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Avoid Burnout With These 5 Science-Backed Tips to Have a Better Work-Life Balance
Stop multi-tasking
Wherever you are, be focused on what's in front of you.
When you're interrupted, it takes 15-20 minutes to get your focus back to it was before being distracted. If you're multi-tasking, you'll be less efficient and your long term memory will suffer.
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Key Ideas
Keep in sync with your body’s natural sleep-wake cycle
- Try to go to sleep and get up at the same time every day;
- Avoid sleeping in, even on weekends;
- Limit naps to 15 to 20 minutes in the early afternoon;
- Fight after-dinner drowsiness. If you get sleepy way before your bedtime, get off the couch and do something mildly stimulating.
Melatonin
Is a naturally occurring hormone controlled by light exposure that helps regulate your sleep-wake cycle.
Your brain secretes more melatonin when it’s dark, making you sleepy, and less when it’s light, making you more alert.
However, many aspects of modern life can alter your body’s production of melatonin and shift your circadian rhythm
Influence exposure to ligh
During the day:
- Expose yourself to bright sunlight in the morning.
- Spend more time outside during daylight.
- Let as much natural light into your home or workspace as possible.
At night:
- Avoid bright screens within 1-2 hours of your bedtime.
- Say no to late-night television.
- Don’t read with backlit devices.
- When it’s time to sleep, make sure the room is dark.
- Keep the lights down if you get up during the night.
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Key Ideas
Define balance for yourself
Balance looks different for everyone. It all depends upon what you value at any given time, what you want to achieve, and when you want to achieve it.
But thinking of your career as something standing in opposition to everything else in your world will definitely make you miserable.
What you say 'Yes' to
The wrong move is to say “yes” if you don’t have the available resources to do another task.
If it’s not a ‘hell yes,’ then it’s a ‘no.’ That means if it’s a “maybe,” then it’s a “no.”
Make conscientious choices
... about how you spend your time. Others will come to value your time only if you value it first.
For example, be aware of the calendar invitations that you accept. If it’s from your boss or client, you probably have to go. But if it’s a group meeting that you could easily catch up on from one of your colleagues, decline.
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Key Ideas
Boundaries Instead Of Balance
It’s fine to value stability, but since life isn’t still, putting balance on a pedestal is problematic.
Developing a boundary-setting practice will allow you to reconfigure how your day and week is going to play out based on professional responsibilities and personal needs and not freak out if one day is all work and zero play.
Boundaries Based on Your Priorities
When you learn to set boundaries based on your various priorities and obligations, you’ll feel in control and at liberty to make decisions that work for you and the kind of life you want to lead — not the kind of life you’re supposed to lead.
Your Boundaries With Others
By sharing some details of your boundary practice with the people in your life, you give them an opportunity to support your goals instead of constantly tempting you with invitations that threaten to step on the lines you’ve drawn.