January is a month where I have to slow down what I do in my life because of the demands of my day job. I provide technical support for financial software for businesses, which translates into mandatory overtime and dealing with stressed out people. By the end of my working day I’m usually emotionally and mentally tapped. What I have learned to do is slow down during January and accept that what I usually do in terms of writing and other content creation simply isn’t going to happen to the same degree as it happens the rest of the year.
It’s important to recognize when you could be headed toward burnout. When you recognize that you are starting to burnout you can take preventative measures but the most important you can take is to actually yourself to have the space to reset and recharge. So often we are told to be productive, to always be doing some activity, but sometimes what we really need to do is slow down and pace ourselves.
I call this slowing down wintering and it is the deliberate cultivation of a state of slowing down and taking care of yourself instead of trying to do all the things. What I’ve learned to do is integrate wintering into they rhythm of my life so that I know when to slow down instead of continually trying to be productive. By learning how to pace myself, I maintain a state of well being that helps me avoid burnout because I proactively slow down.
You can take the same approach in your own life. Review the cycles of your life. If there are points in the cycle of a given year where you find yourself busier in one area of your life, it can be really helpful to slow down in other areas of your life. You can also do the same activity with your day. For example, I meditate during my lunch. This helps me to slow down during my busy days and gives me time to reset and recover.
There can be a lot of pressure to be on all the time, but you don’t have to be on all time and its not actually helpful to be on all the time. When you are burning out, its because you’re having to be on all the time. Turn off and allow yourself the necessity of rest and of doing activities that nourish you. If you do this proactively you won’t burnout because you’ll be taking care of yourself in a way where you preserve your creativity, well-being and overall focus.
One of the best ways you can take care of yourself the other people in your life is making the choice to deliberately create habits of rest and rejuvenation. When you take a nap or go for a walk or do some other activity that isn’t “productive” keep in mind that it actually feeds your productivity, because it gives you the break you need to have in order to recharge yourself.
