Learning To Take a Step Back

I’ve always been someone who has gassed the throttle day and night. Sleep to me was unbeknown. Between running a startup, juggling freelance projects, being a full-time student, trying to network with people like I was on Match.com and trying to squeeze in a social life or time with friends somewhere in there, I wasn’t ever sure how to take a break. I quickly became burnt out, but there was this hidden drive that kept pushing me to learn and experience more.

Here lies the issue: I was unproductive and unmotivated. I always had a sudden, unrelenting urgency of falling behind anytime that something was left unattended. If I didn’t get to that Slack message instantly, or tried to wrap up five different projects at once, I was left feeling overwhelmed. And this didn’t only apply to work; it applied to every personal aspect of my life as well.

It sucked. There’s no better way to describe it. My time was being eaten up by things that didn’t matter and weren’t making me happy. I say it sucked because I figured out how to fix it. I took a simple step back. When you’re overwhelmed and feel like your mind is going in a hundred different directions, you lose your focus and drive. Your goals suddenly seem unattainable. It’s so easy to put yourself on autopilot to get things done, but when you go back and look at your work and what you’ve accomplished, you’re stuck in gridlock. You aren’t pursuing your goals anymore, you aren’t producing good work, and as a result you find yourself burnt out.

So, I took a week off. Shut down my Slack (crazy, right?), stopped using social media, and started to look at the bigger picture. I opened a blank page and asked myself a straightforward question…what was I doing? A list was born: my day-to-day activities, the projects I was working on, and even the people I was interacting with all found themselves in my notebook. I wrote down the pros, the cons, took a step back, and then asked myself where I wanted to be. Was what I’m doing now pushing me further towards my goals, or was it just busy work that’s occupying time? Not just projects, but every facet of my life. I ultimately found that most of what I was doing wasn’t in line with where I wanted to be. It was mental quicksand that provided no value. So what did I do?

I eliminated all of it.

I’ve learned to do this frequently and use it on both a micro and macro scale. Every few months I’ll do this “Logan’s Life Teardown” to figure out where I’m at in the grand scheme of things. But even when making a small decision like taking on a project, I ask myself whether it’s putting me closer to where I want to be. It doesn’t sound like a magical formula and you’d be right. In fact it’s the exact opposite. It’s generic and can be tedious. But to me, it’s been a game changer.

I’ve learned to put time into people and projects that matter, all the while better understanding where I want to be. There’s a lot more to life than just the things in your immediate view.

Take that step back, take a breather, and write down what you’re doing. Surprise yourself.