5 Ways to Keep from Burning Out
Living the project manager’s life is sometimes extra. The people are extra; the work is extra, everything feels extra. Even as we see the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel. Our jobs are always about accounting for the unexpected. To help combat the Zoom Fatigue or the micro commute to your desk, here are 5 ways to keep from burning out.
1. Timebox with Your Alexa
I don’t mean timebox your work. You already do that with meetings or scheduled work time. I mean, time box parts of your life that are the most important to you. It may sound silly to schedule time with your beloved furry friend, your favorite husband, and or a hobby or goal that is important to your wellbeing. We often forget to give ourself self care. Without our self care we can’t give our best self forward. You can automate a lot of your reminders through Alexa. I especially love having it hooked up to my smart plugs so when the sun sets Alexa will play music and turn on the twinkle lights I set up. It changes the room and ambience, but it is an obvious indicator that the workday is done and I can safely micro commute to some other part of my apartment and focus on that crucial me time.
2. Plan a Sleepover in Your Own House
I used to love sleepovers growing up. You plan out fun activities like binge watching your favorite show or movie trilogy, cook or make a special meal or treat stay up late (maybe try this on a weekend!), play video games. Create an itinerary of activities. Make your weekend extraordinary and tire yourself out with a happy dose of things that make you happy. You don’t have to go far to have fun. The challenge often is that we associate vacation with leaving our house. As a resident self proclaimed homebody I’ve enjoyed the challenge of finding fresh ways to create fun weekends for the family or some quiet time for yourself.
3. Binge Read or Work on Your Hobby
Instead of multiple activities, you can go the reverse and focus on one key activity like reading or painting or a hobby that brings you joy. You can pick a book series, or book themes, completely lose yourself and let it be all-consuming. These types of activities help with focusing your mind and associating it with something you find pleasurable. And hopefully it helps occupy the mind with one central focus versus being distracted and distant. When we suffer from burnout, we sometimes distance ourselves from happiness. We shouldn’t punish ourselves for being human. Instead, try finding things you love to do and start with an hour only just the one thing. See how far you get. Log and track the time spent and compare from when you started to where you are.
4. Retail Therapy
So while I am all for a good session of perusing the internet for the latest deals or cool gadgets. One of my best purchases over the past year was splurging on an item that helps with a daily routine. For me that was changing up my skin care. Though I may say “splurge” part of the therapy I find deeply satisfying is “wish listing” a lot of my desired items and then waiting for that delicious email from a product company to tell me hey 20% store wide. That’s when I swoop down and drop items into my shopping cart. It wasn’t so much the shopping that helped appease my stress. I had a long battle with my self-confidence and part of it was having healthy skin as I get older. I am a do it at home kind of person. So I opted to buy a facial massager and a skin mask applicator. These were big purchase for me even though they were on sale. What it helped me with was changing my morning routine. Every morning I’d now exfoliate with my facial massager. And every few days I’ll grab a facial mask and use my LED skin mask applicator and give myself mini spa days. While I did this. I tried to think about only the task at hand. It may not be realistic to buy all the things. Though what I’m trying to get you focused on finding, a daily habit that you want to improve upon and make those slight changes until it becomes routine.
5. Show Your Appreciation
It seems counter-intuitive that the first four things I listed were more inward facing and focused on you. And now I’m saying focus outward. It could be something simple as during the day get up from your desk and give your pet, plant, or special someone a hug. You can also show appreciation to your peers by doing something small to you but large for them for no reason but to give without expectation of return. I find doing things for others is where I find bliss. It can be small as carving out a little social time and focusing on having your friend or peer talk only about themselves or something like editing and formatting a PowerPoint to get it ready for prime time. These minor acts may be innocuous but the point is you showed your appreciation for someone and beyond that it creates a positive energy that pays itself forward in the happiness quadrant.
Final Thoughts
It’s very easy to get carried away and work away our sorrows or stresses because we believe it keeps us from overthinking. I’ve found over the years the opposite sometimes can be true. You don’t have to take every tip I suggested here. These were ways I’ve coped over the past years and helped me stay balanced when I felt sometimes things were just hard and it felt overwhelming.
