Next month, Creating Space is 10 years old. Wow!
When I left the corporate world, I was terrified at giving up the security of a monthly pay check, but I also knew that I wouldn’t carry on. I was on a good career path, but it came at a high cost.
I was stressed much of the time and the pressure kept increasing through a combination of the demands of the job and the high expectations I set myself. I couldn’t see it at the time, but my “normal” was in actual fact very near burn-out point.
When I left my job, I decided that I would take 6 months off before setting up my business, mainly because I wanted to unlearn all my unhealthy work habits. It took one year before I noticed that my shoulders no longer felt tense all the time from bashing away at the laptop.
I see the same stress levels, if not more, with many clients I work with now. Workplaces are increasingly demanding, expecting more to be done with fewer resources, and only ever offering superficial solutions to support their employees’ wellbeing. In that type of environment, it is down to each person to identify strategies to handle the pressure and sense of overwhelm, which is something that can be quite difficult to do when you are right in the thick of it and can hardly think straight anymore.
Here are some things to try out:
- When you are so busy that you can’t even find the time for a toilet break, that is the moment to step away from the desk and take a 10-minute walk outside. It might feel impossible. It is not. It will get your blood flowing again, reoxygenate your brain and allow you to think more clearly when you get back.
- Failing that, turn your chair away from the computer, close your eyes and take 10 slow, deep breaths. It might feel pointless. It is not. It is incredibly effective at calming down your overworked nervous system.
- Decline meetings that either don’t need your direct input, don’t have a clear request for what is expected from you, or that you can delegate to someone else. (When I challenge clients to remove three meetings from their upcoming week, it always surprises me how easily they do this.) If you do need to attend, establish what part you need to be there for and join just for that.
- Carve out and schedule thinking time when you switch off all notifications, close down your inbox and set your status to “do not disturb”. Do it. Your brain will thank you.
- Start valuing yourself, your time, your headspace and thinking power, and know that the longer you operate under high stress, the longer it will take you to get back to a healthy cortisol level. Remember what that felt like? When was the last time you felt calm and well rested for any stretch of time? Exactly. Feeling overwhelmed should not be your new normal.
In my 10 years of running Creating Space, I have been on the constant watch-out to not slip into the old habits of working all hours just for the sake of it. Of course there have been some periods when bigger projects have required extended work days, but I remain determined to make those the exception.
We all have choices, far more than we think or can see for ourselves. When we are overwhelmed and working beyond capacity, we are particularly blind to them amidst the daily work clutter.
If you have lost sight of your choices or know someone else who has, get in touch and let’s talk.