5 Ways to Defeat Fatigue
You’re at your worst when you drag out of bed and light your candle with caffeine to keep going.
Stop working to the point of exhaustion every day. When you burn the candle at both ends, you burnout twice as fast.
The challenges of leadership require the intentional practice of self-care.
5 ways to defeat fatigue:
#1. Acknowledge the spicket.
The bucket always overflows. The spicket splashing in always runs faster than the spicket pouring out.
Stop rushing to finish a few small tasks before you close down for the day. What kind of knucklehead forgets there are always more things to do?
The more you do, the more you have to do.
#2. End well.
The way you end the day is the way you begin the day.
A person who is frantic at the end of the day will be frantic at the beginning of the day.
Hemingway said, “Always stop while you are going good….”
He went on to say, “… (I learned to) stop when there was still something there in the deep part of the well, and let it refill at night from the spring that fed it.”
#3. Monitor energy.
Treat fatigue like a contagious disease. Send people home when they show up tired two or three days in a row.
When fatigue is a habit, teach people to manage their energy.
#4. Establish quitting time.
- Don’t answer email before you go to bed.
- Make a short to-do list for the next morning before you quit.
Don’t worry. All your to-dos will meet you like hungry babies in the morning.
#5. Forget about work.
Give your brain something to think about other than work.
The difference between a workaholic and an alcoholic is we reward one and provide treatment for the other.
Why is fatigue pervasive in leadership?
How might leaders defeat the habit of fatigue?
Resources:
‘Alarming figures’: Burnouts at work increased by 66% in three years
The dangers of fatigue in the workplace
Thank you for the reminder. I’m exactly the person that tries to get the little things done before I log off for the day.
Thanks BMO. Here’s to leaving work with some gas still in the tank.
Great post, Dan
Thanks Thomas. Best to you.
Excellent post, Dan, and a great reminder that, “The challenges of leadership require the intentional practice of self-care …” as well as team-care. Fatigue doesn’t respect the leadership hierarchy. While leaders should inspire high performance, they should avoid placing unreasonable demands that lead to exhaustion and demoralization. As you suggested, leaders should “Treat fatigue like a contagious disease. Send people home when they show up tired two or three days in a row.”
Thank you, Paul. It’s helpful to extend the conversation from individual leaders to teams. Wonderful add.
The statement, “The more you do, the more you have to do,” really hit home for me. I often find myself wondering when my to-do list will shorten…it never seems to.
Thanks for the reminders! It is so easy to go, go, go…but it DOES eventually catch up to you!
Thanks TNogler. I respect your self-reflection. It’s so true. For some of us, we have old items on our to-do list that should simply be deleted.
I have heard a similar Hemmingway reference regarding creative writing –quit when you still have a notion of what is going to happen next so you have something that is immediately engaging the next day. There is a pull that sucks you into the writing.
I think it works for work too. Planning the next day, stopping when you have energy, having something compelling for the next morning. Wouldn’t it be refreshing to be pulled into your work?
Brilliant, “Wouldn’t it be refreshing to be pulled into your work?” Thanks for adding your insight.
We dread work when we leave with an empty tank. We’ll never feel the pull of work when we don’t have energy to do work.
Just read this article: https://www.inverse.com/mind-body/brain-fatigue-neuroscience. Brain fatigue after a hard day is measurable and changes how you make decisions. It takes time for your brain to recover. It just makes sense to stop.
Which is what my dog is telling me to do right now!
Thanks for extending the conversation. Very useful.
Great reminder for me, and I am sure many others
Thanks, Dan
Thanks John. Onward and upward.
The term reminder is perfect. Let’s worry more about the things we know, but have forgotten, then some new thing we have to learn.
Let me see if i can work that into my schedule.
Perfect. Thanks Dog!
You simply have the best newsletter- that’s all.
Thanks Kristina. That’s a very kind thing to say. It’s a pleasure to serve.
Dan, I think the word is spigot….