I don’t know about you, but I’m tired. From the minor (like snow days that have kept our family cooped up inside) to the major (like changes that make the landscape of social media almost unrecognizable), I feel like I’m going from problem to problem with little to no rest. Can just one day be unremarkable please?

It seems as the world is rushing, rushing, rushing, unremarkable days are long behind us. Instead, it’s flying from one problem to the next, and hoping there will be rest soon.

What does one do?

Slow down

I know it’s easier said than done, but the rush is seriously the problem. When you’re in a constant rush, you can’t see the forest through the trees. You’re focusing on the wrong things and have no idea what the real problems are.

Take a breath. And then look at what’s going on in a slower, more methodical way. Is this really affecting anything? Is it really as big a fire as it felt like at first? Does it require a big response? Maybe it just needs a one-on-one response?

Get your head as clear as possible and you’re more likely to give a response that stops the fire rather than fuel it.

Fuel yourself

Allie Lehman is regularly posting, “Eat lunch.” It’s something we regularly forget to do because we are ducking into back-to-back meetings. It’s easier to skip it or scarf down something random when the hunger gets to be too much.

It wasn’t until I had a child and constantly had to sit down for her lunch that I realized the real value of quitting this behavior. That breath in the middle of the day obviously slowed down the thought spirals that could make me ineffective at my job. But it was also easier to have healthier foods. I started fueling properly and having more energy for what needed to get done throughout the day.

Honestly, taking that thirty minutes every day makes me faster at doing everything else throughout the day. So it’s more than made up for with how much easier and faster work is after I’m done.

Create boundaries

Working constantly with no boundaries whatsoever is a recipe for burnout. So how do you quit that?

If you have been working this way for quite some time, you can’t just drop it all. That would just create bigger problems. Instead simply inch it back by prioritizing what’s most important first.

For example, I had a client that constantly texted me. I let it go at first because it wasn’t affecting anything. But when you get an unimportant text right in the middle of your child’s bedtime? Things had to change. I tried going straight to no texts at all unless it required my immediate attention. Welp, in their opinion, everything required my immediate attention, so the texts continued. I then went to no texts after working hours unless it’s an emergency, and I went over what emergencies look like. And I added in about how much easier it is for me to have the information and respond if I get it in an email. I also tried to be even quicker with my email response times since within an hour didn’t seem to work for them. The texts started slowing down.

I would have done more steps down from there to get the texts to the appropriate level, but someone in the organization complained to HR about the texts and they became scared to text at all. So, instead, I had to explain what times were appropriate to text me, because I would not be constantly glued to my email. Eventually, we got there.

So as you create those boundaries, go after those that are most important to your daily life first and go slowly to fully incorporate them. Otherwise, it’s just going to be too much and it’s likely you won’t be able to create any kind of boundary.

In the end…

I think it all comes down to creating some distance between yourself and your job. Taking care of yourself and your needs first actually does make you work more efficiently. And it helps you realize what is actually a real fire instead of a fake one. Because if everything is a fire, how can you possibly keep up? You can’t.

How do you recognize what is actually a fire? And how do you recognize what’s not?