Life asks a lot of you.
Every day you wake up and you have an exhaustive list of errands, chores, and tasks to do that all usually start within 30 minutes of you waking up.
From work needing that report done today, to getting milk on your way home, and having to go get a workout in so you take care of yourself all take time and emotional bandwidth.
Some of these tasks give us energy, like spending time with family. Others help us feel better so we can better help others like working out or sleeping (self care)!
Then there are the tasks that are related to our work, extended family responsibilities, and home maintenance. The energy draining activities. The activities that can spill over into the other aspects of our life if we aren’t too careful and start effecting our perfect day!
A Tool To Attack Burnout
Your day is sacred. If it is filled with things that take energy from you, burnout starts to happen. You start to feel negative about things that aren’t even related to the tasks that drain you. Small things overwhelm you. Your loved ones start to notice and the only reprieve on the horizon is a nice 4 day weekend trip you have planned a month from now.
In the first couple years of gym ownership, I have definitely felt like this at points. Even though I love my job, as I’m sure most of us do, burnout happens.
One day I brought up this problem to my mentor and we took a look at my day.
He asked me to do what I would like you to do right now:
Write down every task you have to do today (or tomorrow since this email comes out at 3:30pm).
Next, organize them in terms of importance by giving them a grade!
A: Has to be done today and must haves in your daily routine.
B: Would like to be done today, but really can be done within the next few days.
C: Has to be done this week.
D: Has to be done this month.
F: Can Be Done By Someone Else
Once you do that, reorganize the list into a checklist in your notes app on your phone (on iPhones you just hit the checklist icon just above the keyboard in a note and just start typing! Hit enter to make a new task).
Put the A’s in Bold and check them off as you do them throughout the day. Do a little dance and celebrate you’ve taken care of an important task.
Then self audit yourself for how much energy you have.
If you have enough energy to take care of a B, then do it.
C, wait for it to become a B OR tackle it if you have the energy for that too!
D’s and F’s? Take some time to consider if it is a task that YOU need to do. If you do, great but don’t make it a priority. There’s a reason you gave it such a low grade of importance. If it is something that someone else can do while you tackle an A or a B task, then delegate!
Don’t think you can do it? What do you think honey-do lists are other than significant others who have already mastered the art of delegating tasks so that they can focus on their A and B tasks!
You Don’t Have To Go It Alone!
Things that are ultimately your responsibility are gonna fall on you. There’s just some things that we have to go alone. BUT, this is a very small percentage of tasks that we do!
The American ideal of the “Lone Wolf” that tackles every task they receive with drive like a train pushing through the snow is ridiculous. We need help and not everything has to be shouldered by one person.
Prioritizing your tasks can provide clarity and relief.
Assessing what you have to do, where you need help, and delegating the tasks where you can help others more with your time spent elsewhere can really help remove a ton of stress!
Let me know if you try this drill! I wanna hear if it works for ya! Prioritizing my list of tasks each day gives me the permission to take a breath and relax. To go “this is definitely a C task and I wanna go on a walk with my wife instead” goes a long way into reducing burnout and making that perfect day feel like it is already here.
To talk with a coach today, click the link found HERE to schedule your No Sweat Intro