Oh! It's Burnout ...

This week absolutely sucked. I felt tired, more than tired I felt exhausted, I felt grumpy, I felt stressed, I felt incompetent, I felt lazy, I felt like nothing was going right? I felt like I had so much to do but that I wasn't doing any good at them.

People said I was burned out.

Nah, that was silly.

I'm not burned out. All I'm having to do is handle a potential move to a new city, a potential move to a different country, look for job interviews, pass job interviews, do Japanese lessons, review TRPGs for a personal project, write up the paper for a personal project, prep my D&D game, prep my character for another D&D game, take meds, book doctor's appointments, book vet appointments, register a microchip, re-register another microchip, prep for an Open Campus, take classes, teach classes, go to the gym, do laundry, clean, cook, write this blog and ... huh ... Okay, so maybe I am burned out.

Hence why this entry is a day late.

I was annoyed at myself. Why am I burned out!? I love this job, it's one of the best jobs I've ever had why was it burning me out?

Well, my wife reminded me of a quote from internet comedian Brian David Gilbert: "They say when you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life. But that's bullshit. I love what I do, and let me tell you something ... I've worked some days."

Ah.

Yeah, okay, let's try and take that to heart in the future.

So, I'm burned out.

Let's try and un-burn myself out.

...

How on Earth do I do that?

I think the primary thing I need to do is try and limit the amount of stuff I do in a day. Focus on one thing I need to do instead of lots and lots and lots of little things. Maybe I can do the tasks in order of easiest to most difficult? That should mean I can get more of my workload done and have a knock-on effect of making me feel a little more confident as I've already crossed some items off.

I also need to extend that grace to the things I do for fun, things such as model kits or reading or playing games. I'll be stressed out about not doing things quickly enough or well enough. Which ironically means I'm not focusing on improving my skills which just puts me in a vicious circle. I think I need to take a break from Warhammer stuff and focus on some of the Thunderbirds kits I have, they're a nice change up that includes some basic wiring and motorisation it'll help me learn a few things I'm sure.

I have something to look forward to in a couple of weeks though! My wife's been really, really excited because the Project Hail Mary movie is coming out, she loved the book and got me to listen to it and has been sending me every reel and video she's seen about it. We're going to see it in two weeks when it comes out here. It'll be nice to have a date together and get dinner afterwards.

So, let's look at what we're doing over the next week:

1. Focus on smaller tasks first.
2. Actually enjoy hobbies rather than work on them to "get them done".
3. Look forward to date night in two weeks.

I reckon I can do this. Let's burn a little less brightly this week, okay?

Anyway, do you have any helpful hints for undoing burnout? Please share them below and I'll see if they work!