Burnout Recovery
The podcast for slightly dented medics, execs and professionals seeking massive success, strong leadership and fulfilment. Weekly tips and techniques for high-achieving Type A professionals to beat burnout and restore outstanding leadership, performance and ease at work. Podcast hosted by Master Burnout Coach Dex Randall.
- Burnout Recovery Coaching https://dexrandall.com
- Guest Podcast Appearances https://bit.ly/dex-guest-appearances
Burnout Recovery
Ep#164 Powertool #9 Reclaim Time and Energy
Time is the resource we use to provide value at work. Yet so many of us in burnout, expert though we may be, are using it inefficiently, often ruled by our fears and desires. Yet we have a strange resistance to changing our habits for the better.
In this episode learn the 5 most effective skills to optimise balance between effort and results, in a way that feels rewarding and freeing.
Bonus payoff: Excellent use of time raises professional status.
Show Notes:
Join 10 Burnout Recovery Powertools FREE at https://go.dexrandall.com/power for all resources and exercises
----------------------------------- Burnout Resources:
Get 1-on-1 burnout recovery coaching at https:/mini.dexrandall.com
For even more TIPS see
FACEBOOK: @coachdexrandall
INSTAGRAM: @coachdexrandall
LINKEDIN: @coachdexrandall
TWITTER: @coachdexrandall
See https://linktr.ee/coachdexrandall for all links
[00:00:00] Dex: Hi, everyone. My name's Dex Randall, and this is the Burnout to Leadership podcast, where I teach professional men to recover from burnout and get back to passion and reward at work.
[00:00:22] Hello, my friends, this is Dex and welcome to this week's episode of the podcast, which is burnout recovery power tool number eight from a series of 10 on reclaiming time and energy. I'm going to help you today with tools to actually reduce overwork, overwhelm, frustration, procrastination, demotivation, and exhaustion.
[00:00:48] You will have a qualitatively different life if you study and master the previous seven power tools, as well as today's, and use the exercises I share to get back in control of your life, and your experience of that life.
[00:01:06] You don't need to be overworked. I promise you, things can be better. Whatever the demands of your job are, from burnout it is possible to reduce not just the time you spend discharging your duty, but more importantly the wear and tear this wreaks on your mind and mood. The ongoing exhaustion and depletion,
[00:01:31] demoralization and the frustration that you feel. And you can increase the quality of energy you have left over at day end to revitalize yourself, do things you enjoy and connect with the people that you care about. This is naturally, if you're in burnout, an urgent task, right? And one that, once you've got it, will improve your life for years to come as you gain control over your work
[00:01:59] and become more organically successful, engaged and motivated at work. Things just seem easier. This is how you're going to create more contentment within yourself and settle into an easier sufficiency at work. So if that's true, you might at this point be asking yourself, if it's such a remarkable transformation, why on earth is it power tool number eight, not number one?
[00:02:26] Good question. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to turn it back a little bit to you. Here are some questions to ask yourself about your current work and life. Is what you're doing now working, with time? Is how you're feeling now working for you? Is your drive and motivation strong? Are you enjoying working through challenges?
[00:02:51] Does leadership or teamwork fill you with energy and warmth? And finally, of course, is your inner monologue compassionate and encouraging? Perhaps you might see that power tools number one through seven are in fact skills designed to alleviate stress, skills that you need to develop to take enough pressure off yourself to be able to tackle your workload and schedule successfully.
[00:03:20] Hence, time and energy are power tool number eight. You've done all the groundwork. In the first phase of my one on one burnout recovery coaching program for high powered individuals, I teach the exact same basic skills that I'm sharing here with you, free in the power tool series. Every tool restores a little bit more autonomy and energy by allowing you to relieve the daily pressures that build into burnout.
[00:03:50] Because burnout doesn't happen overnight. If you look back you might even be able to see that your high performing habits have a kind of driven aspect that forces you to push hard, to hold yourself to extremely high personal standards. Which is all good, over the years it's probably made you an exemplary performer.
[00:04:11] But has it cost you collaborative wins? Possibly sleep, friends, downtime, family harmony? Ultimately, have your habits limited your long term success at work? What is burnout telling you needs to change? Perhaps that you need to renew your power base. Maybe that's what burnout is telling you, but maybe you need to renew your power base by adjusting your approach very slightly.
[00:04:45] You're going to be well served to lay the same strong foundations for burnout recovery that you did for the first half of your career. And that's what Power Tools 1 through 7 do. And please rest assured, I will never advocate for you to lower your professional standards. Never. They're an integral part of you and your success and they will continue to serve you.
[00:05:10] You're just gonna start discharging your work to meet those standards, after burnout, with a much greater ease and a sense of adventure, delight, and fulfillment. When you get your mojo back, your experience of work will radically shift to the positive, which really , it's a lot easier to maintain, than pissing into the wind in burnout, if you'll pardon the expression.
[00:05:36] So if you did skip straight to Power Tool 8, bless you, to fix your time and energy problems, you will learn indispensable skills here in this episode that will change the way you show up and execute at work. Then, I hope you're going to buttress those skills by listening to the preceding Power Tools presented in this podcast series that are going to teach you how to create a more fun,
[00:06:00] and connected and flowy context, in which your amazing work can thrive. So okay, that was quite possibly one of my longest intros ever. But without the why, you will not do the how. Ask James Clear. Your brain creates new habits for the reward. I encourage you to read James's book, Atomic Habits, if you haven't already, or refresh yourself on it because it's really a recipe for creating any new habit in the easiest and most effective way possible, including why you would do it and why it will work.
[00:06:43] Humans need a why to change behavior, as every good leader knows. It's really much easier to first become a person whose time is sacrosanct if you want to tame your schedule. And that's a big part of the journey my clients take in coaching. Progressively seeing themselves in new, upgraded, beneficial ways that shift their identity and make future growth congruent with that identity and therefore much easier to obtain.
[00:07:15] Can you decide to be a person whose time is sacrosanct? I can teach you how to do that. Because becoming a master of time and energy allows you to transcend work constraints, dissatisfaction, and personal doubts about your performance, which refreshes your optimism, enthusiasm, and re engages your passion.
[00:07:40] And here's how that's played out in the tools that we've talked about so far in this series. Quietening your inner critic, power tool number three, because being flamed loses you so much energy. Managing your negative emotions, power tool number four, which helps you stop procrastinating. Become your best supporter, power tool number five, which creates willingness to grow.
[00:08:06] Find self confidence, power tool number six. Just simply remember how good you are on the inside. And lighten up relationships, power tool number seven, which always smooths the way forward for you. And in the show notes on this episode's power tools page, you're going to see maybe a dozen supplementary podcast episodes on time and energy that will also support your growth.
[00:08:31] But now, today, let's look at a few core new habits and skills you need to fundamentally change your relationship with time and the deployment of your energy, and hence value. So let's dive in. Exercise one. As I mentioned just now, declare your time sacrosanct. Because when you declare this, it frees you to make your own decisions about how to best contribute, with your time and energy,
[00:09:01] rather than letting other people dictate or have control over your time. And really this is essential for elite performance, leadership, respect, enhanced status, success, and career growth. Once you value yourself, time and energy become easier to manage, yielding more joy for you and better results. Also, paradoxically, it will ease communication with other people,
[00:09:29] as they will start knowing exactly what to expect of you and how best to communicate with you. You basically teach them how to respect your time. Of course, you may find this hard. If you do, you need to really reconnect with the value of yourself, your skills and your assets. And the book Essentialism by Greg McKeown will show you how to do that and why.
[00:09:52] It's really a strong preparation for taming your schedule, packed with practical tips on how to do that.
[00:10:00] But when you do choose to declare your time sacrosanct, regarding your attention as your greatest asset, and organising your day accordingly, then goodbye overwork, overwhelm, frustration, resentment, failure, and the despair created by being over committed. So that's easy. Exercise one. Can you commit to finding your time
[00:10:28] sacrosanct? Exercise number two. Start saying no. Everybody's least favorite. Look at your calendar right now. Look at your calendar. Is there anything on there, unquestioned? I'm going to include a worksheet with this episode's power tools page that you can use to discover how you choose to allocate your time. And it asks you a series of questions, and I'm going to just give you a few of them here to start you off.
[00:10:58] Have you said yes to meetings only because you are invited? Do you have tasks that could be delegated? Do some tasks on your schedule keep getting bumped from week to week? Do you spend time with people, rather than saying no to them? Are you fixing other people's problems needlessly? And do you hold back tasks and keep working until you feel they are perfect?
[00:11:26] Now, if you heard any answers that you gave there and you felt unsatisfied, if you declared your time sacrosanct, what would change?
[00:11:36] Because while you undervalue your time, others will undervalue it too. Once you say yes only to what's important to your role and a respectful no to the rest, the quality of your time and attention will lift. If possible, do not avoid the no simply because of how you feel. You might be surprised how many people will accept your reasoned no as the professional conduct it truly is.
[00:12:06] Intentional work choices bring forth your most potent contribution as they allow you to focus your efforts with less interruption, distraction, overwork, overwhelm, frustration, and of course missed deadlines. Saying no is the gap between where you are now and a schedule you can manage effectively. So that's exercise number two, saying no.
[00:12:33] Exercise number three, communication windows. If you allow anyone to communicate with you at any time, it really sounds open and egalitarian and lovely, doesn't it? But actually it almost surely prevents you from getting focus work done. So do you need focus time? Then it may serve you to dedicate certain time windows each day to your email, messages and calls.
[00:13:01] During this time you can attend to those communications and as much as possible acknowledge receipt or give a response. Of course this depends on your role. Salespeople will prioritize calls in a way that surgeons will not, but whatever your role you do need time to acquit your responsibilities at your professional level.
[00:13:25] I had a client who built top end luxury holiday homes. And he couldn't keep up with his messages, but he felt obliged to answer every one promptly, no matter what time of day, since they were from prestige clients. I had a Big Four senior partner who felt the same. Many of you can relate to this. But my client, unfortunately, was over anxious and preoccupied to the extent that worry was ruining his sleep and making him permanently grouchy.
[00:13:56] He was unable to answer every call promptly, let alone run the rest of his business efficiently. He was losing sales, and reviews were becoming a bit acrimonious. He could see, though, that his call return failure was a business system failure.
[00:14:12] He often needed information that was missing and had to chase his team for it. So when he made a new commitment to answer calls within a specific time window, and empowered his team to ensure their record keeping supported this, the burden lifted off everyone. And I think the myth of needing to be available 24 7 often misleads us.
[00:14:35] When we create reliable systems and stick to our promises, we actually teach people to trust us. In terms of communication windows, perhaps this looks a bit like every day at 8am, noon, 4pm, you might spend an hour on communication. And people will know when to expect to hear from you. People like to know, right?
[00:15:00] The more you become predictable and reliable, the easier things will be for you, for your people. Plus, of course, you will need to nominate an escalation channel for urgent matters. That process , when you do it and stick to it, declutters your mind and your inbox. By the way, when my big four partner client applied this to his work, it went so well for both him and his clients that he started to take afternoons off with his kids.
[00:15:31] No messages, no drama. This process alone will really elevate your professional standing in the eyes of others, as well as saving you time and stress. So that's exercise three, communication windows. Exercise four, set your daily schedule the night before. Many of us have over full schedules, such that we don't feel we can trust ourselves to get everything done.
[00:15:58] And we're usually right. Why? Many factors! Poor estimation of tasks, interruption and new requests, loss of concentration, procrastination, meeting overruns, exhaustion, irritation, failure to solve a problem, willingness to switch tasks midstream. In short, we're doing something and we have a feeling, and we don't like that feeling, so we distract ourselves and do something else.
[00:16:29] I recommend to my clients that they commit hard in advance to what they're going to do each day. Which is committing to: learn to estimate better, learn to focus harder, manage exceptions better, say no or deflect tasks, keep a tidy inbox, ignore the noise, and don't keep squeezing in extra requests. And the biggest skill they need to accomplish all of that is emotional.
[00:16:58] They need to be willing to feel any emotion. This really prevents procrastination and problem avoidance. It empowers saying no. It promotes future scheduling of requests instead of doing it now. And it ensures that any feelings of inadequacy or failure, frustration or anger don't stop them in their tracks.
[00:17:19] But the biggest benefit I think of committing in advance at least 24 hours earlier to what you're going to do today, is that you make high quality decisions when you plan in advance and you get the right stuff done. And this also reduces the decision fatigue and self disappointment of juggling your schedule all day.
[00:17:42] It's more, here's my list, just do it. I don't have to keep re deciding all day. Juggling so I will feel better. Because really, our in the moment decisions are almost always oriented to escaping a feeling. They're low quality decisions. I'll just check my phone, have a coffee, look this up on Google, go talk to Paul.
[00:18:06] Distraction and inefficiency usually follow. Because scientifically, our brains, once interrupted on a focus task, take about 20 minutes to get back to full concentration. Back in the day, I started out as a software developer and I used to sit down and immerse myself in problem solving in three hour chunks to avoid exactly this.
[00:18:28] And I still have that habit actually to this day. I put the headphones on, start work, and the next time I look up from the task I realise that three or four hours have passed. And I need a pee! Commit to your day plan 24 hours in advance and don't accept variations. Yeah, I know, I hear you. Your boss! But I really suggest you try this idea before you trash it.
[00:18:53] Just commit as hard as you can. You're going to be amazed at how well it works. It's really an insane boost to productivity and work quality, that again, people will start to respect you for once they get used to it. Because you're a professional. It's on you to value your time.
[00:19:13] So that's exercise number four. Plan what you're going to do today 24 hours ahead and stick to it. Exercise five. Following on from that is to stick to your start and end times for each task. Don't allow one task to bleed into the follow up time slot. For example, if you're in a meeting, can you let people know in advance that you have a follow up commitment and will leave on time?
[00:19:40] Or, if you've estimated a personal task, cut it into one hour chunks and write the result you're going to achieve in each allocated one hour chunk onto your schedule, in that hour slot. Really, what you're doing there is you're committing to creating the nominated result inside that hour. Because really it's the result that matters, isn't it?
[00:20:04] That's the deliverable, not the activity which is open ended. If you're writing a report, for example, and it's going to take you one hour, the result you commit to producing in that hour is sending out the finished report. Not writing it, researching it, designing it, or getting it checked. To meet the deadline, you actually need to distribute it.
[00:20:28] So for any task you have in your schedule, if you want to stay on track, commit to starting promptly on the hour, finishing promptly at the end of the hour, and producing the designated result you committed to. And the easiest way I find to ensure success is to ask your brain, in the example of a report, to complete the first draft in 30 minutes, B minus work, so you've got something, and then brush it up to A or A plus in the next 30 minutes.
[00:21:00] Believe you me, most people won't be able to tell the difference. But what it's really done is, it's ensured that you can't fail to finish. And your brain does know how to do this. Once you stop telling yourself it can't be done, it just becomes a game that you get better and better at. And of course you will have a few fails as you start out, particularly if your estimation is not as strong as it could be, you're still practicing, but you're still going to be more efficient than before you tried this.
[00:21:32] Then each day, each week, use your experience, what worked and what didn't, to progressively improve your estimation and task clearance. As you gain skill at this, you're going to find that when you say that you'll leave work at 5pm, or 6pm, or whenever it is, to spend time with the kids, you actually mean it.
[00:21:54] And, you feel like you got your proper day's work done, so unfinished tasks don't plague your mind all night. This skill recoups time, mood, motivation and energy, and of course freedom. So what I've done there is I've shared five powerful skills with you today. I'm not being frivolous or idealistic here.
[00:22:18] They're practical tools that I use myself and so do my clients. Because as one of my clients says, "Management of what we say we're going to do turns out to be one of the biggest returns of energy. If you've got a guy bringing planes in at the airport, you don't want too many of them up there." So please do apply what you learn here, if the results sound desirable to you. You will not improve your situation by passively listening to the podcast. You must do. And on that note, that's what I have for you today. Tune in next week for a wee chat about your mojo, where it went and how to get it back. For more resources and worksheets from today's episode, to help you work through impediments to managing your time well, take a look at the show notes on the episode power tools page.
[00:23:07] Of course, if you're in burnout and you'd like help with all this, come and talk to me for free and let's make a plan to fast track your recovery so you can reconnect with your best performance, leadership, success, and most of all, enjoyment inside work and out. You can book an appointment at DexRandall.
[00:23:26] com. If you have enjoyed today's show, I'd love you to share it with your mates, because this is how we can reach out to help more people who suffer in burnout. And likewise, I'd be grateful if you would rate and review the podcast. Thanks for listening. Tune in again next week.
