Work-from-Home Burnout. It’s real.
All that time I save not commuting to my office initially was viewed as “free time”. Time to spend re-reading some impactful business books and keeping to my schedule.
But that dedicated 25 minutes a day quickly grew to an hour a day and then to an hour of catching up on my email and answering Slacks and building presentations.
And that creep continued. Now I am always “on”. I check my email and Slack constantly. I consume and respond in real-time. And then I email and respond at all hours of the day and night.
This creates a dangerous culture and it stops right now in our company. I just deleted my Slack app from my phone. I just deleted my work email from my phone. And I now have a personal rule where my laptop stays on my desk (not in my hands everywhere I go).
As leaders, we need to lead by example. I will, of course, continue to think about the business all the time. But communication and actions will need to wait until tomorrow. And when real emergencies arise, it will easily overcome the “Should I text Greg about this?” test. Back to the boundaries I seemed to have had an easier time following when we were in the office.
This is what I’m doing.
Originally published on LinkedIn.com