Why we can't get anything done when we have time
People love to hate smartphones and social media and the internet in general. Which, fair enough, but most of the time it seems like technology is a red herring when it comes to addressing the real issue.
I was reading Anne Helen Petersen's newsletter and this struck me:
"Sometimes you find yourself so desperately hungry that you eat a ton of food really quickly and realize that you’ve tasted nothing at all. I have to remind myself every day: how you feed yourself, in every sense of the word, and feed others — that’s the life you’re living. What a privilege, truly, to eat slowly."
What she's describing, that hunger that's so deep that there is no sating it, that anything we eat becomes a tasteless mass, is what it feels to be burning out.
How many times do you finally have some free time -- five minutes or an hour or an afternoon -- and you want to do something from that endless list of nagging things you should do, need to do, want to do and instead you end up doing nothing?
It's not because you're lazy or not trying hard enough. It's because your hunger has been ignored for far too long and now there is no sating it in five minutes or an hour or an afternoon.
PS. This week I encountered one of those rare birds who had not been told to take care of herself so many times that the suggestion fills her with rage. So, just in case no one has asked you lately, when is the last time you did something just for you?
Because, no matter how many things need to get done, you deserve that.