Episode 41: A Girl’s Guide to Gratitude

Think about the things that you have gushed about loving or the fact they make life sustainably productive at some time or another. Then you find yourself grumbling about them because you are overwhelmed and feeling a lot of pressure. Generally overstimulated and your circuits are blown.

Can you relate? Now its time to learn about the Sustainable Sue go-to tool. That is gratitude. Sure, it might feel cheesy and cliche to you. But often cliches exist for a reason – they work! Let’s take a look at why gratitude can help when you are feeling overwhelmed and how to get started cultivating your attitude of gratitude. 

Join the Sustainable Sue Get Started with Gratitude program at this link!

Here is what you can expect to hear on the episode:

  1. Short and long term benefits of gratitude
  2. How gratitude works in your body neurologically and chemically
  3. How to get started with your own gratitude practice

Listen at the link below or search for “Sustainable Productivity with Susan Sanders” everywhere podcasts are available.

Links to Learn More

Links mentioned in this episode of the Sustainable Productivity podcast:

We would love to hear from you. Send your feedback on the episode, suggestions for future show topics or guests, and anything else to Susan@SustainableSue.com or in a DM on Instagram.

PS – I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org and will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

By |2023-11-13T11:27:21-05:00November 13th, 2023|Show Notes|0 Comments
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Episode 39: Three Tools to Prevent Holiday Burnout

Imagine a holiday season that is productive – you enjoy the activities that are meaningful to you with the people who are meaningful to you. 

Now imagine that same holiday season is one you actually want to repeat or even continue long term. 

Here at Sustainable Sue, our wish for you is to create a holiday season that you can wrap up without feeling glad it is over and that you need a vacation to recover from. Or worse, a holiday season that you cannot get through without numbing out on the ever present excess of food, drink, spending, and general over-doing it. 

Learn three strategies you can use now to avoid holiday burnout!

Here is what you can expect to hear on the episode:

  1. Susan climbs on her time management soap box
  2. How holidays amp up unvoiced expectations leading to premeditated resentments
  3. How to choose yourself over others to prevent holiday burnout

Listen at the link below or search for “Sustainable Productivity with Susan Sanders” everywhere podcasts are available.

Links to Learn More

Links mentioned in this episode of the Sustainable Productivity podcast:

We would love to hear from you. Send your feedback on the episode, suggestions for future show topics or guests, and anything else to Susan@SustainableSue.com or in a DM on Instagram.

By |2023-10-30T17:45:49-04:00October 30th, 2023|Show Notes|0 Comments
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Independence from Burnout

The day this essay will first post is Independence Day in America (where I live). I don’t come from a military family, although I did go through the application process to play basketball at West Point. I say this because while I respect the intended purpose of the 4th of July observations in the US, I want to extrapolate this to a topic I know a little more about.

Yep – burnout.

Today is less about convincing you that you are suffering from burnout and why that is harmful. I want to offer ways that you could slowly work towards independence from burnout starting today. Yes, today. This week. Soon, not someday.

Sustainable Productivity is based on three pillars – Health and Fitness, Mental Well-being and Environmental Surroundings. I want to offer a few ways you could explore finding independence from burnout. It is less that these are THE BEST ways to heal from and prevent burnout. Instead consider these options that might get you thinking about what appeals to you.

Health & Fitness

  • Set a reminder on your phone to spend 2 minutes breathing deeply.
  • Walk or sit outside for 10 minutes – even if it is not great weather.
  • Visit a Farmer’s Market. Bonus points if you sample fruits and vegetables or purchase healthy foods.

Mental Well-being

  • Hug someone for 20 seconds.
  • Look at your work schedule for the coming week and move or cancel any appointments that overlap.
  • Explore something creative – color, listen to music, watch a cooking show, or putter around the garden.

Environmental Surroundings

  • Delete 5 pictures from your phone that you can easily say you don’t want (the blurry ones, duplicates, and 50 photos of your pre schoolers nostrils are good candidates).
  • Take the donations bags to the donation site.
  • Enjoy a decluttered space with no extra stimulation (TV, books, music, people).

If none of these ideas resonate with you, check out the No Burnout Bingo cards for more ideas. They are a free download that can help you find independence from burnout. Here is a sample. They also have blank cards that you can fill in ideas that are meaningful to you.

Sustainable You Reflections

I would love to hear or see what you put in your card or what small moves you can make today to free yourself from burnout. What better way to start the second half of 2023 than to take small action items to create a life you don’t need to numb out from!

Until next time remember to create productive results in a way that you can sustain and that work for you. 

By |2023-06-27T08:40:05-04:00July 4th, 2023|Sustainable Productivity|0 Comments
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Equanimity in Setbacks

Equanimity is my word of the year for 2023 and I sure have had a chance to practice it lately. Quick refresher on the definition:

I have a visualization for equanimity that is a tall, solid tree in a fierce wind storm. The outside stress of the wind is bending the tops of the tree. The tree is visually swaying with and resisting the force of the wind. Yet it remains steadfast and grounded by its strong, deep roots in the earth. Roots that have been tended to in times of calm to prepare it to withstand the inevitable storm.

And boy did that storm come for me. 

The specific circumstances don’t matter, but generally life has not been smooth sailing lately. Nothing catastrophic, just those nagging things that life brings:

  • Schedule too full (even with good, fun things)
  • Learning curves
  • Challenging relationships
  • Rain (and other bad weather)
  • Work demands
  • Medical appointments

How these nagging things came together to create chaos for me will surely look different for you, but the resulting feelings are what might be more familiar.

I wanted to just crawl in bed and pull up the covers. I felt like a failure because I could not get everything (or anything) done that I had planned. It felt like everything I had been working on would suffer from this setback. 

Have you ever felt this way? Are you feeling this way right now? It was like complete overstimulation on life. It was neither sustainable nor productive, which is the signal for me that adjustments needed to be made. 

These adjustments took on two different views. This was not a case where I needed to work on habit change so that in six months I would feel less pressure. I needed immediate relief too. Luckily I have this snazzy word of the year to lean on. 

Short Term Adjustments

The first thing I did was triage and made adjustments to the plans for that weekend. Basically I cleared the decks. Cancelled two activities and modified a third to not have to leave the house. The only chores I got done were the truly necessary ones. 

I want to acknowledge that I am really privileged to be able to do this. I did not have work on these days, and I did not have kids depending on me. The lesson that we might be able expand on though is that if we as adults are feeling this burnout, I wonder if our kids are too? If we are feeling overwhelmed at work, maybe our co workers would appreciate a softer foot on the gas pedal too?

This short term fix helped restore some equanimity but I still needed to do more work. 

Mid Term Adjustments

A major part of my spin out was being overcommitted. The adjustment I needed to make was not a fun one. I had to reschedule somethings, cancel others, and not take on some really fun things that I wanted to. Inevitably, I disappointed people, which of course made me feel badly. I am working on reframing this – I would rather disappoint you than make myself sick with overcommitment. People who really care about me will understand.

I sure want to be the person who can fit ten pounds of shit in a five pound bag and skip happily though life but I am not. Living life in reality vs. fantasy is what will make my choices sustainable. 

Dance with the one that brung ya, am I right?!

Life will continue to keep coming and while I am through this particular patch of overwhelm, it will happen again. This is what life is made of. There is a such thing as good stress. Science calls it eustress. Having a baby is a good kind of stress. Getting married is eustress. We don’t want to live a bland life without any stimulation. Thich Nhat Hanh, the Vietnamese Zen Buddhist spiritual leader, has said (and had a book with this title, “No mud, no lotus.” Without suffering through the mud, you cannot find the happiness of the lotus. Without grit, there is no pearl.

I want the pearl and the lotus. And I know that to do that – and be able to enjoy it when I have it – I need to feed my roots to create a life that is Sustainably Productive. To go back to my equanimity visualization, I need to accept where I am and feed the roots to be able to withstand the future storms.

Sustainable You Reflections

  1. Write down the last time or two where you wished for a snow day to cancel plans or that you could just hide from your schedule. How would it have felt to have a chunk of time freed up for you?
  2. Looking at your calendar for the next week or month, what 1-2 things can you cancel or reschedule to create that space?
  3. Take a 30-day reprieve from taking on new things. No new classes, dinner dates, travel, etc. 

Let’s check in. How are you doing? No, like really – how are you? You can reach me at Susan@SustainableSue.com or find me on Instagram or Facebook. 

Until next time remember to create productive results in a way that you can sustain and that sustain YOU.

By |2023-02-28T08:14:29-05:00March 14th, 2023|Sustainable Productivity|0 Comments
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A Very Important Question for You

How are you? No, like really – how are you?

We are turning the corner on 18 months of a global pandemic. Layer that with a social justice revolution, a contentious political election, a coupe attempt, and all the personal upheaval that does not get paraded across the nightly news…

Well, it is a lot.

And I know you are the ones keeping the plates spinning.

So how are you really?

I had quite a few plates crash at various points of 2020, then 2021. I wanted to share a couple things that are helping me in case they help you too.

Grounding Routines

While morning routines are all the rage and do indeed have their place in starting your day, I want to suggest a routine that you can do at any time. And to be clear, I am playing fast and loose with the word “routine.”

Routines do not have to be long and involved. Last year at this time I was balking at the routine I had created because it took too long. By taking the Sustainable Productivity (SusPro) approach, I pared down the routine to what was  truly SusPro.

And I still felt it was too long – because I should this and shouldn’t that. Blah blah blah. Then I came across this article talking about since so many people are working at home now we could fake our commute. It occurred to me that my morning routine was still half that time that I was spending on driving to the office before the pandemic. This subtle shift weirdly gave me permission.

Now I have a series of activities I do in before work and another for after work.

But these grounding activities don’t have to be time consuming or even a series of events. Let’s talk about something even more simple.

Quick Hits

1 – A short walk is a game changer. I am not talking about anything Apple Watch worthy. Just put on your sneakers and move your body. Physical activity has been shown to boost mood and reduce depression. I often find it helps me overcome inertia on the nights we have eaten dinner in front of the TV, then get sucked into Netflix. We are more likely to leave the TV off when we come home. With the TV off I will craft or read or – gasp! Even talk with my spouse!

Source unknown, but I know it was not me. I would love to give credit where it is due – let me know!

2 – We covered gratitude lists in last week’s essay. Simply jotting down when you are grateful for is a quick hit that can ground you any time during your day. I also heard a suggestion to offset each complaint with a gratitude. Find yourself complaining about the heat? Offset with gratitude you can afford air conditioning. Crabby about the line at the grocery? Give thanks (even if just in your thoughts) for having food available to you.

If you are looking for accountability, set a reminder on your phone and post your list to the Sustainable Sue Facebook page each day!

3 – Yes all of this aside, you may only have time for this last quick hit: b r e a t h e.  Instead of walking into school to pick up your kids while answering a text, leave your phone in your bag and take a deep breath. Hold it for a few seconds, then slowly exhale. Maybe even get crazy and do it again!

What would it feel like to give yourself 10 more seconds in the bathroom between meetings to breathe? After running car pool and errands is it really true that you cannot spare 20 seconds before going into the house to take 2 deep, slow breaths?

Your Turn

What about you? How do you ground yourself in a moment of chaos? Or just tell me how you really are.

By |2021-09-26T10:08:15-04:00September 28th, 2021|Mental Well-being|0 Comments
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Crafts Make You Calm

The headline is true – crafts can make you calm. In fact, not only do crafts make you calm, but hobbies in general are good for your health! Let’s discuss.

When life is unsustainable

Burnout is a real thing. It is not something you can manage through or toughen up against. Think about what is happening in your life right now. Maybe you feel like you are withdrawing from friends and responsibilities – isolating yourself. Or after months of battling stress at work, you find yourself procrastinating on completing projects and tasks. Are you going in late or leaving early? In general are you short tempered with those around you at work and / or home?

But there is a difference between stress and burnout. Think of stress as overwhelm and burnout as a drain. Stress is the piling on. Demands on you may look like taking care of kids and parents or covering another person’s job during a hiring freeze. Or the pressure of weeks of daily carpooling that never lets you have a moment to yourself. With stress, you still feel there is hope to find a system, route, or process that can improve things.

Burnout, on the other hand, is empty of that hope. It is the drain of mental exhaustion. Often people who are burned out don’t always notice when it happens.

Here is a snapshot of the differences between stress and burnout:

Crafts make you calm, help deal with burnout

Source: https://www.helpguide.org/articles/stress/burnout-prevention-and-recovery.htm

The good news is that hobbies can aid recovery from both stress and burnout. Let me show you how.

How hobbies make for sustainable productivity

It does not have to be crafts that make you calm. Maybe it is music or gardening or coin collecting or movies. Let’s define hobbies as small pockets of respite where you can literally heal and restore your mental and physical self. When you partake in a hobby of any kind, you are improving various aspects of your mental well-being. Here are just a few:

  • Higher levels of positive psycho-social states
  • Increased life satisfaction
  • Improved life engagement
  • Better quality of sleep
  • Enhanced exercise outcomes

I hear what you are saying – you don’t have time for a hobby. But consider me your wise older sister as I bluntly ask you this: Sure, but do you have time for the illness that all that stress is going to cause you?

Because that is where too much stress and too little leisure will take you. Here are some of the ways hobbies can impact your physical well-being:

  • Lower blood pressure
  • Reduce total cortisol
  • Smaller waist circumference
  • Decreased body mass index

Taking up a hobby does not have to be a huge investment of time and money. If you want to pick up a potentially life saving hobby, keep reading.

Where to go from here

 Here are three suggestions of where you can start today.

  1. Start small. Make a list of what you might like to do. A simple list on the notes app on your phone will do. If you see your neighbor rolling out for a bike ride, and you think that might be fun, add it to the list. While sitting in your car during your child is at dance lessons, you see a notice for an adult dance class. If this sounds interesting, add it to your list. You don’t have to sign up, just make your list.
  2. Notice what you notice. I believe the universe (God, your Higher Power, whatever name you choose), will put things in your path to make good decisions easier. If you see guitar lessons advertised three different places maybe that is something that you should pay attention to. If you get invited to a Zoom painting class with your girlfriends right after you put “Learn to paint” on your list, it is not a coincidence. Notice what you start to notice. And notice how it makes you feel.
  3. Take stock of what you already have. I had a client who started taking online piano lessons because her kids’ abandoned keyboard was sitting in the corner of the living room. She had been frustrated for years at their lack of playing and considered the keyboard clutter. When we were exploring what she might like to do for a hobby, music kept coming up. I could see the light bulb go on when she realized the “junk” in the corner was actually useful! Look around – there are probably art supplies, fabric leftovers, sporting goods, random canned goods you could make into a creative recipe, and more.

Take time to notice and make your list. Let me know how it goes. We can connect on social media or in the comments below to celebrate successes or trouble shoot where you might be stuck. Let’s work together on creating a life you don’t need to escape.

 

By |2020-09-27T13:46:06-04:00September 29th, 2020|Mental Well-being|0 Comments
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