We live in a fast paced world with too many distractions, and a focus on producing results.
This can be seen in the endless stream of productivity advice.
Most people think the cure for being too busy,
is to get better and faster at their tasks.
But here’s why this has the opposite effect:
Success leads to more potential opportunities.
So completing Tasks generate even more tasks.
So the more productive you are,
the more work you make for yourself.
It’s a recipe for burnout in the workplace!
This is why productivity hacks always fail,
and why so many people are feeling burned out by an endless todo list.
Burnout comes from having too many things to do, and not enough time to do them.
You have to realise you will ALWAYS have more tasks than you have
time to complete them.
Once you let go of the idea that you’re supposed to get to the end of your to-do list, then things get easier.
I use a collection of strategies to avoid burnout in my business:
- Braindumping: Keep a running list of todos to get things out of your head, to avoid overwhelm burnout.
- Triage your todos daily. draw a line in the sand and allow yourself to let go of anything under the top x5 things on your list without guilt.
- Change it up: keep things fresh by alternating between different types of tasks to avoid depletion burnout. physical task, then a mental task. take tiny 5 min breaks between
- Know the the big picture: If you focus too hard on producing results, you’re going to give up. To avoid misalignment burnout I encourage my team to look at the bigger picture and know WHY they are working on things.
