NIC HARALAMBOUS

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Being Busy is Killing Us

It’s cool to be busy, right?

It’s fashionable to be frantic. It’s all the rage to be sleep-deprived and broken when you wake up every day.

I believe it’s time to break up with busy. Deep down, I know you agree.

It’s time to break up with the burnout culture that is slowly and systematically killing us.

We strive to achieve and acquire things that we never truly wanted. We push ourselves to earn more so that we can spend more. We answer emails and all we get in return is more email. You push yourself to breaking point because your boss’s boss’s boss needs their bonus which is dependant on your targets being reached. It’s all bullshit and you know it.

Burnout culture needs to die or you will.

I’ve spent the past few years trying to understand my role in this culture of burnout and how I can decouple from it.

Here are 10 things to help you start breaking up with burnout and busy:

  1. Decouple your self worth from your output. You are not your work.

  2. Drop your ego and ask for help because you can't do it all yourself.

  3. Choose fewer priorities. Big ones, but fewer.

  4. Stop answering email compulsively. Email is someone else's to-do list for your day.

  5. Exercise. Seriously, it works.

  6. Sleep. SLEEP. Get some damn sleep.

  7. Eat healthier food.

  8. Read more.

  9. Dedicate time to being bored.

  10. Use social media less. Like, a lot less.

I still struggle with #10, but I’m working on it.

Which of the above are you going to start with this week? HIT REPLY and tell me, I want to hear from you.

It’s time we destroy this culture of busyness and burnout and it starts with us. Right now.