 Client Question: “I am busy from the moment I get up until I fall asleep at night. I know that I am not taking good care of myself and not setting a good example for my kids or my team. There is just so much to do and my manager told me that I need to slow down or I am going to burn out.”
Unfortunately being busy has been seen as a good thing for so many especially in a corporate setting. Having multiple meetings at a time and never having time for lunch can be viewed as a badge of honor. It must mean you are successful, right? You are so important that you have all these things to do and people to meet with every day. Conference calls in the car to and from work and during weekend events. You have little time to look at email or put together information for future meetings. Which means you have to do it when you get home after you put the kids to bed. No wonder you are exhausted! Repeating this every day leads to more stress and burnout.
Look at the list of things you are doing and be ruthless about what really has to be done and what is a nice to have or just something you have always done? What would your perfect week look like? What percentage of your time is being spent in these 4 buckets: work, thinking time, you and family/friends? Are there other buckets you should also focus on? What do you want it to look like? You need to create space to focus on the important things, be present and spend time thinking. What kind of boundaries can you build to create that space?
I commend your manager for being honest with you and being concerned for you. If your management is seeing it then you know everyone around you is too. You don’t want to burn out, so use this pivotal moment to really reflect on what you are doing at work and at home. You can’t plan, strategize, be creative or solve a problem when you are that busy. Go through the process of seeing where you are spending your time, find ways to create boundaries, delegate more (at home and at work) and create how much time you want to spend in the buckets that you designate for yourself. Set the tone for your team and your family to show them that success doesn’t equal being busy. Show them that it is about working on the right things that are important to you, that add value and make you feel fulfilled.
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