Let's be honest, so often as women we are the ones organising everyone else and everything else. We juggle such a lot on a daily basis. We consume more information than ever before (scientists predict now we receive the equivalent of 64GB a day which is the same as watching 16 movies). Our brains are overloaded and our task lists grow ever longer. Here are three tips we recommend to help navigate exhaustion and overload!
1. Take Control of your gadgets
Let's be smart with our smart phones. Turn off notifications outside of work hours and at weekends. If possible we recommend you turn them off completely. This will enable you to be proactive and not reactive. You can set alarms for checking emails if you need to (three times a day should be fine), and organise your FOCUS settings so that people know when you are unavailable. Creating space and time when you are unavailable to the rest of the world is good for your head space and your rest. A great tip is to use the driving setting in your iphone settings. You can select this manually and it enables you to create an automatic text message that will ping as a reply to any messages. However you can turn 'driving' mode on any time even when you are not actually driving so that your automatic text message pings back when you don't want to be available. Why not also consider leaving your phone at the door when you come in or turning it off. Learning to be smarter with our smart phones is essential.
2. Plan rest for the year
Every year take some time to plan your rest for the year. Having regular scheduled rest in the calendar helps you to live in a healthy rhythm of rest and work. This will also ensure you can plan cover if you need to. Schedule what you are going to do on your days off so that they are not consumed with tasks and shopping etc. Plan things that bring life to you, that feed your soul and bring joy to your world.
We become exhausted when life is all work and no fun. You know what you love. So plan it. Don't wait until you are so tired that you are forced to rest. Watch our masterclass on Biblical Rest with Catrina Henderson - she will really inspire you!
3. Sleep
On average most of us are only getting 6-7 hours of sleep per night. But in fact we need a minimum of 8 hours. Scientists have proven that it is actually in the last 2 hours of sleep that our brains process by dreaming. There is so much we don't understand about the resetting of the brain via sleep but it has been proven that this dream sleep is vital for the brain. If we consistenly only have 6-7 hours we are cutting this system short.
Prioritise 8 hours of sleep. Turn gadgets off (or on silent) at least one hour before bed to give your brain time to wind down. Have a consistent routine, make sure you are warm enough or cool enough dependent on preference and make sure you are comfortable. Sleep has a huge affect on our health and our mental well being. When we are tired we need more sleep. Scheduling some early nights will make a huge difference.
No one else is going to manage our time and rest for us... we need to be intentional and we need to set goals and boundaries. We would love to hear your tips for rest - post them in the comments below!
Beautifully said… thank you for this really helpful guidance!