Another Monthly Planner Isn’t The Answer
Burnout is less about time management and more about life management.
“This is the one,” I thought to myself. “This is the one that will bring peace and order to my hectic life. It has weekly and monthly pages. It has vision board pages with stickers. It has monthly, quarterly, and yearly goal sheets. It even has gratitude statements and affirmations!”
Every December I used to go through this process, spending hours online searching for the perfect planner that would put my life in order and reduce the stress and burnout I felt as I tried, once again, to bring some success to my goals.
By week 2 or 3 of January the planner would be on a shelf with all the prior years’ planners… unused. I was no closer to my goals and feeling more frustrated than ever still experiencing the failure and shame of not being able to get my shit together.
It felt like keeping up with the planner was just adding another task to my already limited time. I spent more time “planning” which led to even less time for “doing“.
The problem with planners and time management systems is that you can fill them with everything you WANT to do, but they don’t tell you HOW to actually manage doing it all.
They don't tell you how to beat the burnout created by all the tasks you’ve planned while trying create a life you’ll love.
They don’t tell you when it’s time to drop a project because it no longer serves you.
They don’t tell you how to make effective scheduling corrections when life suddenly goes off track.
The answer is less about time management and more about life management. And more than that, it’s about managing the emotions that go along with the choices we make.
I’ve spoken a lot about life management over my career as a coach. It seems to be the one unifying challenge that comes up for so many women. The painful realization is that many women feel that in order to make time for everything on the to-do list, their personal time was the most expendable.
This is what causes stress and burnout.
The first items on your calendar’s chopping block are things like time at the gym, quiet time with a book, or coffee with the girls, right?
That date night with hubby can be rescheduled (again) to make room for the last minute work meeting.
You can skip your book club meeting (again) this month to help a friend move.
You can host the family holiday dinner (again) even though you’ve done it the past four years and would really prefer to relax and enjoy the day.
Burnout to Balance
To get off the burnout cycle and get back into balance, you need to take a step back from just focusing on what fills your time and focus more on how you feel about what you’re doing each day.
🚫If what you’re doing causes resentment, it’s time to say no.
🚫If you’re losing sleep over getting everything done, it’s time to eliminate something.
🚫If self care is always the first thing to be cut from your schedule when “life happens”, it’s time to make new choices.
We are conditioned to believe that supporting others means sacrificing ourselves. A good friend will always be there. Family always comes first. Your job always takes priority so you don’t risk losing it.
What we forget is that in order to truly be there for others, we have to have the energy and emotional bandwidth to give.
I encourage you, as you go through the next week, to make sure that your self-care time is getting the priority treatment you deserve. If you look at your calendar and don’t see any “you time” scheduled, schedule it now! It could be as simple as a walk in the park or an hour with a book and a cup of tea.
I also encourage you to step into your feelings about what you do have planned for the week. If there’s anything on your schedule that isn’t feeling in alignment, or even feels resentful, explore that and decide if it’s something you really need to do or something you can take off your to-do list.
If you’d like my help uncovering how your energy is designed to flow based on your Human Design, feel free to reach out! Or if you prefer, you can run your own mini report that will give you the basics and begin exploring on your own!