On being a work-a-holic
I’m a work-a-holic.
But I’m trying to change.
I first properly realised it when I moved jobs aged 28; the job I was in was stressful and I often found myself at 9pm at night at my desk and blaming everyone but myself. I moved jobs to the loveliest job but found myself wanting to do MORE AND MORE and feeling disatisfied when it wasn’t on offer. Instead of addressing the work/life balance issue with myself, I moved back into a stressful job and stayed there for another 7 years and hid behind the culture of ‘busy’.
Fast forward nearly 10 years and working for myself means there’s no-one to blame for my work habits, other than me! Sound familiar? Now, I get it, we all need to ‘hustle’ some time to get a ask or project done - but when the hustle becomes all the time, it’s very easy to get burnt out.
So, how am I adapting my behaviours? Here’s a list that I hope will be useful if you’re in a similar position:
Getting a ‘work’ phone. Since working for myself, all my work and personal calls/messages/app are all on the same phone. After taking a friend’s advice, from next week I’m getting a different phone to see if this works in streamlining apps and messages into a dedicated work phone. I’ll report back!
Banishing my phone to downstairs on nighttimes- I’ve invested in an alarm clock and now leave my phone downstairs at night so that I’m not scrolling before bed and on waking up.
Getting really clear on my capacity. Using my capacity planning tool based around hours available in the day and work to do, I am able to get a really clear idea of what going over capacity looks like in advance. Sounds like something you’d like to get a grip on? Join me on 9th November for my Capacity Planning to avoid Burnout workshop - more info here.
Taking holidays and weekends as time off - if you’re really honest with yourself, do you check your emails/Instagram/work messages when you’re on holiday? If you don’t, good for you! But I know for a fact that I (and most of the clients I work with on Creative Incubator sessions!) find it very hard to switch off.
Finding something else to do whilst watching TV and/or reading actual books away from a screen. I don’t know about you, but I find myself scrolling or emailing whilst watching TV, which means I am neither fully resting, or fully working and it leaves me feeling strung out. So I’ve starting doodling and colouring whilst watching TV to resist the urge!
Getting work out of your personal space - whether this is getting a office, finding a corner in the spare room, or just making sure to pack things away so I’m not tempted to come back to them later, I find this is incredibly useful for building better boundaries between life and work.
Inspiring myself with books and podcasts - I find books like ‘Make Time’ by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky to be very beneficial for probing my thinking. The best advice I’ve read recently is below and I’ve been using that to really consider my diary for work, play and rest time inside and outside of work.
In all of my Creative Incubator sessions we talk about work life balance and know that when I’m asking you a difficult question about whether working until 10pm is the best thing for you, I’m coming from a place of fighting that urge too!
Fancy a chat about whether we’d be a good fit to unravel your ideas, work on action planning and build some accountability into your business? Get in touch for a free 15 minute call here.