Downtime

I was speaking at a conference recently and when I bumped into a friend, the first thing she said to me was “have you burnt out yet?”

Now this was a joke but it did get me thinking. I’ve been speaking at quite a few events this year and tbh I’ve loved it. However I am well aware that it has been taking up a significant part of my time and I never want to get to a point where I get fed up with going to events to speak.

Getting into technical presenting has been one of the best things that I’ve ever done.

So how do I prevent myself from becoming burnt out? I have a really busy schedule over the next few months so I can’t really go on any holidays.

The best way I’ve found is to take one day a week where I don’t touch a computer. Obviously on a weekend 🙂

It may not sound like much but I’ve been working my day job, blogging during the evenings, and practicing sessions/researching topics on the weekends. It’s been pretty full on so taking one day to chill out and relax really has helped. (the world cup being on has made this a lot easier as well).

Taking one day out of a week has also allowed me to come back to issues that I’ve been faced with anew, and allowed me to resolve them.

So if you’re working all hours under the sun, I ask you to stop. Take a day for yourself. It may be hard at first but it will benefit you in the long run.

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