No, I’m not talking about last month’s fuel shortage!🙄 Instead, I’m talking about body fuel.

Are you full of beans, do you have the energy to burn? Or rather are you burning the candle at both ends?

We find ourselves socialising once more, our lives no longer revolve around our homes, we are going out, and we like it!

However much like the tiredness you feel after a holiday, you know the feeling…you’ve just settled into a state of calm, and then all of a sudden your home, the stress switch is turned back on and your right back in the mix of a frantic workload.

If you find yourself feeling like you need a holiday, you are not alone!
I write this with the smugness of having just returned from a lovely week in Greece 🤣.

However it may not just be the after-work social that is making you tired, conflicting priorities, an ever-increasing workload, a change in workplace dynamics, or a shift in work-life balance, can all be physically and emotionally draining.

It’s not always the quantity of work either, sometimes it’s the type of work, we all have those monotonous tasks, those that bore us silly, and require constant energy to remind focused.

The fact is though, when we are tired we can’t focus, we start making errors, and careless mistakes, we feel sluggish, drained and struggle to stay on the task at hand. We are stuck in a self-perpetuating cycle of tiredness.

The simple answer of course is to take a break.

Much like those signs on the motorways that remind us to take a break, if you are feeling tired, you have to take a break. Our smartwatches even tell us to take a break, admittedly it’s not always possible to take a moment to ‘breathe’ in the midst of a zoom call, but the thought is there!

The fact is mental fatigue causes cognitive impairment, this affects our judgement, it affects our clarity and our decisions.

Did you know 20% of all car crashes are caused by tiredness, but how many employees experience burnout because of tiredness? How many of those car accidents in fact happen on the way home from work? 🤔

If you are working long hours, not taking sufficient time away from your desk, or juggling a million and one things, you will not be performing at your best, you may even be starting to feel negatively towards your job.

It may be that you should join the great resignation of 2021, but it may also be that you can make small changes that will make a big difference.

So I leave you with this thought…If your enthusiasm has left the building, instead of making a drastic decision, take time to prioritise what is important to you, get clarity, and then make the change.

I know when you are busy it is the hardest time to take a break, but we need to take time for ourselves to refuel our own emotional wellbeing.

If you need more reminders like this or would like to learn how our coaching & mentoring courses and services could help you manage work-life balance and maximise energy, check out our ILM accredited courses & wellbeing retreats.