Tag: time and energy
You don’t have to sprint all the time
There are times when a big presentation or project deadline takes extra time and effort to complete. Sometimes it’s exciting because I get to showcase my best work. Usually, it’s just a slog to finish in time and someone higher up the chain gets the glory.
Either way, sprints should be infrequent.
I’ve had roles where there was so much pressure to deliver an unrealistic workload that I ran on adrenaline for 10 – 12 hours every weekday. I’ll never do that again.
If a role requires more work than can be achieved in roughly 40 hours per week, it’s not a one-person role. If management is unwilling to prioritize then they are not the kind of employer I’d like to work for. If they load the calendar with meetings, leaving no time during the day for actual work, then it’s not the right culture for me. If they demand an excessive amount of tracking work vs. doing work, then I wouldn’t be happy. If they believe working 50 – 60 hours per week for a 40 hour per week paycheck is reasonable, then they don’t respect their employees and I wouldn’t respect them as managers.
A fast pace with long hours might produce results in the short-term, but it isn’t a sustainable model for productivity or morale. I’ve burned out from working like that in the past and I regret it. When I set boundaries and stick with them, I’m happier, I make fewer mistakes, and I meet my deadlines.
There’s no good reason to sprint all the time.
Sometimes getting by is good enough
Everybody has the occasional unproductive day. After all, everyone gets sick once in a while, or just can’t get motivated. A lot of people struggle to start work on Monday mornings, or can’t be found online late on Friday afternoons.
What I rarely hear people talk about are the long stretches of time when someone slows down at work. Yet we all know that happens, and anyone who is in the workplace long enough will eventually experience something that takes a toll for weeks or months. People go through divorces, have deaths in the family, suffer from serious health issues, or struggle with other long-term problems.
I’ve had a few times in my career when I wasn’t anywhere near the top of my game because I was going through something big in my private life. Major life stuff can make it hard to concentrate.
During those times, I was worried about not being as productive as usual. But when I reflect back now, I recall that I still met my deadlines, showed up to meetings, and did the work I was hired to do. I just didn’t work at the fast pace that I normally do, and wasn’t striving for perfection with every task. I did what I needed to do at work while expending more energy on what needed to be taken care of at home.
And that is fine. That’s the way it should be, since we’re human and not robots. Life eventually stabilizes and work will take up as much time and energy as you are willing to spend on it.
What I want to remember is that lulls happen for everyone. But more importantly, we don’t always have to be working at our highest level. Save energy for what matters most. Sometimes that may be a work project and sometimes it is not.
The Coffee Can Method of Getting a Dream Job
Elizabeth Gilbert tells a story about a woman who dreamed of traveling the world, but was an impoverished single mother. The woman put a single dollar bill in a coffee can every day. As Gilbert tells it, the woman figured that they had so little money that one dollar didn’t make a difference. After many, many years, once the kids were grown, the woman finally had enough money saved to travel on a cargo ship that visited a number of different ports. She sustained her goal for two decades, and achieved it.
I like this story. I especially like to remember it when it my goals seem distant and so difficult to achieve – specifically, publishing my self-help book for people that want to quit their jobs. It will happen, someday!
I also like to remember the coffee can story when I think about all of the people who are unhappy in their jobs, who feel stuck and have very real obstacles that make it difficult to quit. Their current jobs have health insurance for their families and the jobs they want do not. Their current jobs pay the rent and the daycare and the jobs they want would not cover those bills. Their current jobs are in the towns where they share custody of their children with their ex-spouses, and the jobs they want are in other parts of the country.
These are real blockers.
Still, getting unblocked is realistic. Saving money is fundamental in creating more choices for work. It can take a long time, and setbacks from unexpected expenses are frustrating. Yet it is possible.
There are other possibilities for getting unstuck, but they too can be long journeys. Doing a “side hustle” is the safest, most risk-adverse way that I know of to launch a new career. However it takes energy and motivation to spend time on a side business before going to a day job in the morning, and to work on it at night and on weekends. Sometimes it might seem worth it, and other times it might seem too exhausting.
I relate to this particular struggle. My drive to complete my book and shop it out to agents and publishers competes with my desire to have downtime and rest. In my case, choosing rest means that it will just take longer to complete my goal.
Hopefully not twenty years.
There are also ways to lessen the pain of the current job while working towards the dream career. Building confidence through honing skills and racking up “wins” by completing projects to the best of abilities helps. Fine-tuning resumes and LinkedIn profiles is a good idea for everyone. Expanding life outside of work to include hobbies, friends and fun is a great way to keep a miserable job from feeling like it is all-consuming.
We hear all the time that “life is short”. But time is relative, so life can also be long. It’s okay if you didn’t start putting money in the coffee can ten years ago. You can start now. You can start any time.
The job you want is there for you, even if it is far enough away that you can’t quite believe it yet.
Sometimes life sucks and then it gets better
Sometimes life sucks. Stuff happens. You’re stressed out. Don’t feel like your normal self. Aren’t up to doing all the things you used to do.
It could be for any or multiple reasons, right? We’ve all been there.
I’m there.
I like keeping my private matters private, so I’m leaving the details out. Thanks for understanding and not asking about it!
And anyway, I don’t want to talk about the details. I want to talk about how I’m handling it.
I’m prioritizing my health and wellbeing, the people I care about, and doing the very best I can for my clients.
So how is that going?
Well, business is great. The people I interact with from day to day are the best I could ask for, and I like my job every single day. So that’s good!
I am focused on doing great work for my clients. I am not, however, taking on much new work, finishing my book, or posting my blog every Thursday (thanks for noticing, by the way). Payroll and taxes are on track but my QuickBooks is more than a little out of date. I’m not up for all of it right now, and would rather focus on the most important stuff and do the rest when I can.
My health and wellbeing and the people I care about are up and down. Good days, bad days, fun days, sad days. I haven’t been to yoga in over two weeks, but went dancing and golfing for the first time in eight or nine months. I’m reaching out to my friends and family when I need support. But I’m not being a great friend to all of the people that matter to me because I don’t have the energy for it. I try to let them know I care and be there when it counts the most.
The negative stuff is temporary. I’m looking forward to getting past it and excited for the future. Overall life is good, I’m fortunate, and I know it. Grateful.
People say “be gentle with yourself” when you’re going through a rough time. Well, yes, but what does that mean exactly? For me it means I know my priorities and that’s what I’m focused on. I’m doing the best I can with what I’ve got.
I hope you are doing great. And if you’re not, I hope you’re also focusing on the most important things and letting the rest go until you’re ready for it.
Because Life’s a Bittersweet Symphony and sometimes you gotta just Shake it Off.
Blahg Blahg Blahg
I didn’t publish a blog post last week. Work was great, but I was feeling the accumulated effect of other stresses in my life and when Thursday evening came around, I went to bed early instead of writing a post. I figured I would post something by Sunday at the latest, because I’ve done that before when I didn’t feel like I had the energy to meet my self-imposed Thursday deadline.
Then it was the weekend and I slept through a lot of it, spent some time planting and watering and pruning the shrubs and trees around my house to relax, and zoned out reading books. Then on Sunday night instead of writing a blog post I started laying out a poetry manuscript for a chapbook contest that is ending soon. I stayed up way too late, until 3AM, sorting through my poems and formatting them into a 6 x 9 inch word document. Didn’t finish the chapbook and didn’t even attempt a blog post.
Monday I was exhausted, of course, and went to bed early again. And today I rushed from one meeting to the next and to appointments after work and got in bed at 8:30PM for another early night. I read through my emails on my smartphone to make sure I didn’t miss anything important before going to sleep, and read this:
“What I Do When I Feel Like Giving Up”, by James Clear. It starts off with “I’m struggling today. If you’ve ever struggled to be consistent with something you care about, maybe my struggle will resonate with you too.” And then he goes on to write about how he’s consistently posted on his blog twice a week since November 2012.
Dammit, James.
I was ready to push off the guilty, nagging feeling I had about not blogging and prioritize my rest. Until I read his damn post. The entire article was about how he didn’t feel like writing that day and how he motivated himself to do it anyway.
Dammit, James!
So now I’m out of bed, at my desk writing this post, which I could have written last Thursday or any day since then but didn’t, until James put it in my face that it is my choice and that there are methods of motivating ourselves even when we feel like giving up. Even when we are convinced our reasons for not writing (or whatever) are rationale, and even when we are this close to tuning out and distracting ourselves.
I’ve even blogged about this topic before and could have taken my own advice. But I didn’t. I let my habit slide and now I’m putting in the effort to get back on schedule. It is a choice, and I could stop blogging or only blog when I feel inspired. My truth is that I do care about writing consistently and sharing what I’ve learned about meaningful work.
So thanks, James. And dammit.
Give Yourself a Break
If you’ve set goals or made plans and haven’t exactly followed through on them, give yourself a break. Beating yourself up isn’t going to deliver your achievement.
There are all kinds of reasons why progress slows down and sometimes comes to a stop. Maybe your immune system is lowered by the cold and flu season or because of extra stress in your life. Maybe you’re going through a challenge or transition and you have less energy than normal.
You could power through the fatigue and stress – for a while. Eventually your body will overrule your ambition and you’ll find yourself with less energy and strength than you had in the first place.
Instead of blaming yourself for not powering through your body’s requirement for rest, you could choose to accept it. It is only a temporary phase, after all. You could choose to acknowledge what is happening: “I am tired and have less energy. I need extra rest.” Then, you could allow yourself a break while you regain your strength.
This is not laziness. It is demonstrating self-awareness and self-value by placing your health among your highest priorities.
You may have created a deadline in your mind, or hoped for an achievement by a certain timeline. However, your body has its own reactions to your external environment, and its own ways of gauging what your mental, physical and emotional status is.
As a personal example, early this autumn I hired an editor to refine my manuscript. When she sent back her recommendations, I was excited and planned to finally finish my book within a month. Then my cat died, my business demanded extra attention and I had unexpected stressful events to deal with.
I wanted to work on my book. I’m so far past the time when I thought it would be published that I’m embarrassed when people ask me if it is available for purchase yet. Despite my wants and my ego, I decided to listen to my body when it told me I needed a break. I cut back on my obligations, slept a lot more, and stopped thinking about my book.
Two and a half months went by – not my ego’s timeline, but my body’s. Then I was ready to pick up my manuscript again.
As it turns out, putting it aside for a while made editing easier than in the past. I looked at my writing with a fresh perspective. I came up with a method of giving myself a small editing assignment each day that followed the same pattern. I keep a running list of each assignment on a piece of notebook paper and write “done” next to each task when I’m finished. Then I jot down the next assignment.
I wonder how much better my editing is now than if I had tried to force myself to do it when my mind and my energy weren’t ready?
I hope that you are full of good health and making progress in the areas of your life that make you happy. If not, maybe it is time for a break. A break without self-judgment or letting your ego make you feel disappointed. Maybe it is time for a healthy, restful break that you will emerge from better than ever.
You Don’t Need Permission to Rest
You don’t need permission to rest.
You don’t need permission from someone else to take a break. You don’t need to wait for your boss, your spouse or your friends to tell you that you are allowed to have some time to take care of yourself.
You don’t have to earn your right to rest. It is a human need. Remember that babies sleep a lot and nobody questions whether they deserve it.
Self-care is a buzzword lately, but what exactly does that mean? There is no self-care prescription, such as “soak in a bubble bath one hour before bed.” Maybe you hate baths or don’t even have a bathtub.
Only you know what will give you the rest and rejuvenation that you need. For some people that might be getting an extra hour or two of sleep each night for the next few months. For others, it could be taking walks every day. Different people might make a point to go to the gym, get acupuncture, spend more time with friends, or spend more time alone. If you don’t know what you need, start by asking yourself “What is the kindest thing I can do for myself today?”
If you’re overworked, burned out, sick, stressed or need a break from coworkers and family, take it. If other people are counting on your participation in certain activities, negotiate up front. Agree to deliver the presentation your manager wants by the end of the day, and then be clear that you won’t be online or checking mail for the next week while you’re out on vacation. Tell your friends you’ll meet them for dinner but need to leave the restaurant by 8PM. Participate and enjoy the people you’re with with you’re with them. Then leave the office or the dinner with friends when you’re tired.
If there are household chores to do, or extended family staying at your house for an extended period of time, agree upfront what will be done when, and by whom. Then let everyone know when you’ll be out of the house to go exercise, or that you need two hours of alone time to nap in your room.
Whatever it is that you need to shed stress and fatigue, do it. You don’t need permission to rest.
Might as well deal with your stuff now
If you use work to avoid what else in your life isn’t working and then you quit, or get laid off, or take a new job that doesn’t demand twelve hour work days, all of a sudden you’re going to be confronted with that stuff.
If you are so busy and distracted with work and your other obligations that you don’t notice all that stuff that you’ve been avoiding, it will be front and center in your life as soon as you have more time.
Think of all the people around you who complain about being too busy. Maybe you are one of them. If you weren’t too busy, then what would you complain about?
Your stuff will eventually catch up to you. When you start having more time, you have more time to think about damaged relationships, health concerns, financial chaos, or dreams that you put aside. Then what?
It can feel like doom and gloom, but it is actually an opportunity to get more of what you want in life. A little effort over a sustained period of time is how any great achievement is earned. Relationships can be repaired, greater health can be achieved, finance goals can be set, and dreams can evolve.
Might as well start now.
Stress is Not Mandatory
After receiving my 10 year service award…so exhausted!
For most of my career I thought stress was unavoidable and therefore something I needed to simply accept. You know how it is in an office – the deadlines, the pressure, the politics – it’s always something.
It could be diminished by a relaxing vacation and it could be forgotten about when I was immersed in a good book, but stress was always present in one form or another.
Then I quit my job and realized I didn’t have to just accept it. After all, I quit that whole pile of job stress and walked away!
Of course as I changed my career I encountered new kinds of stress (I previously blogged about the difference in pressure being an entrepreneur vs. an employee). But this stress is much easier to deal with. Once I unplugged from the corporate machine, life slowed way down. Now instead of a constant flow of adrenaline, there are ebbs and flows. There is also a lot more space to deal with the tension, both in my days and in my brain.
Stress is not mandatory.
It’s Not Just Time. It’s Also Energy.
I hear this all the time and you probably do, too: “I don’t have time.” It’s often the first response or excuse we think of when we don’t want to do something or think it isn’t possible.
I grew up writing stories and poems. I enjoyed it. I majored in English in college and when I wasn’t writing essays or creative pieces for school assignments, I would also write for myself. That practice continued long after I graduated. I had notebooks and PC word docs filled with stories and ideas that I created in the evenings after work or on weekends.
But as years went by I began working longer, more stressful hours at my job and writing for fun slowed down. And then stopped. I didn’t write for eight years.
Certainly the more hours I spent working meant fewer hours left for myself, but what was worse than the lack of time was the lack of energy. I was tired in every sense: physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. My free time became about recovery, not about hobbies, having fun, and spending time with people. I needed a lot of sleep just to be able to get back up the next day or the next Monday and go to work again.
My mind and energy were so consumed by work that I didn’t have the brain-space for creative ideas. Then about the same time that I decided to quit my job, I started thinking of stories again and wanted to write about them.
One evening I dreamt a fully formed story that included a solid plot, and wrote it down as soon as I woke. As I got in bed another evening, I had an idea for a children’s book. I got out my notebook and started writing. Four hours later, I had the entire story on paper.
Other times a melody and a few words would appear in my mind and within minutes I had a page of lyrics with the musical notes that I guessed at.
Once I made up my mind to quit, energy flowed back into the parts of myself that had been neglected for too long. Becoming consumed by work robbed my creativity and self-expression. Unplugging from the corporate treadmill brought it back.
I was still working full days while I planned my departure, but my life-force was directed towards creating a healthy, happy, meaningful existence. The hours between work and sleep now had the potential to work on creative projects. When I shifted my priorities, my entire life shifted.
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