Read on Twitter
Feeling overwhelmed and exhausted? Struggling to maintain work life balance? Here are a few tricks that help me. 
broad trends and disclaimers
Sometimes things just are overwhelming. Sometimes things just suck. If you're in that situation, as many of us are right now, I'm sorry. I hope things improve for you. You are loved.
These are things that helped me personally. YYMV
Sometimes things just are overwhelming. Sometimes things just suck. If you're in that situation, as many of us are right now, I'm sorry. I hope things improve for you. You are loved.
These are things that helped me personally. YYMV
Productivity is meaningless if you're not fulfilled outside of work. We don't live to work. We're whole people. Take care of yourself and your loved ones. That's priority #1.
Making you and your loved ones a priority in your life means being deliberate. Don't let things slip because you don't have time. Make time. The things you make time for don't have to be grandiose. All that matters is that they matter to you.
You may end up having exactly the same amount of downtime you had before, but it'll feel better because you chose it. For example, rather than telling yourself you need to write a paper and then procrastinating, choose deliberately to give yourself that time. No guilt.
With that in mind, here are some strategies for implementing this:
1. Schedule everything. Block out time in your work calendar for fun stuff and rest. It really helps to give yourself permission to do it if it's in your calendar
1. Schedule everything. Block out time in your work calendar for fun stuff and rest. It really helps to give yourself permission to do it if it's in your calendar
2. Checklists. I put both work things and personal things on my to do list. And I let myself relish it every time I check something off. Even if what I did was "buy groceries" or "play video games"
3. Every task takes as much time as you give it. So don't budget too much time for something. Sometimes the right thing to do is to deliberately leave things to the last minute
4. Be compassionate with yourself. Things are hard. Sometimes we screw up. Ask yourself how you'd react if a friend told you about their screwup. Tell yourself what you'd tell your friend.
I want to emphasize that I'm not trying to tell you how to be more productive or that productivity is inherently good. These are just tricks I use to help maintain my sanity.
What about you? What's worked and what hasn't?
What about you? What's worked and what hasn't?
