Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is that the opposite of burnout is engagement.
Speaker 1: When we are feeling tired, putting wonderful things into our
Speaker 1: lives can be more effective than scaling back. Today's tip,
Speaker 1: like some others this week, comes from my new book
Speaker 1: Tranquility by Tuesday, Nine Ways to calm the chaos and
Speaker 1: make time for what matters. This book shows how one
Speaker 1: fifty people became more satisfied with their time as they
Speaker 1: followed my nine favorite time management rules. I recently wrote
Speaker 1: an essay for The New York Times about the phenomenon
Speaker 1: of quiet quitting. Now. I know there are debates about
Speaker 1: what exactly quiet quitting means, but I think one popular
Speaker 1: definition is scaling back to do the bare minimum. At work,
Speaker 1: surveys find that employee stress levels are at all time highs.
Speaker 1: Higher proportions of people are reporting sheer physical exhaustion than
Speaker 1: before the pandemic. When we are overwhelmed, it feels like
Speaker 1: something has to go, and for some folks, excellence at
Speaker 1: work is that thing. And maybe sometimes that is the
Speaker 1: right call. But often when we feel exhausted. It's not
Speaker 1: so much that we are physically tired. It's that our
Speaker 1: minds need change. We need things in our lives that
Speaker 1: we find energizing and that we can genuinely look forward to.
Speaker 1: I have seen this in people stories over the years,
Speaker 1: and I saw this with the Tranquility by Tuesday project too.
Speaker 1: The people who participated in My Tranquility by Tuesday study
Speaker 1: spoke at the beginning of feeling exhausted and overwhelmed. One
Speaker 1: person wished for more hours in the day. Another spoke
Speaker 1: of her work to do list as being never ending.
Speaker 1: With those laments, it seems like the obvious solution would
Speaker 1: be to scale back, but instead, most of the rules
Speaker 1: I taught people were additive. I had people build in
Speaker 1: regular physical activity to their lives. They made space for adventures.
Speaker 1: They put hobbies into the crevices of time, and even
Speaker 1: learn to take one night for you, committing to something
Speaker 1: like acquire a softball league, a regular volunteering gig that
Speaker 1: was separate from work and family responsibilities. Making a commitment,
Speaker 1: They'd figure out the logistics and the child care and
Speaker 1: go even when life was busy. The reason I had
Speaker 1: people add all these things is because I know that
Speaker 1: when we have energizing things in our lives and things
Speaker 1: that we are genuinely looking forward to, that new energy
Speaker 1: spills over into all our other responsibilities. We feel less
Speaker 1: resentful of work and family matters. We know there is
Speaker 1: a time when our spirits will be fed. And that
Speaker 1: was true for the Tranquility by Tuesday participants. Over the
Speaker 1: course of nine weeks, their time satisfaction scores rose significantly.
Speaker 1: They became far happier with their leisure time, far from
Speaker 1: needing to quiet quit or loudly quit. They also made
Speaker 1: progress on their professional goals. So why not give it
Speaker 1: a try If you are feeling like life is a slog,
Speaker 1: figure out what you could build into your life that
Speaker 1: you would genuinely look forward to. Maybe it's a regular
Speaker 1: night out with friends, maybe it's playing tennis or volunteering somewhere,
Speaker 1: but whatever it is, make it happen and then watch
Speaker 1: yourself feel more alive for everything. It worked for the
Speaker 1: people in the Tranquility by Tuesday study, and most likely
Speaker 1: it will work for you as well. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: this is Laura, Thanks for listening, and here's to making
Speaker 1: the most of our time. Hey, everybody. I'd love to
Speaker 1: hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,
Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook
Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod that's b the number four,
Speaker 1: then Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me
Speaker 1: an email at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media
Speaker 1: dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all
Speaker 1: the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward to staying
Speaker 1: in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of I heart Radio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i
Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.