Burnout, Lack of Productivity, or Lack of Motivation?

[Trud09]

Hi There,

I am wondering what a healthy work and rest cycle is while in the fast lane. I know different people will be able to function differently along those lines, but I have a tendency to overwork myself to the point of burnout. Should I plan to do this, then just take time off when it happens? What is a good work rest schedule for daily, weekly, monthly etc?

Might the burnout be from not seeing results caused by not being productive or not pursuing things that motivate me? What is a good measure of being productive? If I was truly motivated, would I not struggle with burnout?

Might this be related to overwhelm? How should overwhelm be addressed?

Hopefully someone can help me and others by adding value in the replies.

Thank you

 

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[Mr.Chaos]

Lack of intrinsic motivation.

Extrinsic motivation comes and goes.... develop intrinsic motivation and you will never "lose motivation"

With that said you should not be sacrificing your health. Also lots of working hours does not equal productive working hours. What does your schedule look like exactly?

 

[Trud09]

Lack of intrinsic motivation.

Extrinsic motivation comes and goes.... develop intrinsic motivation and you will never "lose motivation"

With that said you should not be sacrificing your health. Also lots of working hours does not equal productive working hours. What does your schedule look like exactly?

Tough truth with the intrinsic motivation. I think my motivation is typically skin deep.

I am trying to figure out how to schedule my life well. I understand long hours do not equal productivity. What is a good schedule to have for that?

If I am honest, my schedule is all over the place. Sometime late nights working, sometimes playing. Some days get tons done, others I wake up and don't want to do anything. I guess the intrinsic motivation is what pulls normal people out of this rut? On a weekly level, I plan to take one day off. I go to the gym maybe once or twice, but steadily am increasing that. Slightly below average health/diet, but generally improving.

I recently realized that I settled on average with my income and I trying to overcome fear and other things to change it.

All tips welcome

 

[IrishSpring600]

Tough truth with the intrinsic motivation. I think my motivation is typically skin deep.

I am trying to figure out how to schedule my life well. I understand long hours do not equal productivity. What is a good schedule to have for that?

If I am honest, my schedule is all over the place. Sometime late nights working, sometimes playing. Some days get tons done, others I wake up and don't want to do anything. I guess the intrinsic motivation is what pulls normal people out of this rut? On a weekly level, I plan to take one day off. I go to the gym maybe once or twice, but steadily am increasing that. Slightly below average health/diet, but generally improving.

I recently realized that I settled on average with my income and I trying to overcome fear and other things to change it.

All tips welcome

It's not hard to get up at 5, be at the gym at 6, and break PRs 3 times a week. Yes, 3 times.

I'm breaking a PR of 225lb squats for 5x5 with a minute rest between sets in less than an hour. And you bet they're below parallel. I'm only 172lbs.

Hop on 30 days of discipline and make a habit of your life. It's time to get off this forum, I only came here to check a PM, anyway.

 

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[Sanj Modha]

I only work Mon-Fri unless there's a mjor emergency in the biz. But that's very rare now since I have processes in place for my team.

I say work within a balance. Start with 5 important tasks to complete then build that list up. I now work with around 14 tasks/day but it's not so rigid. If I miss a few then so be it. You need some flexibility. The key is priority.

 

[Fox]

I took a pretty dramatic approach here...

I since also brought in a rest/work cycle or 3:1 days. So three days hard at work doing whatever I can and then one day of full rest. I can work on the rest day but try not to. I do this for three weeks then take one light week and start again.

Structure is key the key to very high levels of success.

As I am scaling up and working on bigger and bigger projects I am really seeing the benefit of taking time to rest and recover.

 

[Sanj Modha]

There's no benefit to burning out. It does long-term damage. You might as well do less and maintain your health.

 

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[Trud09]

It's not hard to get up at 5, be at the gym at 6, and break PRs 3 times a week. Yes, 3 times.

I'm breaking a PR of 225lb squats for 5x5 with a minute rest between sets in less than an hour. And you bet they're below parallel. I'm only 172lbs.

Hop on 30 days of discipline and make a habit of your life. It's time to get off this forum, I only came here to check a PM, anyway.

I will look more into 30 Days of Discipline

I only work Mon-Fri unless there's a mjor emergency in the biz. But that's very rare now since I have processes in place for my team.

I say work within a balance. Start with 5 important tasks to complete then build that list up. I now work with around 14 tasks/day but it's not so rigid. If I miss a few then so be it. You need some flexibility. The key is priority.

I took a pretty dramatic approach here...

I since also brought in a rest/work cycle or 3:1 days. So three days hard at work doing whatever I can and then one day of full rest. I can work on the rest day but try not to. I do this for three weeks then take one light week and start again.

Structure is key the key to very high levels of success.

As I am scaling up and working on bigger and bigger projects I am really seeing the benefit of taking time to rest and recover.

What do you guys think is a good work rest cycle? It looks like one of you does work 5 rest 2 while the other works 3 rests 1.

 

[JordanS]

[QUOTE="Trud09, post: 557065, member: 40675"

What do you guys think is a good work rest cycle? It looks like one of you does work 5 rest 2 while the other works 3 rests 1.[/QUOTE]

I prefer a bit of work each day, instead of taking days off. When I take more than one day off it will often throw off my routine and it takes me a few days to get back into the swing of things

 

[safff]

working to burnout is counter productive.

Think about it. You're in the gym. You're lifting. You feel yourself hitting the wall, you keep going. You hit the wall. HARD.You keep going. You drop 100kg of steel on your chest. You repeat daily and find you can barely push out 5 reps of the same weight that you could do with ease on Monday.

However, you get to the wall, drop a few kgs, push out that extra bit and then rest up until next time and find you return strong and determined.

My point is that when you're run down, you're not at your best. You're not responding with your best and you're not producing your best. You're making mistakes and slow progress. However, push yourself until you feel your limits hitting, and then change something. Take a step back, take a rest, do some menial tasks that you've been putting off. Relax and when you're feeling recharged, jump back in the ring.

It's not a sprint, it's a marathon, and marathons are won through pace and tactics.


I work 12 hour days and then on my own stuff for another 4 hours on top of gym and boxing time.. BUT I have some rules, a forced rest day / evening, unwinding on my travel days to force some relaxation etc. I find propping yourself up with some rest, a good diet etc is more proactive than crashing and needing 2-3 days to recover on top of the 2-3 days where I wasn't at my best, making half the productivity and requiring re-work - I end up loosing say 5 days per 30 in rest and 25 days killing it, rather than 3 days lost after hitting the wall, 1.5 days lost over 3 days of low output, and 1.5 days re-checking stuff that I did in the 3 slack days.. Not to mention that I'd still have the menial tasks left on top. I think if you really analyse it you wouldn't be much ahead by destroying yourself instead of taking some well planned down time.. For me at least.

 

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[IrishSpring600]

You will look more into it (30DoD), but have you actually done it?

When I find the answer, I instantly stop what I do and perform more research on it. I don't put it off for later. Is it your answer?

 

[nradam123]

It does not matter how many hours you work.
I figured this out after I read the book Purple Cow by Seth Goden. (Check my notes here)

Basically this is what I am doing with my business.
I track my KPI (Key Performance Index)

I will write down briefly what this means for people who might find this useful.

Basically KPI are prioritized goals that you have to meet to achieve your objective for the month/quarter/year in your business.

My KPIs are -
1) Sales (30%)
2) Reaching Out (30%)
3) Cash Made (20%)
4) Cash Spent(15%)
5) Hours Worked (5%)

The value that is given in brackets are weight %.
As you can see sales have the highest weight percentage in my business (30%)
And hours worked has the least (5%)

Once you create your KPI you have to create a measuring system. Basically the one I use is (as told to me by a successful friend of mine) to have a minimum goal, normal goal and stretch goal.

Minimum Goal - 0 to 50 score
Normal Goal - 50 to 80 Score
Stretch Goal - 80 to 100 Score

So once you hit a goal in your KPI you have to multiply the score with your KPI weight to get the individual KPI score.
Then if you add the KPIs together you will receive your total score.

If you are hitting a very high total KPI score frequently you are quickly going fastlane.

This is pretty much like the Litmus Test to know if you are going fastlane. Im serious.
If you work really hard and hit 14 hours a day it means that you scored really well in that KPI, but the weight is just 5%. So it wont add to your overall performance that much compared to getting awesome score in sales (30%)

KPI is the magic number.
Highly successful people even measure KPI in their personal life.

Work hard but on the right things brother Thats how you become productive.