Exhaustion is probably a strong way to put it, so I’ll walk it back a bit and say I’m stuffed. It’s been a long year of hard work, job changes, lots of extracurricular activities and all the general fun that it entails. And it’s not done yet with Christmas a week and a half away, family coming to visit and that brief interlude between Christmas and New Year that inevitably gets filled to the brim with stuff to do.
How to manage it? I’ve already started phase 1: bed early! Sounds basic, but I’m hitting the sack around 09:30PM every night, reading for a bit then out. I’m tired enough that the fall asleep period is about 8 seconds I think and I’m pushing my wake up time back by an additional half hour to boot. 9 hours of sleep a night is the aim for the short term. I’m nearly on to phase 2: ignore technology over the Christmas period. I’m not on call for the first time in 10 years. My company is closed down and so I’ve got nothing to do – definitely no server upgrades or other stuffing about – just quiet and peaceful. Then back into the busy new year.
I’ve also decided to spend the time off without thinking about next year – no introspective deep dives and reviews looking for next year’s direction. I’ve already got that in a big fat project and numerous OKRs so there’s no requirement for it. And for the first time in nearly 10 years – I’m only thinking about one client, not ten or twenty. It’s just the next few days that are going to be the tricky ones to drive through so I’m trying to pace myself. There is plenty of little tasks to work on and I’m dipping my toes in some bigger projects, but not trying to achieve anything huge. I honestly think I’ll stuff it up because I’m tired.
Limiting travel is a measure I’m hoping to have too. Minimal trips to places outside of recreation – no big trips that’s for sure. I have minimal energy for drama too so I’m going to let things happen and not get upset – applying Stoic principles to manage expectations will help out immensely there. That’s all I’ve got for today – not enough spare energy for a long post.
Cover image is a Photo by Rex Pickar on Unsplash
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