This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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Here is something a lot of our listeners have in common. That thing is burnout, fatigue, a lack of energy or motivation at work. All these things come at a cost. Ultimately, I would say a cost to your soul, but listen, if you don't wanna get so personal just on a practical level, those things are draining energy that could be put to all sorts of better uses, especially when it comes to, you know, that side of soul that you need to start. That thing that will help you get out of this short-term situation and on into something better, whether it's sooner or later, whenever it is.
But I realize that sometimes it can turn into this chicken or egg thing. You're like, "Oh, I'm in this difficult situation. I'm always tired. I'm always burnout. You know, how do I get out of it?
Oh, I'm too tired to do anything about it. But, you know, I need to get out of it. So, you know, what do I do, et cetera?" Well, today's caller is dealing with this problem. And like I said, I know he's not alone. So let's dive in.
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Hi Chris, this is Paul from Medford, Oregon. And I've been listening to the show for the last year and a half. Thanks for the great content and inspiration. You see, my job is draining and not in a good way. I leave feeling exhausted and not ready for anything except binge watch shows.
But then I feel bad because I know it won't ever change unless I make it change. I had an idea to do something, but like I said, I feel too tired at the end of the day to really think about it. I keep telling myself, I just need to suck it up and get to work. But then I put it off for another day. I can't be the only one in this situation.
What should people like me do? Thanks, and I would appreciate any advice or guidance. - All right, first of all, thank you so much, Paul, for listening and for those kind words as well. And listen, I always wanna be cognizant of people who are in this situation. I never wanna be like, well, just suck it up or work harder because I know the struggle is real.
Even being self-employed my entire life, there have clearly been some times of burnout and fatigue and lack of motivation. And then I kind of feel stuck in that cycle that I alluded to earlier about how I need to change, but I don't have the energy to change, et cetera. So first of all, as I said, I wanna be aware of that. But however, as a first step, because of course we wanna get out of this situation, my first suggestion is to think about how you want to feel in the long-term and then understand that it might require some short-term sacrifice to get there. Again, it's not just suck it up or work harder, but it is about like a long-term investment, understanding that the things that we do now are going to affect the options available to us later.
And just on a couple of practical notes, if you feel too tired at the end of the day, which I've been there, it might mean that your best energy is being used in the morning. So instead of giving that energy to someone else or to a company, why not try to use the first part of your morning for yourself? It may not be a ton of time. You may have childcare or other responsibilities, but wherever your best energy is, why not find a way to carve out just a little bit for yourself, especially if it is that case where you're getting too tired at the end of the day. And then maybe ask yourself, is your problem that you don't know what to do, you're not sure about whatever that idea is, or you feel overwhelmed at breaking it down into a series of tasks, or do the tasks themselves feel daunting?
Okay, so there's three scenarios there, and the path forward might be slightly different in each of those scenarios. Because number one is a creative problem. It's like, what is it that I actually want to do? What is my idea? Number two is just an efficiency problem or a project management problem, how do I go from where I am now to where I want to be?
And number three is productivity, essentially. It's like, okay, how do I take this task and then how do I chain it together in the sense where today after work, I've got 30 minutes to spend on my hustle before I know I'm gonna be tired and wanna watch TV. What am I going to spend those 30 minutes on? How is that then going to connect to what I spend my next 30 minutes on? And so on and so forth.
Okay, so you've got creative problem, project management problem, and productivity problem. They're connected, but they're also distinct. My suggestion is don't try to work on all of them at once. First, you know, first and foremost, make sure you know what you're trying to accomplish. And that might take a while, but it's okay, it's worth it.
Then from there, you make sure you've identified a timeline, a workflow, that series of steps or deliverables and so on. And finally, there's that matter of getting it done. And for that, maybe let's go back to where I started. How important is this to you? How important is it for you to have, you know, this thing out into the world, which might bring you more options for the future relative to other things in your life?
And how can you find the minimum amount of time you need to get going? So again, Paul, thank you so much. You're not alone. A lot of people have this struggle. And we'll talk about it some more as we go on throughout the year.
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Listeners, if you've got a question, come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. We'll be featuring them throughout the year, along with updates from other listeners as they launch their projects. Thank you so much for listening today. The best is yet to come. My name is Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School.
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From the Onward Project.
