Around this time last year I experienced a major burn out.
A Burn Out is defined as : A Feeling of physical and emotional exhaustion, due to stress from working with people under difficult or demanding conditions. Burn out is followed by signs such as chronic fatigue, quickness to anger and suspicion, and susceptibility to colds, headaches, and fevers.
The only symptom I didn't have was the headaches.
I was doing everything I was meant to be doing but I was always tired.
Daudi, one of my fathers noticed and asked what's up Cici.
I explained how my months were running into each other and how my weeks were running into each other and how I was out of breath most of the time.
He said maybe there is something sucking your energy and we sat and we wrote down everything I did on a seven days week.
'No wonder you are tired,' said he.
'I'm always tired.' Said I
'When did you last watch a movie?'
I couldn't remember the last time I had watched a movie.
My days were packed with running this direction to work and running that direction for more work and coming home to do a bit of washing before settling down infront of my laptop to get some work done before I slept.
As a web content manager, I of course need to spend time online but that time had become all the time.
I would be on Facebook responding to comments and on Twitter looking for tweets to retweet and on YouTube checking how many views the latest video was at.
Then I would be on my phone reassuring clients who had missed an appointment that they could still come in next week.(I was side hustling at a mobile clinic).
So Daudi said we needed to plan out a sample week I could stick to for a while then adjust as time went by.
We aligned all similar activities to fit into one day. And all activities in the same direction fit into similar days. I talked to my boss too about my monthly,weekly and daily job allocation.
I had blank spaces in my week where I could decide to watch a movie, paint my nails or chat.
I started to seriously make a list of things to do monthly, weekly,daily.
Contrarily to the assumption I had before, making lists doesn't make you an -over scheduled -ADH-Maniac.
It has the advantage of making you know what you really need to do, what can be postponed and what is urgent .
Urgent vs Important.
That's a theory I read somewhere but can't remember where.
Having lists and planning out my month doesn't mean I've got my life together better than the next person, but I am less rushed.
I take time to reflect on things.
I don't rush through things just to get them done (I now have three White items that are not off white.. )
I have changed the weekly schedule many times to suit my needs.
But the wonderful outcome is I am not the half crazed burned out irritable human being I was at some point.
I have also come to appreciate the importance of sticking to a job until it's done.
Daudi said why do you go home, make some tea, chat, start to read, stop, cook, take a shower, study some more....
Or why do you start to work, get on Facebook, watch a video, start to write an email, get up to make tea.
Finish that email!
Work will stretch to fit the time you allocate it.
There are days I write a 500 word article in under one hour.
There are days it takes me the whole day and part of the night to write a 500 word article.
We all need a little help.
Sometimes we think we know everything we need to know about life and the affairs of existence but it helps to have someone with more years and experience guide us along.
Tips
1. Make a to do List
2. Use mornings or late nights to organise the day
3. Learn to say -no I can't handle this right now-
4. Watch a movie/ read/ listen to music
5. Reduce the time you spend on tasks- learn to do them faster
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