Virginia WaltonA recent article in Forbes highlighted executive burnout. Not surprising this would be a topic a year into the first pandemic most of us have experienced. While shut downs helped clear calendars and roads from the constant rushing from one commitment to the next, it created new challenges. Balancing working, teaching, parenting and relaxing all from the same place… our homes. I saw parents sitting with their young child next to them – each at their own computer for work and school. No stress there! Learning how to conduct meetings virtually while having your entire household in the background, sure no problem.
One friend of mine shared the story of how she had been on conference calls all morning and her young daughter had patiently been quietly keeping busy but was now hungry. My friend thinking, she was on mute, asked an entire conference call if they wanted a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I’m not sure how many she had to make, but I do know how it stressed her out. I bet there is some head nodding as I say this.
So, after months or maybe a year of trying to balance everything are your feeling stressed and frustrated? How many days do you feel like there is no break from work because you no longer physically go to work? Feeling like your boss expects you to be ‘on’ longer since you are not commuting? The fact that companies are declaring ‘zoom free’ days tells us the fatigue is real!
Who can relate to the following:
- Feeling overworked, overwhelmed, stressed, frustrated,
- Not sleeping well
- Over indulging in food, alcohol, shopping online or some other guilty pleasure?
- Short tempered and inpatient with co-workers, family, kids?
- Uninspired, dragging, can’t concentrate
Most women take care of everyone and everything else before we take care of ourselves. I am betting there are some more head nods going on. Our desire to care for everyone, which applies to those without children or elderly parents in need of your assistance, gets in the way of making our own wellness a priority.
The first step is to recognize and acknowledge. If not, you will burnout! I visualize this like the toddler melt down. It will just hit you and you’ll be on the floor crying, screaming, kicking and if it were me… consuming an entire bag of cookies and jar of peanut butter.
Once you realize what is going on, take action. The action plan will vary for each of us, but here are six things you may want to try doing daily.
- Exercise 30-90 minutes
- Do 20 minutes of stress reducing activity a day- this could be mediation, breathing exercises, or watching a funny video, movie, show, or podcast. Just be focused on what you are watching; do not do this while you try to make dinner, help with homework and solve world hunger.
- Get 7 to 9 hours of sleep. Before you say, “wait, I’m done! This lady is so not connected with reality”, you can do this. I use to get less than 5 hours a night. I met with a nutritionist because I was working out 6 days a week sometimes in the morning and then taking a cardio class at night, eating small meals and healthy food choices, but my weight was not moving. The first thing she told me to change… sleep! So, I figured out how to change my routines to get to bed
earlier. I food prepped on the weekend, planned my outfits out a head of time and looked for other ways short cuts and time waste. Now I’m usually getting at least 7 hours. Progress, not perfection is the standard!
- Have breakfast. You wouldn’t leave for work without gas in the car, why would you expect your body to run on empty?
- Eat real food. Processed food tends to offer less energy.
- Return to center- find even a few minutes to focus. Just relax your mind. Think of it as pushing the reset button on your brain. What is the first thing you hear when you call tech support? “Have you tried restarting your device?” Same concept! When it gets over loaded it needs a reset; so do you! You are way more sophisticated of an operating system than your laptop, tablet or phone.
Everyone is different so what works best for you is based on you. Try some or all of these. Remember it takes time to build new habits so do not expect a change overnight. Pick one and work on making it a steady habit, then build.
Reach out so we can schedule a call for how I can help coach you off the burnout path to improve not only your quality of life, but your quality of work.
We will talk about not saying yes to every request another day, but one thing at a time.
Be well!