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This week’s episode is about the importance of slowing down and taking a break. Sometimes we wear being constantly busy as a badge of honor. But remaining busy for too long and not slowing down runs us all the risk of burning out.
At some point, busy-ness isn’t as productive as perceived. When this happens, it is best to step back, take a break and re-energize. I’d like to compare our productivity and sanity to working out and muscle-building where rest is just as critical of a component to make it effective.
I will not be doing podcasts for a whole month, as I go on a break. I will be going on a vacation, to slow down and focus on an exciting project that you’ll hear about on this episode.
Today, I devoted the podcast to discuss the Why and How of slowing down and taking breaks.
Reasons to Slow Down:
- It allows us to re-calibrate and deal with things from a new perspective, and an example of when the simplest fatigue gets to me (6:21).
- Allows for personal reflection of our circumstances and needs and a story that illustrates how busy-ness preoccupies us from doing so (8:00).
- Slowing down and taking a break lets us pay attention to certain facets of our lives to maintain balance (9:25).
- Resting and taking breaks prevents us from constantly being in our heads, doing or thinking about something instead of being present and just enjoying the moment (10:43).
- Stepping back permits us to be more effective, especially with routine or repeated tasks, and come up with a system or process to make things more efficient (11:44).
How to Slow Down?
- Just take a break – it can be for a couple of minutes, days, or weeks (13:17).
- Take vacations and step away from your daily routine (13:58).
- Turn things down and say no when you have too much on your plate (14:23).
- Give yourself more time to accomplish things, everything doesn’t have to be done right now (14:50).
- Be an MVP – Minimally Viable Product – this isn’t necessarily the best, greatest, top of the line product, but it’s the one that gets the job done and keep things afloat (16:01).
It is often perceived that by taking breaks we lose time, when actually we’re gaining more time by doing so. I hope that this episode gives you something to ponder on especially if you’re always on-the-go.
Give yourself a break, breathe, and maybe be an MVP.
If you’re having serious withdrawal while I’m on break, you can find me on the blog and all over social media.
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