Technology can be a huge boost to productivity, but it can also be a drain. Let's be honest. Our devices take up a lot of our time. Consider how much of that screen time actually nurtures our goals and wellness? Then think about quality time with family and friends and how crucial those relationships are to keeping our work-life balance.
I think I speak for most of us when I say it has been an exhausting past few years. All of us have experienced so much upheaval and uncertainty in both our personal and professional lives that many of us are suffering from burnout. Medical professionals define burnout as a response to prolonged stress that leaves you feeling emotionally and physically drained and exhausted. If you find yourself constantly fatigued, emotionally numb, and unable to keep up with life’s incessant demands, you may be suffering from burnout.
Do you crave time to do your deep thinking work during the work day, and not on nights and weekends? Too often workdays are filled with demands for back to back meetings, dozens of emails, IM’s and slack messages–that our days feel out of our control. Even when you set aside time to think, you are likely to give it away. Yet, investing time in strategic planning, writing, innovation, process improvement, or learning helps us shift from reactive to proactive. And go from working hard, to working smart.
While having a bustling schedule may be a necessary part of your role, it can also leave you in a state of stress. Everyone has had that moment when they struggle to pivot and make schedule arrangements when something inevitably changes for the week. Unfortunately, these sudden changes can leave you in a constant state of anxiety that can impact your work and keep you from focusing during your downtime.
We hear a lot about meeting overload - too many meetings or back-to-back meetings. A lot of us have developed poor meeting habits during COVID, where the only way to drive work forward was through meetings. We now have to be intentional about meetings. To be highly effective we must open up space to actually do the work that meetings generate.
