Blogger: Rachel Kent
I don’t know about you, but I’ve spent this week in a sort of holiday fog. My brain just won’t work the way I want it to! I’m hoping I can get back into a good routine next week, but I’ve been a little discouraged this week with my lack of progress.
When we start a new year we all set high goals for ourselves and, unfortunately, it’s pretty likely that we won’t be able to live up to our expectations of what we hope to accomplish each day. It’s pretty easy to get overwhelmed when we don’t reach our daily goals and then by March we’ve given up on our new routines all together. I have a few tricks that I use to help me overcome burnout and I hope they help you too.
1) Don’t punish yourself by cutting out fun. I find that if I haven’t accomplished what I want to during a work day that I won’t often allow myself to read for pleasure at home. I feel like if I don’t get my work reading done that I have no right to read something else. This is NOT the right way to think. If you don’t allow yourself to enjoy some personal time you won’t have a healthy mindset for your work time. It’s a spiral that continues to cause harm rather than good. For me, it’s because of my love of books that I want to do my job so if I cut out my pleasure reading I’m cutting out the joy that inspired me in the first place. Then work becomes work without the joy and that’s not what any of us wants!
2) If you don’t complete what you wanted to one day, don’t pile it on top of your next day’s goal. Restructure. Start fresh each morning with a positive mindset. If you keep adding incomplete work to your goals for future days you will overwhelm yourself. If you don’t finish a task one day, restructure your next day so that the day’s work can fit into that one day. You will have to prioritize, but it’s important to make sure you aren’t just piling on overwhelming expectations for yourself.
3) I bet you have a goal for physical health too. It’s true the the health of your body affects your productivity at work and your happiness. If you aren’t doing well with getting to the gym or keeping up an exercise routine on your own find a workout accountability partner or gym buddy. This is always how I’ve been able to keep up some level of physical activity and it seems like when I try to rely only on myself my workout plans never happen. Also, doing a little something each day is better than nothing at all. If you don’t get to the gym one day try running up and down the stairs for 15 minutes or do a brief session of stretching and squats. Or you could borrow my 21 pound baby and do some lifting!
4) This one might be the most important. Stop comparing yourself to others! Every person is different and accomplishes things at different rates and through different methods. Wasting energy worrying about if you are writing as quickly as a writing pal of yours or trying to feel better about yourself because at least you are accomplishing more than Jane Doe won’t help you at all. Focus only on yourself and your daily tasks and you’ll end up feeling better and getting more done. This applies to your health goals too.
Here are a few questions to ponder and discuss:
1) Do you fall victim to punishing yourself by taking away your joyful activities? How have you seen this affecting you?
2) We are nearly a week into the new year. How are you doing with your goals?
3) What tricks do you use to help keep yourself on track for accomplishing your tasks?
4) Have you ever been able to keep up a resolution for an entire year? If so, what was it and how did you do it?
What a thoughtful Friday message! Thank you, Rachel. After a stretch of days off work, I have trouble getting back into the sleep routine.
*Hubby gave me a fitness tracker for Christmas that also tracks my sleep pattern–for the first time, I can see my sleep. I suspect that the balance and timing of deep sleep changes over the holidays, as much or more than my awake time.
*I relish the holiday late-night chats with my grown children, but I pay a price in an upended sleep rhythm. I’m giving myself the grace to muddle through–the joy is worth the fog!
Great thoughts, Rachel!
* I don’t tend to have a problem with restarting in January, because we don’t make a big deal of the Christmas/New Year season. January 1 is just another day, but on the other hand every hour presents the opportunity for a fresh start…and for the nonbeliever, Eternal Salvation.
So true, Andrew, especially your comment about salvation!
The only really distinctive thing about January 1 is that I have to remember to increase the year by one on any checks and in the dates I include in file names to keep track of the version.
A birthday makes me one day older, not one year. Flipping from 2016 to 2017 only has real meaning from a tax-filing perspective.
Rachel, I don’t necessarily punish myself by cutting out fun while working, however, when it comes to reading, I’ll seldom start a book unless I’ve got enough time to finish it. I’ve never been able to put a book down once I start. I remember pulling all-nighters in Jr. High and suffering the after effects of a blurry-eyed book hangover. Good memories.
*I will confess I’m guilty of point #2. I feel the need to finish yesterday’s leftovers before I can move on to a new writing task, but your suggestion to restructure makes sense. Many times the solution to a problem, especially while writing, comes when your mind isn’t dwelling on it.
Rachel, I have to say this time thing is a battle for me all year long. When I was a reading specialist, my work place was orderly and organized, my days planned and crisp. I functioned well and accomplished the task at hand … the goal was easy to reach. It’s much harder for me to sustain the momentum with my writing projects. I tend to do fits and starts. Discouragement comes in when progress is lacking or I don’t have the
resources to take my WIP to the next level. I guess it’s the organization piece that mystifies and eludes me (and I should know better). I let other people-needs and personal interests crowd in instead of setting blocks of structured writing time aside as sacred.
Ha! Yes, all these are difficult for me. My goal was to be ready to submit something I’ve been working on a long time by Jan. 3rd…it isn’t ready, but it is closer to being ready. I’ve just decided that the “well my time limit is done, I have to just send it out” approach is not best for this. I’m going to dive into the story and make it the best thing I’ve ever written, then and only then will I try and see if anyone else likes it too.
Kristen, I think you’re very wise to send it out when it’s ready, not just because some date you set yourself has been reached. I set target dates and work hard to meet them, but if it takes more time to get from mere “completion” to a level closer to “perfection” where I’ve done the very best I can, I’ll slide the date without grief or guilt. (Dates under contract must be met, but I’m not under contract to anyone except myself and God.)
I used to have a terrible habit of comparing myself to the most extreme examples of productivity. “If she can homeschool, write, have a side job, manage the family finances, and cook/bake everything from scratch, so can I.” It didn’t help that being born visually impaired came with a built-in need to prove myself. My ability to show off by juggling so much came in handy when I became a single mom and really did have to do it all, but soon after moving to my parents’ house I crashed and could never go back to that frenzied pace. Now I see how exhausting it was! I got a lot done but everything felt like a chore.
If I don’t accomplish everything on my list I remember a story that a friend told me about her struggle with beating herself for the same reason. She complained one too many times to her daughter, “I didn’t finish everything on my list,” and her daughter said, “Mom, maybe your list was too long.” This reminds me to make lists that are manageable, and understand that sometimes life gets in the way. I love your tip about restructuring instead of piling unfinished tasks unto the next day. I’ve learned to do this too!
Thank you for this great post!