Lately, I have been having a problem with burnout. I haven’t been getting stuff done – at least, not enough stuff. I’ve been waking up in the morning with serious backaches, which I think have a lot to do with the amount of time I spend sitting in the same position. I’ve been hustling to get a lot done, and seemingly haven’t gotten as much done. My workouts have fallen by the wayside, and I put on 5 pounds (which makes me very, very unhappy). I haven’t been enjoying my off-time as much, since I feel like I can’t spare the time and need to be working. In general things have been off.
I’m very thankful this happened. You wanna know why?
I’ve stumbled on a better way of getting stuff done.
This may not work for everyone, but if it’s your way, you’ll know it when you try it. I’ve solved the backaches, I’ve solved the burnout, I’ve solved the anxiety during off-time, and I’m back to producing. Oh yeah, and I dropped the 5 pounds.
Here’s how I did it.
1. I made a list of everything that needed to get done. This includes working out, all work-related jobs, all non-work related jobs, housework, exercise, everything.
2. I divided all these things into 4 groups: work, non-work (like school/homework, or other work-y type tasks that are not essential to get done to get paid), housework and other chores, and everything else that wasn’t “work” (like exercise, books I need to read, and other semi-enjoyable non-work tasks).
3. I prioritized these tasks.
4. I broke them into 15-30 minute segments, and started running through them one at a time, group by group. So for example, I needed to write 15 short articles today. So I first wrote and published two of them. Then I switched to a non-work task. I’m writing an e-book, so I wrote a chapter of that. (Still work-y, but a different gear from my first task.) Next I got up out of my chair, which before I might not have done for hours, and went into the kitchen and cleaned up the breakfast mess and wiped down the counters, which I might have let go until I cooked dinner before. After that I spent 10 minutes on the elliptical machine.
Then I started over – only this time when got through work, non-work, and chores, I took a real break and watched an episode of a tv show I like on DVD.
It’s amazing how refreshing this approach to work was. I actually enjoyed my day – and since I was getting lots of stuff done all day, I felt great and motivated. I never got tired and achy because I was up cleaning and doing laundry between bouts of work – as well as getting in 50 minutes of cardio exercise, which felt like nothing broken up into 10 minute chunks. This is a super efficient way to get tons done.
If you’re suffering from burnout, a simple rearrangement of your daily schedule may help you get back on track the way it did for me. If you’re in the found money business, try breaking up your tasks into groups like above: maybe emailing and researching lists, then break off and do something non-overages related for another endeavor. Then clean up a little and go for a short walk. Then when you come back, do some skiptracing (or whatever) – you get the idea.
Not only does this allow you to get a lot done, but it also allows you to work a 16 hour day without feeling like you’re going to die at the end of it. And for me personally, there is just no better feeling than getting into bed at the end of the day knowing that my house is cleaned up, my workout got done, and best of all, I put in the effort necessary to get way ahead financially the best I could.
And got in a few episodes of Dexter, too.
