Plan for depletion

Know how to recover when you don't have much energy

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is to plan for depletion. At some point in
your life, you start to realize that certain activities are

(00:25):
always going to exhaust you. When you know that, you
can be sure to plan in some downtime afterwards, or
you may wind up even more exhausted or not following
through on your commitments. I do a lot of public speaking,
and when I go to an event, it is very

(00:47):
clear to me that I have done something. I've been
up on stage. I've often talked with people or signed
books afterwards. Then I tend to go to the airport
and fly home. I do some light work on the plane,
but I generally know that I'll be tired, and since
I'm unavailable on the plane anyway, I'm not trying to

(01:08):
set meetings shortly after a speech. Virtual speaking, on the
other hand, is different. Theoretically, I am just in my
little recording studio speaking into my laptop. I don't have
to fly anywhere afterwards, so I could just schedule other
calls or meetings right afterwards. But when I first started

(01:31):
speaking virtually during COVID. I did so, but I quickly
realized that a virtual speech takes a lot of energy
to Even if I'm on a screen, i am still performing.
I probably need to take a short breather after a
virtual speech, too, even if I don't have to hop
in a cab headed toward the airport. So I've gotten

(01:53):
better about not scheduling anything for the hour or maybe
even two after a speech. The other day, when I
did a virtual event, I let myself put her around
the house for about ninety minutes. Afterward, I made rice,
putting out of some leftover rice, and read the newspaper.
It was nice and wasn't really any different productivity wise

(02:15):
than reading a magazine on a plane. If you too
have things that take a lot of energy, you might
want to structure your schedule to allow for that. I know.
My co host on Best of Both Worlds, doctor Sarah Hartunger,
has talked about her call weeks being very intense. She's
often up in the night answering questions and directing care

(02:38):
plans for very sick children, so she's been trying to
keep the day or two after her call week's lighter.
This is challenging, as all the other things she didn't
get to when she was on call stack up. But
she knows she'll be exhausted. Best to plan life with

(02:58):
that in mind. Even if it's not possible to take
a lot of downtime, it's still worth scanning your schedule
in advance so you can spot activities that will take
a lot of energy. Then you can proactively plan in
at least something that will boost your energy levels. For instance,
if you're going to have to give tough feedback to someone,

(03:22):
maybe you can plan in a ten minute break to
go to for a walk to clear your head. If
you're going to be presenting to someone who is always critical,
maybe you can plan to take a slightly longer lunch
break and go to a favorite restaurant. In any case,
we aren't machines, and even machines often need scheduled maintenance

(03:46):
if they've had to run harder than usual. So if
you know you will be depleted, figure out what you
can do to take care of yourself. That way, you
will be your energetic chip yourself soon enough, and you
can keep going with all the amazing things that you're
doing in the meantime. This is Laura, Thanks for listening.

(04:11):
And here's making the most of our time. Thanks for
listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.

(04:36):
Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts
from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.