Wellness Moment — finding an extra moment
The blurred lines between work and home life have made us all more prone to overwork and burnout recently. Signs of burnout can include exhaustion, detachment, and loss of productivity, brought on by heavy workloads and limited control over the when, where, and how of the job. When we’re in the middle of giant world-shaping events that we can’t control, it can help to learn and make use of tools to help manage the things we can.
You may have heard me talk before about time audits. From time to time, I will open up a spreadsheet and track everything I’m doing hour by hour for a week or so. My fellow time-management nerds will recognize this practice from time management expert Laura Vanderkam. Though it seems counterintuitive, it’s an occasional practice that I find helpful when I’m feeling most busy and stressed. It helps me see how much I’m accomplishing with all that busy-ness, or see where I’m devoting too much time to one area and neglecting others so I can be intentional about resetting. Or sometimes it shows me that I’m not as busy as I thought, and gives me the space to slow down.
Once we know where our time is being spent, it opens the possibility of making small adjustments. For example, leaving just a few minutes between meetings, or allowing some transition time between tasks, can make a big difference in how we feel during work hours. Similarly, carving out a few moments for something we enjoy can make our personal time more restorative, and reduce those signs of burnout.
You can read more about burnout and time audits below.
