The most offbeat way that helped me avoid complete burnout — Data !!
A short account of my personal struggle with burnout these past 2–3 weeks
I work at a Tech startup (Alore CRM) where life moves at sonic speed. We ideate, create and launch faster than you spell “Vladivostok”. and yes, I love it !!
However, in the past two weeks I’d been noticing a sudden slowness about myself. I was feeling physically exhausted all the time — like I was doing manual labour at a construction site.(I wasn’t)
I was feeling forgetful and slow in my head like all logic was moving in slow-mo towards me eg. while consolidating my monthly marketing data report I was getting confused between columns and rows and finding the task infuriating and cumbersome as hell.
I was even feeling ineffective and low when the content I was working on wasn’t performing as well as I expected. Every few hours I was going into a self-analysis on what was I suddenly doing wrong. Not really a very happy place in my head.
and to top it, all this while I was actually working almost 14–15 hours everyday !!
The fact that I am mamma to twin toddlers whom I was seeing for barely half an hour in the night was even more brutal. I was even sitting at my laptop working my arse off until one hour before their birthday party began that “ I and the husband” had to host. (Not proud of it)
The husband was even lower in the priority list during this weird phase of life spiralling out of control.
It wasn't until my husband spelt it for me that I realised that I was stepping into the classic Burnout.
Of course like every other millennial I googled it and self-diagnosed myself as a semi-case of burnout — the anger, anxiety and depression were yet to step in but the other telling symptoms were there — I was forgetful and addled, falling sick frequently (fever, cold — minor stuff) , Insomnia hit and forever exhausted.
After a few days of trying to unsuccessfully figure a way out of this, I reached out to my boss Vikas expecting a quick solution. I was even momentarily disappointed when he spoke in riddles like Master Oogway does in Kung Fu Panda “Search the reason within you D. You have to be your own sun”.
I’m still wrapping my head around the second half of his advice !!
Anyhow, last night I lay down on bed feeling exhausted — physically and mentally, wondering to myself “What the hell am I doing with my life !!?! I love my husband and kids, I love my job, I love what I do then why am I so lost and out of control”
In a frigging eureka moment (I still don’t know how), I was reminded of the PI — The Predictive Index test that I took a few months back.
Once my twintastic brats slept, I ran to check my PI results that I hadn’t visited in a long time and in seconds I had the answer - I was losing the balance because I was missing out “people”
We use the PI test at Alore to check the behavioural compatibility of a person and the company. ( Candid admission: We’ve burnt our hands with so many misaligned candidates in the past that we take all steps to avoid that and PI has been a blessing.)
PI uses data and inputs from me (the test taker) to form a behaviour map and maps it vis-a vis the expected behaviour set for that role by Alore. It also matches it against millions of data points its collected in six decades. Easy peasy. ;)
Here’s my PI test result:
Guess what it showed me?
That I derive energy from people!! — Higher the B, more people driven you are !
If you deprive me from people to people contact I would wilt like a Tulip in the Sahara or be a depressed Kangaroo in the Arctic !!
andddd then it struck me, the workload had led me to focus more on work and less on people and it slowly began to affect me by pulling me into a negative spiral.
Here’s how I visualised the vicious cycle I had stepped into.
Result — I already feel better having identified the problem. It’s like my mind is suddenly lighter.
Problem identified. Now time to work on the solution. Woohoo !
This is what I plan to do:
1.Play to my strength
It doesn't matter if you're an extrovert or an introvert. We all have our “best ways to thrive”
To be productive I need to re-align my focus and have people as part of my day. I’m an extrovert and I can’t change that and I don’t want to. People give me energy.
You might be an Introvert and renew your energy from solitude. Different folks, different strokes !!
2. Not compromise on my sleep
Silly as it may sound but sleeping a minimum of six hours is a bodily necessity. In fact an adequate 7–9 hours of sleep is very important for 25–64 year old’s for the strengthening of cognitive skills, consolidating memory, and assimilation of information (Source: Peakon). A proper previous night’s sleep helps you make better decisions, lesser mistakes and increase concentration.
Sleep deficit is not a professional achievement unlike its made out to be !!
I slept a good 8 hours last night and half my sluggishness today just vanished. I was still slower but not as bad as the past few days. I ensured this by not carrying my phone to the bed for catching up on the day and the world.
3. Read
Like sleep equates to physical rejuvenation, reading is mental rejuvenation. The way a good book transposes you to another world and instils ideas, insights and values is incomparable.
I had recently done an experiment on myself when I read for 60 minutes everyday for 60 days. It was wonderful.
I feel like an idiot for having broken my momentum and dropped to reading thrice a week instead. Its a promise to the universe this time, I’m going to read for 60 minutes everyday !! Every. single. day.
Thanks to some great advice from vjaiswal , editing the article to add some additional stuff I must do as well :D
4. Eat Right !!!
Eating right and a super light dinner is totally what I’m gonna do to get my energy levels high. Our brain consume 20% of our body’s energy, so I plan to eat right, eat healthy and take my vitamins.
5. Exercise
Okay so I’ve not really been very active either these past few weeks. This must change. Exercising boosts endurance and releases endorphins which are mood elevators. 20 minutes every day. That’s what I’m gonna start with.
6. Meditate
I’m far from figuring out my internal zen because I think I have a chaotic mind. However, I will try meditation by focusing on breathing exercises. 10 minutes to begin with. Fingers crossed it works !
I totally plan to write about how this new routine affects my productivity exactly 30 days from now.
Until then, Ciao
