Rest and relaxation is more powerful to progress than caffeine and techno.
Following an unusual silence, Madi T. responded to yesterday’s ‘Sickness & Health‘ email to share the reasons for her extended absence from the conversation. In a colorfully illustrated epic rife with progress and diligence that was the likes of a shipwrecked Tom Hanks seeking escape from his prison of paradise — she shared her story.
“I was so determined to make a better future for myself that I worked from the moment I woke to the moment my head the pillow straight every single day of the week. … by Saturday I was extremely irritable without knowing why, and then on Sunday night I completely fell apart.”
Madi had hit burnout. As I crafted my response, I realized something I had seen as an “interesting application of an old idea” was actually quite valuable. I responded:
I’m laughing as I write this because, after a hugely moving story, you end with “at least you didn’t sob into a plate of sausages.” I believe you’ve acquired your first ‘Burnout Badge’. Even when the physicality of it all doesn’t hit, as it recently did for me, your emotions can take over and knock you on your ass. I’ve often found myself overwhelmed and swung between manic and depressive in the blink of an eye.
Sharing in his reply, Alon S. had illustrated his experience: “(I) tore a calf muscle playing basketball yesterday… gonna spend my day being “nurtured” by some sweet Colombiana. Recharge days are essential… Client work can chill for a minute. Do you homie.” Having seen the “signs” he took action to avoid his burnout,
Sharing similar feedback with Madi, my reply continued:
The trick to avoiding it is, unfortunately, less of a trick and more of a skill. Much like the revving an engine, you have to know your mental/physical boundaries, how long you can maintain high stress, and when you need to shift gears or lay off the gas entirely… sorry… I just watched Mad Max. Working with and in the presence of a number of developers, I’m starting to see a great deal of value in the product sprint mentality.
The sprint is a five-day process for answering critical business questions through design, prototyping, and testing ideas with customers. Developed at Google Ventures, it’s a “greatest hits” of business strategy, innovation, behavior science, design thinking, etc. — packaged into a battle-tested process any team can use. It’s designed to reduce the inherent risks in successfully bringing products to market.
In this case, you are the product.
You can survive a sprint like the one you’ve been running because there’s a defined end date, refractory period, and shift in focus. I’m experimenting with that a bit now by doing a “sprint” on my website to better focus my energies on what is known versus my normal deficiency of “getting into flow and immediately getting lost thinking of what’s next.”
Meditation, movie nights, walks, caffeine, weed, sex, etc. etc. are all “supplements” with varying degrees of costs and benefits that tie into the success, length, and recalibration of product sprints. They all hit different people differently so I recommend a healthy diet of perpetual experimentation. The most important skill to learn is that of asking yourself questions: What am I feeling right now? Why am I constricted? What do I need? Is this procrastination or burnout? What do I need?
Entrepreneurs, or those of similar mindsets, often look for external augmentation to support their endeavors. I myself spent years placing an unnecessary reliance on finding the perfect CTO, acquiring funding, or outsourcing tasks to contractors so I could “focus on what matters.” At the end of the day, these quests only served to establish the false ideal that my Hero’s Journey lie in hands other than my own.
Working from a menagerie of bustling cafes around Los Angeles, I’m constantly overhearing conversations where people place success, or even just an element of progress, outside themselves. As cliche as it sounds, a simple principle rings true…
Everything you need is already inside of you.
Whether you’re currently in sprint or recovery, know that the most powerful element of control you have at your disposal is the one that enables you to assess what you, the product making the product, need to act more effectively.
Ask questions, explore, and develop a more powerful engine for driving you forward.
You are a traveler on the journey of life, describe to me the vivid nature of your surroundings. What do you see? Are you basking in the sunshine as you cruise the open road or fighting through the brush to find new perspective? What do you feel? Are you awash with the positivity of the miles with while you’ve traveled or daunted by the extent of the road ahead? What’s carrying you? Are you behind the wheel of an Italian sports car roaring with power or fighting to keep your old jalopy running?
Put meaning to that which you feel and you’ll begin to see what you need most.