slowing down

Burnout. Simply, it's a state of physical, mental and emotional exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. A buzz-word if you like, for feeling overwhelmed, drained and unable to meet constant demands. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

Of course it does, because we're all so busy these days. Busy as hell. How often do you find yourself asking people how they are, and they reply with, "Busy. Busy, busy. Good, but busy." It's constant, isn't it? We live in a get up and go society in which from the minute you lift your head from the pillow to the minute you hit it again, you are constantly on the go. Get up, get showered, get changed, get the train, get breakfast, get busy. Get to the next meeting, get to the next project deadline, get to the next pay check - hustle, hustle, hustle.

When was the last time you focused your entire day doing just a handful of important things? Or even doing nothing at all? It was probably the last time that the word 'priority' wasn't a plural adjective to you. Less than 100 years ago, the word 'priorities' barely existed. Think about it. The word priority means something or someone that is more urgent or important than other things. So where did the plural come from? Why do we so commonly use such an antithesis in our everyday lives? It's simple.

There lies a myth in our culture that productivity is defined as getting as much done as you can each day. We do this by means of lists and multi-tasking and long hours at a desk. But let's be honest with ourselves- that long list rarely gets finished. You know what it's like, you start a list of really important stuff that needed done yesterday. It starts off sensible and manageable, but quickly grows out of hand. More and more items are added and the list grows steadily bigger. Sometime we even add tasks we've already done, just for the satisfaction of scoring them out again. With only so many hours in a day, and a list which is easy to mis-prioritise, it's likely much of that list will never see the forefront of your attention- never mind end up finished. Add to this, the fact that your brain physically cannot multi-task. I'll say it again for those at the back - the human brain is not capable of multi-tasking. You may think you are the best multi-tasker in the world, but skills and stereotypes aside, the brain is not built for multi-tasking. When multi-tasking two or three tasks at once, you are unable to focus completely on any of them. Plus, since your full attention is on multiple tasks at once, you are more likely to make mistakes. This coupled with the fact that multi-tasking causes the brain to constantly switch between tasks, it becomes less energy-efficient and you tire more quickly. Yet many fall for it, succumbing to this intensely counter-productive notion that busyness equals productivity. It doesn't.

Personally, I've started to think of busyness and productivity like I do money. I know that if I have several goals to which I am saving toward, each goal will take longer to reach if I continue splitting my efforts. Whereas when I focus all my financial efforts into saving towards one big goal at a time, I reach them much quicker. A happy side-effect of this is I find myself more motivated to keep going, hitting the next goal, then the next and so on.

So these days I avoid fitting in as much as I can in one day. Instead I only do in a single day that which I can also sustain over long periods of time without hitting burnout. I know some will say, "if you can do it in 10 minutes or less, do it straight away." But personally, I could spend my whole day doing that and never actually get to the work I planned on, so I simply don't. Instead, I limit myself to what I can get done over six blocks of time in my working day, which I block out my calendar with. I call these blocks my sprints. Then each day, I grab a notepad and a pen and physically write down my tasks for that day. Things like, complete project task, check incidents, or create a new checklist. I even include my pre-arranged meetings on that list of things to do. Then I go through and assign each task to a particular sprint. Once my day is full, I don't add anything else to that list unless I need to. I control my interruptions to ensure I get my own work done first before turning my attention to the priorities of others. I close my emails and instant messenger, put my phone away and work in my sprints, ticking through my list as I go. When I allow something or someone to interrupt that flow state, it is only for items of utmost importance, critical issues, everything else can wait. That's about as sexy as it gets.

It sounds really basic. And well, that's because it is. Limiting your to do list each day makes you really focus on what absolutely needs done that day. Sure, I need to do a bit of forward planning from time to time. Setting meeting invites for tomorrow, reminders for next week, etcetera, but those meetings and reminders are always relevant to the task I'm working to tick off and nothing else. My hour-long sprints make sure that I'm not spending too much time on any one thing, making a dent in some work whilst finishing off other work and making sure I'm taking screen breaks. It's productivity, but deliberately not on steroids. All you need to do is give yourself permission to slow down a little bit, to ultimately prevent you from hitting a complete stop.

~ Aedan