8urnout to 8usiness

It's the weirdest thing to have a warped perception of time when your brain is spinning in "Not enough time, too much to do" while you're at energy level 0 and not moving.

The way out? Through.

Level 1: Emotional Processing (meaning, allowing whatever you're feeling to be there without telling yourself "I should feel different")

Level 2: Reverse-engineering where the emotions are coming from by separating yourself from your experience (10 minutes of journaling a day + realizing all sentences are optional should do it).

Level 3: Tether yourself to time. Provide yourself with structure.

"I think you just need some structure" my friend said. He was right. I was disoriented. My perception of time and of what's important to me was completely distorted - the product of subjecting myself to overwhelm and the thoughts of an unmanaged mind whose main goal was to keep my body efficient (aka not moving).

I wasn't giving myself a chance at structure. I was in a new environment in my home, my job, expecting myself to remember instead of utilizing my calendar, I didn't have a schedule or an office, I had no grounding.

30 seconds would feel completely different when I was trying to work (hectic, not enough time), than when I was outside checking on my plants growing my food (will the kettle boil already).

So I started with my calendar.

Assignment #1? "Write down everything you think you have to do." I filled six A4 pages and cried. I crossed half of it off the list again. I felt completely overwhelmed but at least it was out of my brain and on a sheet of paper.

Assignment #2? "Structure it all into projects."

Assignment #3? "Plant it all on your calendar."

Assignment #4? "Decide that you are organized." No matter if it's true. Believe it for a second, feel the surge of energy and pride. Again.

Now start using your calendar as a crutch to organize your tasks and your time, and start wobbling your way towards structure and out of Burnout.

Do a round of Inbox 0 - best feeling ever.

I wanted to put thought work to the test. I believed I could come up with one system to rule them all (even though I didn't have the system yet), and I came up with it. I organized my paperwork, my online files, my receipts and invoices. Thank god organizing becomes mindless once you have a system. It becomes automatic, almost meditative.

Yes, I was getting organized. I was engaging with my life again. But what really changed was my relationship to myself.

I started proving to myself that I could rely on me. At the heart of my relationship with my calendar, my time, my freedom, my ownerhip of having to and wanting to, trusting my past self and relying on myself to create future me was the most powerful thing I ever did for myself.

Tethering myself to time and creating a relationship across time with myself was what helped me finally realize that "mother nature" was actually me, poking my head back in time and telling myself to get up. It was me helping myself.

They say time heals all wounds. As if time had anything to do with healing. YOU heal. Independent of time. It has no measure. You won't even understand until you look back.

Want to know more? I help companies retain their employees of all levels by teaching them to manage their minds and their time - your company's two most valuable assets - so your business can replace pressure with precision. Get in touch via linkedin or drop an email at [email protected] to see how we can work together.