Managing Burnouts: It's a matter of space
I've burned out.
Managing Burnouts: It's a matter of space
I've burned out.
Managing Burnouts: It's a matter of space
I've burned out.
I woke up exhausted even before my day even started.
The culprit that caught up to me is what I call admin work.
Short, quick, and specific tasks.
These come in the form of responding to emails, no matter how short, or even having to make quick small decisions.
While these little tasks seem manageable individually, they also require quick ‘gear shifts’ to complete each task quickly. And these sudden shifts can be mentally exhausting.
A day of tackling “admin work” means I have to retrieve the right things from my working memory and access all the background information relevant to make that tiny decision, like what to write in an email, what time to suggest, or to say yes or no to a request. Then, I need to switch as quickly as possible between these tasks. Of course, this takes energy, but what takes the most energy is task switching.
I can hold a lot of information at any time, which makes me very good at big-picture thinking, but that’s not infinite. And when I reach my limit, that’s it. No more! It doesn’t matter how important the new information is. It doesn’t fit.
Juggling tasks and mental clutter
I often think of my life as a juggling act.
I’m constantly trying to keep multiple balls in the air at once, and sometimes I wonder if I can add one more ball to the mix. However, it requires significantly more concentration and effort to juggle four balls instead of three.
That's when I ask myself: do I let one ball drop or push myself to juggle all four?
It's a tough decision, but ultimately, it's about finding balance and knowing my limits.
Suppose I make space for any new information. In that case, I need to drop a ball, which means allowing myself to forget or put something out of my mind for the moment.
But which ball can I drop?
That’s a difficult question because it’s all equal in terms of priority. So it’s not obvious what I can let go. So I have to scan through all the info in my head to identify what I can drop. And that entails making a decision too.
The Physical and Mental Clutter
I work best when I can monotask because it allows me to set into hyperfocus.
Hyperfocus means I don’t have information in my brain that isn’t directly related to the task at hand. In its physical form, it’s like packing everything away in my office and taking out what I need for this specific task and only that task.
However, monotasking also takes a physical form in my environment.
Post-it notes and stacks of paper cover every surface.
It looks like I am working in chaos, but it’s necessary because it’s all relevant to the task.
This is one of the reasons why I’ve never been able to work productively in a shared public space like a café or a library. I need space to physically ‘spread out’ my brain around me. Thankfully, I’ve never had to work in a ‘hot-desk’ environment!
Unfortunately, the mess formed through this hyper-focused state makes any unrelated task difficult. Things that would have been simple with a clean desk, like finding my coffee cup or re-filling my stapler, are suddenly much more involved and complex than usual.
That leaves me with two options. One is sorting through the relevant papers without disturbing the perfect chaos of the hyperfocused state, cleaning up the entire space. The other option is to pack everything away and clean the space so nothing is left out.
I choose the latter.
The other tasks become doable again, but I don’t have the resources for my main hyperfocus task!
Hyper-focusing for productivity
My hyperfocus allows me to focus on one thing and to ‘spread out’ what’s in my mind.
It enables me to take up space on every surface to re-engage my brain in the optimal configuration for the task (at the expense of other things).
It means I get a lot done and can achieve things others find difficult. It also means I’m effectively ‘offline’ or in ‘do not disturb’ mode. In a physical sense, it’s me, locked in my office, alone, with the door shut. Other everyday maintenance tasks do NOT get done during this time as it is a time of ‘deep work’.
It also explains why I need time to ‘reset’ every so often in the physical space. This' reset' takes the form of packing everything away. My office, my brain, is too cluttered, and the best way to clean it is to put everything away and then only take out what I need right now.
Indeed, the extent of the mess and chaos is significant. It takes some time for me to sink into ‘deep work’, and keeping up with life admin remains a struggle. And when I try, it often leaves me burnt out, as I am right now.
Prioritising Self-Care Amidst Burnout
I’m fried and don’t have the energy for deep work.
I’ve spent too much time packing and unpacking in my attempts to shift between tasks as quickly as possible to finish them all in a reasonable time.
I don’t have the energy for everyday life maintenance and just have to rest.
Rest and hope that what I’ve already done is enough.
Rest and hope that when my brain comes back online, nothing has burned down, and I’m not met by a pile of unfinished urgent tasks.
I also hope to get ahead of the curve and find meaning and direction in my life so I don’t spend all my time firefighting, just trying to survive.
That’s the state of my brain today.
Writing this article is something I was capable of doing today. At least it feels productive, and hopefully, that means I can now more effectively rest, knowing that everything is fine and I’m not just falling further behind. And with that, I’ll take the rest of the day off even though it’s only the morning.
Hopefully, this little reset will allow me to wake up ‘ready to go’ tomorrow.
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