Do nothing and like it

What’s the solution to an oversaturated brain?

Do nothing.

The other day, I ended up frying the motherboard inside my brain. 

Tasked with a couple different things at once, I simply lost all motivation and simply crashed on the couch.

Can you relate?

If you’re reading this, that means you’re a grown adult, probably an expert business owner, and have had this scenario play out multiple times in your lives. 

The question I have for you is this:

How do you get back up?

For me, it all starts at the same point - I do nothing for an extended period of time.

Sometimes it’s a half-hour, other times, it’s the rest of the day off. It really depends on how much time I can take for myself.

In my experiences, what I’ve realized is that if I try to gut it out and get stuff done, what ends up happening is the work, whatever it happens to be, suffers to the point that I eventually have to redo it anyway. 

So, why bother stinking it up in the first place, right? 

Granted, we are all up against time to be able to satisfy the needs of those we serve, but if we can’t serve them in a way that’s commensurate with our expertise, what’s the point?

The key ingredient that allows this “do nothing” approach to work is self-compassion. 

Allow yourself the space to be a human being and take a moment, an hour, a day, whatever, to get yourself back up neutral before you put your foot back on the pedal again. 

Otherwise, your mood could not only affect your work, but also other areas of your life, including your friends and family. 

And who needs that, really?

Figure out what your recalibration time needs to be and when you feel overwhelm approaching, enact your self-care plan to take your time to do nothing. 

Also, think about how you want to spend your “do nothing” time. 

Meditate? Read a book? Catch up with a friend? Take a walk or drive around the neighborhood?

Granted, these examples have you doing something, but the point of “do nothing” is that it relates to nothing work-related. 

At the end of the day, you’re no good to anyone if your head isn’t in the game. When you’re self-aware that overwhelm is approaching, and you enact your self-compassion strategy, that leads to the self-care you need to recover and get back to the tasks at hand.

Keep this in mind the next time you feel like the train is derailing off the tracks. 

As for the aforementioned motherboard crashing inside my brain the other day, I ended up taking the rest of the day off. The next morning, I proceeded to steamroll through everything that I didn’t complete the day before, as well as the stuff on the calendar for that day.

It pays to listen to yourself and act accordingly :)

Over to you…

What are you doing currently to minimize overwhelm? Please share your strategy below.