Things you realise when you overhaul your life
A bad case of burnout, why tasks define your energy and some tips from Wistia & 360Learning on building brand through video.
Hello sweet readers,
Welcome to edition #4 of the newsletter which makes this the biggest commitment, newsletter-wise, I’ve made yet.
“Burnout” is such an overused phrase isn’t it? Which is why I’ve been a bit reluctant to talk about what I experienced earlier this year.
We’ve lived through a pandemic, a civil rights movement and a series of increasing climatic conditions already this year, aren’t we all burned out? Yet burnout is so personal. For some it’s lethargy and the feeling that nothing can spark your interest. For others, it’s becoming completely bed bound by a body that has just given up.
For me, burnout felt mentally like I was on a rollercoaster that was endless and out of my control. It was the feeling that I could not say no, that nothing in the world was more important than my job and that the decisions I made would have huge consequences, even though I wasn’t saving lives or running the country.
Physically, I had itchy skin, stomach pain, swollen eyes, sleep issues and zero appetite amongst a host of other symptoms which no doctor was able to diagnose.
But today, almost two months since I left my fulltime job, here are two things I’ve realised from the big overhaul I started, both mentally and physically, to turn my life around.
It’s tasks, not work, that define your energy
Do you know what it feels like to work “in flow”? I always thought this was a bit of an odd term. But my biggest realisation from burning out is that it’s not my work (which I’ve always loved) which makes me feel burned out. I could spend every day writing blogs, working on content audits and creating recorded lessons to share and not feel burned out.
When my days are filled with Zoom calls and meetings, I feel burned out after an hour or two.
The truth is, we all have parts of our job where we work in our own version of flow. For some, and I see this often with CEOs or Project Manager types, calls, meetings and organisation are their flow. For me, my flow is writing and strategising. Earlier this year I was spending around 6 hours a day on Zoom and the rest of the time in Slack. I honestly believe this is what tipped me over the edge from a bit burned out to really quite unwell.
Now that I know this, I have gone to great lengths to remove the tasks that drain my energy. I no longer join Slack channels with clients, we work on email. I only have calls and meetings when absolutely necessary, and never every day. I am working in my own flow probably 90% of my week and I have never enjoyed work more, or felt more motivated.
If you are feeling burned out ask yourself: which tasks make me feel burned out and is there room to tweak things so that you do as little of them as possible? Can you get an assistant, delegate more, ask your boss to let you trial working in a different format, say no, ask your team to communicate with you differently?
Do whatever you can to reassign your energy to where it glows. Not only will you benefit, but your colleagues and company or clients will too because when we work in flow, we produce magic. And what boss wouldn’t want that?
We have normalised what is simply not normal
I saw my health take such a hit this year that it scared me. That fear was enough to make me consider what I might sacrifice to be well again. When you decide that your career is not the thing you will prioritise above all else, as I have spent about the last 10 years doing, you start to view things through a different lens.
The other day I was stopped in my scroll when I saw someone on LinkedIn talking about how they had priotitised taking a week off after five months of working solidly because they know how important #selfcare is. Taking one week off in half a year is not self care, it is radically uncaring.
Yet, we see this as normal.
We live in a society where we are rewarded for work and make our jobs our life’s focus, in a way that community or family once was. Rewarded for every time we say yes when we mean no, for working without complaint, and for choosing “productive” over “rested”.
I have had to unpick everything I see as “normal” and this part is still something I’m having to work at. As other chronic people pleasers will know, the conditioning that your worth is directly related to how hard you work, is a tricky one. I still catch myself trying to go above and beyond, giving 150% when just 50% would do.
It’s a battle. Yet in my gut, I know that these ways of working aren’t normal.
Which leads me to ask: What ways of working do you know go against your natural inclination? Is it the 8 or 9 hour working day when really you have energy for 6? The endless meetings that you know aren’t having any meaningful affect? The “Zoom coffees” which leave you tired and bored? Whatever your version is, I hope that there is a way for you begin to detour around them.
Yours, with empathy,
Beth
State of Play 🙏
When you receive this newsletter I’ll be away in Cornwall on a family holiday that was meant to happen at Easter and (Covid) got pushed back to September. I’m looking forward to Rick Stein fish and chips, playing Scattergories with my grandparents and puncturing every walk or beach trip with a glass of wine in the nearest pub….
Link Love ❤️
Pinterest’s latest trends guide: Back to (home) life looks at what millennials, Gen Z and Men have been searching for on the channel - great for content ideas.
The revenge effects of technology - a fascinating read on the paradox of technology with examples like how smartphone use makes it easier for us to work from home, but how being so accessible means we work more, effectively making work harder and more stressful.
Why your brand needs to begin investing in binge-worthy content - couldn’t agree more with this blog from video heroes Wistia.
The final episode of Season 2 of Content Makers looks at all things content in SaaS - from attribution, to filming a business docu-series and using empathy as a marketer. Listen here on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.