than it.
Whereas we’re furiously chugging away at our to-dos and obligations, considering we’re doing what’s greatest and what’s anticipated of us, burnout creeps in.
It begins by dwindling our focus, then taking our vitality, and eventually zapping our well being. In the long run, we find yourself face-planting on the sofa questioning what the hell occurred.
So I’m questioning, the place’s the device to assist us with that?
(I really wrote a journal/planner hybrid that can assist you flip that precise problem right into a sequence of bite-sized self-care adventures–all whereas gaining a deeper understanding of the way you spend your time and vitality. If you wish to test it out, you are able to do so right here: Busyness to Magic: The 95-Day Journal-Planner.)
I’d argue that the antidote to the busyness to burnout pipeline is fortunately a lot easier than we expect: self-care.
And earlier than you go and roll your eyes or begin including all of the self-care “shoulds” to your to-do listing…let’s break down what self-care really means.
Self-care is one thing you’re doing now to assist Future You.
It’s so simple as that. In order that might be having fun with a bubble tub, or it may very well be having a tricky dialog, delegating duties, saying no to additional work, sleeping in, figuring out, or not figuring out…it’s no matter helps assist the longer term model of your self.
So pushing by hundreds of thousands of to-dos might assist, but when the price of doing which means you get behind many times and ultimately run out of vitality and wind up with power migraines, intestine points, imposter syndrome, and adrenal fatigue (hypothetically talking after all)…then is it really serving you?
Or wouldn’t it serve Future You higher in the event you took some issues off your plate or let perfectionism slide only a bit?
Simpler stated than performed although, proper?
That’s why I’m all for making self-care–and any way of life or behavior shift for that matter––bite-sized. And the excellent news is that behavior psychology backs up this concept of bite-sized shifts as being extra profitable long-term. It doesn’t set off a stress response, and we’re extra prone to keep it up–win-win!
To get the superb advantages of this bite-sized strategy, begin with the place you at the moment are after which determine one tiny factor you possibly can shift to really feel a bit higher. The secret’s to select one thing that feels doable and never overwhelming.
For instance, your bite-sized self-care might appear like taking 5 minutes to stroll across the block in-between duties or maybe consuming lunch away from screens and your desk. It doesn’t need to be a 2-hour ritual of yoga, meditation, inexperienced juice, and all of the issues earlier than 6 am (except you’re into that type of factor).
Even a couple of minutes depend in direction of stepping out of the busyness to burnout pipeline. To place it in different phrases, a bit of break goes a good distance in direction of regaining your vitality, regulating your nervous system, and reclaiming your sense of self.
And in my expertise, we’re not solely capable of get extra performed long-term, however we now have much more enjoyable doing it alongside the best way.
Right here’s your homework:
- Set a timer for 3 minutes.
- Reply to the next immediate in your pocket book, journal, or on a bit of scratch paper: what’s one motion that you would be able to take at this time to really feel extra like your greatest self tomorrow?
- Then, charge your confidence on with the ability to comply with by on that motion from 1 to 10 (10 being most assured). When you’re decrease than an 8, see if you may make that one motion simpler (e.g. it takes much less time, it’s at a distinct time of day, you do the primary few steps of a factor, and so forth.).
- Then, add it to the highest of your to-do listing.
- And perhaps in the event you’re feeling courageous, scratch the to-do listing altogether.
P.S. I’m internet hosting my free 5-Day Chew-Sized Self-Care Journey Might Fifteenth-Might nineteenth to assist busy women-identifying of us to find the time and vitality to make self-care doable (and beat the busyness to burnout pipeline).
Previous contributors made self-care 70% extra doable in simply 5 days. Need the identical for your self? Get day by day actionable and bite-sized steps whenever you join the 5-Day Bite-Sized Self-Care Adventure >>