2 weeks Ago
It's undeniably hard to avoid burnout completely, especially during these times when many of us may be juggling multiple jobs to make ends meet or have other responsibilities outside of our day-to-day. However, there are many tools and methods that people swear by to make it more manageable. In addition to the inevitable burnout, I definitely spread myself thin, which often makes me feel overwhelmed with life.
When I learned about this method, I figured I had nothing to lose if I gave it a go, so I decided to try this method for a few days and report back if it helped me feel productive, less stressed, be more intentional with my time, and overall feel more balanced in my life. To give some backstory of how my day goes, sometimes I'll work past 6 pm on the couch while trying to catch up on a show. Sometimes, I'll do laundry after a long meeting or just work through lunch, which screams chaos.
The night before I started, I planned my days to figure out how exactly I wanted to divide my hours. Here is what I came up with: -The first three hours of my day would be dedicated to me. -I planned to work for eight hours with an hour lunch break -I planned to spend four hours at the end of my workday for me.
-Then off to sleep for 8 hours . WISH ME LUCK! I also put an hour lunch break in my calendar, which I typically never schedule when working from home. I rarely eat lunch at the same time every day and often work while eating, but NOT TODAY.
Since this was my fourth hour of "me" time for the day, I was more intentional with it and either watched a YouTube video, read a book, or just caught up on social media around 1 pm. While following the 8/8/8 method, when it came to my work block, I realized how easily I get distracted and let my mind wander about doing other things. I think this is more common when working from home because it's easy (for me, at least) to start checking off things on my personal to-do list, like doing a load of laundry or cleaning the kitchen while I'm waiting to get edits back on a story or after sending a few emails.
I really tried my best to remind myself that I would have time for those things later after my workday and to finish on the block at hand. Honestly, when I first started following this method at the beginning of the week, it did feel rather regimented, something that I don't really care for. However, after a few days of it, I noticed that I never felt the "I don't have enough time" stress — a common feeling I would often complain about.
Looking at my day like three separate blocks allowed me to be more intentional with my time and not feel like all aspects of my life were bleeding into one another. I struggle with time management sometimes, so following this simple method helped me structure my day and time better. I was able to reclaim my time, which I could see in the long run will help me with burnout and not have me walking around grumpy by Thanksgiving feeling constantly overwhelmed.
It's important to note that this method might not work for everyone, considering your profession, whether you work from the office or home, have kids, etc. If you take anything away from this, let it be that prioritizing time for yourself and what brings you joy is crucial to having balance in life and avoiding burnout from the day-to-day grind. Do you have any tips for time management and avoiding burnout? Share all your advice with me in the comments below!.
