From Burnout to Balance | Combining Rest and Work for Peak Efficiency

[Anderson]

How to combine rest and work?

There are generally two scenarios: one where a person has no time to rest, and another where a person has so much rest that they don’t even think about it.

In the second scenario, the person likely lacks the motivation to create the situation of the first scenario 😄

But let’s delve into the first scenario. I fall into the first category. Initially, when I created my first business project, I literally didn’t understand how it was possible to find time to rest, why it was necessary, and why it was a problem that I wasn’t resting. I even considered it an achievement that I was working so much 🤦‍♂️

However, after six months of such a rhythm, I suddenly began to realize my problem. I gradually stopped feeling happy, became nervous and extremely aggressive. My relationships with friends and others significantly deteriorated. It felt like I was losing a part of my life 😔

In January 2024, I realised that my workload was increasing, and I could no longer continue living this way. The solution was to reassess my priorities. A day off each week became the highest priority. Trips out of town for a small getaway every 2-3 months became mandatory. Naturally, this brought changes to my work routine, and I had to optimize my working hours, which I discuss in other posts.

What did this bring? Enjoyment in work returned, unshakeable calmness in any situation, and complete imperviousness to stress. These are the things that make you feel unhappy.

By the way, only when you learn to rest do you transition to the third scenario, called "the most effective."

So make rest as much a priority as work. Letting go of your activity and just resting can be even harder than working. Otherwise, work will become torture, no matter what it is... 

[Anderson]

I've touched on the topic of rest before, but in a recent conversation with my girlfriend—who is probably the most unhappy about how much I work—I realized an important truth that I had struggled to grasp for a long time.

I always thought that I only rested during vacations. Only then could I disconnect and, as a result, reset. This is sometimes extremely necessary in the job of a manager. And as we all know, clear-headedness is essential for making business decisions.

Recently, I understood an important fact: the brain does not rest if we feel responsible. In other words, when you think about work or worry about something, even if you are not performing tasks, you are not resting.

What does this lead to? For me, for example, weekends felt as if I hadn't stopped working, even though I wasn't completing tasks. After a month or a month and a half, I would feel extremely tired both physically and mentally.

Now, I set clear boundaries for myself to not think about work at all on weekends. Does this help? Incredibly so. For the past three months, I haven't felt tired at all, even though my average work schedule is about 60 hours a week. Over the weekends, I fully recover, and by the new week, I feel like working again. This was my spring revelation.

[Anderson]

Every day, I write in a notebook the tasks I've completed, including household chores. Sometimes, I jot down thoughts as well.

On July 25, 2023, I filled out my day for the first time. A whole year of diligent work has passed, and each day is recorded in the notebook. Weekends, vacations, sick days, every day. Absolutely.

Only one person among all my acquaintances managed to keep this up for more than two weeks. So if you think it's easy but don't feel the need to do it, believe me, it's not just difficult—it's very difficult. It's a huge amount of work, especially on oneself.

What has this given me?

1. Constant reflection on what I'm doing.

2. Motivation to keep moving forward. Every day, I see what useful things I've done. If there are few items, I feel ashamed primarily before myself. It's a system of accountability to oneself every day.

3. Error analysis. I can review the history of how I come to certain decisions at any moment. I can analyze a situation, remembering every action in detail.

4. Habit support. My notebook is the key tool for maintaining habits. Each completed habit is recorded as a separate item.

After a year, I've filled an enormous table with 366 rows and gathered some interesting statistics. Imagine if you had something like this. I think many would not refuse it, and some could make serious conclusions from such data about themselves.

Statistics for 366 days:

Total tasks: 4,439 or an average of 12.13 tasks per day (including vacations, weekends, etc.).

Total weekends and vacations: 63. Of these, 28 days were vacations, 35 were weekends. On average, this is 2.92 days off per month. Including vacations, it's 5.25 per month. Yes, business means even with vacations, you get 50% less rest than people in regular jobs without them.

Throughout the year, I maintained my habits 87% of the time or 318 days.

My average mood was 7.8361/10. In the first quarter, it was 7.6/10, and in the last quarter, it was 8.1/10.

Over the year, I had 439 calls, averaging 1.2 calls per day.

Re-reading the notebook, I revisited my past decisions and events. I was able to rethink and draw conclusions.

Overall, this wasn't even a challenge. Filling out the notebook is my everyday habit. Without it, I simply can't live peacefully.

Should everyone keep a notebook? I think it's not mandatory at all, but it's up to you to decide. I believe such statistics and self-analysis can lead to very significant progress. In total, I spent about 100 hours filling out the notebook over the year, which is approximately 1.13% of the total time in a year.

I look forward to your comments on your experience with self-accountability.

 

I would like to mention a few topics related to this post. I find them interesting to read and connect with each other: