With nice weather and long days starting, Spring cleaning promotions are everywhere. Several friends have jumped on the bandwagon, but the surprise is that relationships are at the top of the deep-cleaning list. Break-ups are either happening or they’re on the bubble. (And by the way, I’m looking at you, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce).
But here’s the thing: Break-ups aren’t all bad. Sometimes, waving goodbye to irritations and dead-end behaviors is like throwing the windows open after a long winter.
It’s also possible to spring clean how you manage your day. The old way of bossing up was to push and plow through endless meetings and mindless tasks. However, you can split up with that approach. The alternative is recognizing that quality results are the output of right thinking. Excellence happens when you’re in the flow, not when you’re exhausted. In the March series, Productivity Break-Ups, we’ll discuss how to retire three behaviors hindering your success.
First, let’s talk about being activity obsessed. Surely you already know this person—someone who spends hour after hour kicking out emails, arranging and rearranging To-do lists, and scheduling syncs. They don’t address problems; they attack them. The trouble is that living in attack mode isn’t sustainable. It’s like fighting fires 24 hours a day, and even firefighters take time off.
Let’s meet someone who increased her productivity by exchanging attacking her morning with easing into the day.
Nandini Maharaj was excited to try TikTok’s “5 to 9 before 9 to 5” idea. The concept is to be as productive as you can between the hours of 5 AM to 9 AM. (Or you can flip it and embrace a nighttime routine.)
She got off to a great start. Nandini embraced working out first thing, eating breakfast while others slept, and pushing her grumpy dogs out the door for a walk in the dark. But things quickly fell apart. She ran out of gas as the day went on and resorted to late day and weekend naps to keep up.
Ultimately, she decided the concept—and the social media pressure that went with it—was not for her. Nandini commented about the trendsetters, “I couldn’t live up to their romanticized versions of wellness and productivity.” As she restored her regular schedule, she posed intriguing food for thought: “How realistic are these highly productive mornings, even for those helping set the ideal?”
Are you in a situation like the case study, where attacking your day once sounded good, but now you’re reconsidering? You’re not failing—you’re tuning into your gut.
If you’ve been muttering phrases like “I hate this” or even “Enough already,” your instincts are sending up a warning flare. Suppressing feelings will push you to the edge of burnout. Those actions might even lead to outbursts that suddenly upend crucial relationships. And who wants one lousy moment to create an impression that they are rigid or not collaborative?
The way out is to listen to your instincts without judgment, just as you would hear out a colleague. Then, transform and communicate those insights instead of stuffing them. Here are four common red flag phrases hinting you’re ready to break up with working in attack mode. They’ve been paired with turnarounds to illustrate how to verbalize compressed emotions and shift them into productive conversations.
For instance:
Spring is the perfect time to refresh how you’re working. So, if you’re flirting with burnout, it’s time to break up with attack mode. Course correct to create quality outcomes and get back in the flow.
Is this your year to uplevel how you work? Straight talk about people skills and how to get things done at work is finally here. Check out my new book, Soft Skills Basics in a Flash.