Most of us are experiencing some form of burnout, exhaustion, stress, fatigue, and emotional overwhelm. A lack of recovery makes all of the above seem like a never-ending dark tunnel.
Our resilience plays a major role in combating this. The American Psychology Association defines resilience as
the process and outcome of successfully adapting to challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility and adjustment to external and internal demands.
I particularly liked and recommend reading this HBR article titled 'Resilience Is About How You Recharge, Not How You Endure' as it helped me rethink my perspective on being resilient.
We are used to thinking about time management when it comes to our productivity and getting things done. My personal experiences have convinced me that it is not just about that anymore.
It is more about the energy we have. Yes, energy management: that's what it's really about.
When we focus on energy management first, time management falls into place.
Energy comes from physical well-being and mental well-being. So we need to work on both, little and often.
I've experimented with several methods, tools, and techniques. Time and again, my observation has been that the following have the most return on investment:
Sleep: If there is one thing that makes the most difference is getting quality, restorative sleep.
Mindfulness: A mindfulness-based meditation practice is a great top-down approach to bringing harmony to the mind and body. It helps bring more awareness and clarity to the chaos we experience.
Movement: Some form of physical exercise helps elevate energy levels.
Gratitude: The act of gratitude is shown to boost happiness because that's where we focus on what we have. It also helps us overcome our negativity bias which we experience more during challenging times. One easy way to do this is through writing on a notepad or journal.
Self-Compassion: This particular one is my personal favorite, and also something that I struggle with a lot. It is the act of taking an inventory of everything we have done so far and giving ourselves grace and being kind to ourselves. Plus, don’t forget that self-talk.
Connection: The most powerful tool I find is seeking help, leaning into your support system and spending mindful quality time with trusted family and friends.
Two important things to point out about the above items:
During challenging times, it gets harder to follow through on the above. So we need to be intentional about doing this.
Consistency is key with any of the above so having some form of tracking is effective way to assess progress.