7 Habits to Prevent Burnout and Boost Your Productivity copy
by fz2jjqxzgv@ · 42 things on Twos
- For the past 7 years, I’ve worked at 2 major tech companies (Google and Qualcomm), two startups (Twos and Trustwork), and launched 5 apps and websites.
- These are the habits I’ve developed to stay consistent and prevent burnout.
- Find what you love to do
- You'll inevitably have hard days and tough challenges to overcome. This is where loving what you do will make a big difference.
- If you get started down a path you don't love, make a change. You only get one life to live so you may as well keep searching for the thing you love to do.
- I found my love for programming by accident. I always thought I'd be an architect. Now, coding wakes me up excited to see what I can build each day.
- “Find a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” - Mark Twain
- Maintain a good sleep pattern
- Sleep is crucial to our overall performance and energy levels.
- Try to go to bed and wake up around the same time and shoot for 7-8 hours of sleep per night.
- I've also heard it's helpful to finish eating 2-3 hours before you go to bed so your body isn't focused on digestion and can rest.
- The key here is to be consistent so your body gets used to it. Many people will ruin their sleep every weekend, which has a drastic impact on their performance throughout the week.
- In my junior year of college I decided to start waking up at 5 am with an alarm. It was tough at first, but usually, by the end of the day I was so tired I would fall right asleep.
- Now I try to get in bed by around 8/8:30 pm and read until I fall asleep around 9 pm and wake up around 5 without an alarm.
- "Sleep is an essential part of life-but more important, sleep is a gift." - William C. Dement
- Allow yourself to take a break
- Nowadays we’re always on the move, jumping from one activity to the next.
- Allow yourself time to relax and to stop thinking about work.
- If your energy is low or you aren't feeling well, take a break and you'll be back and ready to go before you know it.
- If I'm feeling down, I'll take a walk or a short break with some music and, within 15-30 minutes and a little reflection, I'll be back to normal.
- “Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.” - Anne Lamott
- Don’t be so hard on yourself
- If you didn’t hit your goal, it’s okay. What's more important is the effort you gave.
- Continue to show up and make progress and congratulate yourself on how far you've come.
- We're all more hard on ourselves than we are on the people around us, so pretend you are talking to your best friend.
- I have a list of affirmations I'll read that paint myself in a nice light and I try to reflect on three things I am grateful for every day.
- "Quit being so hard on yourself. We are what we are; we love what we love. We don't need to justify it to anyone... not even to ourselves" - Scott Lynch
- Schedule in buffer time
- Don’t schedule work and events back to back so you’re always in a rush.
- Schedule in buffer time for 5-15 minutes between activities so you can relax.
- This was a trick I learned from The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer, it makes a huge impact on your anxiety throughout the day.
- "Life is a succession of moments. To live each one is to succeed." – Coreta Kent
- Spend time every day on activities you love
- This could be reading, taking a walk, going to the gym, or going to dinner.
- Make sure you are making time to do the things that make you happy so you can continue to show up with positive energy.
- I enjoy breaking up my work with walks or rollerblading and making time to read before bed.
- “Love what you do; Do what you love.” - Wayne W. Dyer
- Recognize there is always another day
- If you’re just having a bad day or aren’t feeling well, take a break or call it a day.
- I like taking a break before calling it a day because a lot of times I just need to relax for 30 minutes to feel better and get back to work.
- Stepping back to see where you are headed in the long term can take a lot of unnecessary pressure off of the day-to-day.
- “The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.” – Abraham Lincoln