A phone call interrupting your flow is annoying. But what if it’s a really important call and you’re not ready for it? I knew there was an important phone call coming that afternoon. It was a while back. I had booked a call with my GP to ask for an autism assessment. I had accepted…
Burnout is talked about a lot. Some people think it is a never ending state of exhaustion, but there is more to it than that. WHO says what? The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines Burn-out as “resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.” It is characterized by three dimensions: According to…
I thought I could cope with all the demands that I was making of myself. I needed to make life financially secure for my family and be able to buy shiny things and great experiences for my family. I needed to be a success at work. Does this sound familiar? Then, one day, I stepped…
This is a phrase I heard early in my career. Not from fishermen, but from an Electrical Superintendent in a papermill. Bob was good at quietly nudging people to focus what they spent their time on. When he thought folk needed to stop unproductive activities, he used the phrase “This is neither fishing, nor mending…
The outboard motor died, and the wind was blowing us onto the rocks of the small uninhabited island. I was a fit 15-year-old. The Saighdear (pronounced sigh-chair) was well into his eighties. I got the oars out and the Saighdear tried to get the outboard restarted. My aunt sat quietly with a worried look on her…
We struggle to admit to ourselves that we may be heading for burnout. Are we afraid of failure, of letting people down, or do we genuinely think we are ok, and we can cope? No one plans to reach burnout. “I’m looking forward to my burnout” said no one ever! No matter how stressed you…
Stress can hit you in the face like a prizefighter’s punch. It can also creep up on you and steal your life like a pickpocket in a well-known Charles Dickens novel. It can do both though. Firstly, creeping up slowly, eroding your life, before hitting you hard and knocking you out. It’s better to spot…
The internet is full of information on how to be more productive. There are tips on how to construct your task lists, how to manage your emails, how to create time and how to model yourself on busy people. In this post, we’ll explore how personal productivity can hide, or even create more problems in…
Several years ago, we started to hear about the cult of busyness. I don’t hear the term so much these days. I feel that it didn’t quite hit the mark for those who were busy in their lives. No one wants to think of themselves as in a cult. It doesn’t seem that things have…