Letter 012 - How to Re-Baseline & Take Control While Having a Rough Day/Week
What to do when you're feeling off your game
Welcome to the new subscribers! If you missed the last several reads, here are some:
Letter 011 - “I need for you to see the fucking bigger picture”
Letter 010 - “Your calendar is your battlefield & other thoughts on strong prioritization
Letter 008 - “Tactics for running kick-ass projects (and reflections on a failure I had)”
*Written very early in the morning recently, after having a kinda rough day*
It’s 7pm in Manhattan, sometime in Spring of 2016. My roommate (and lifelong friend, Mo) and I are catching up after long days at both of our consulting firms and he drops this term that has stuck with me ever since: “re-baselining.”
We were talking about how someone gets back to a (healthy) baseline after disruption at work. In this case, the scenario was:
Holy shit the last three weeks have been insane. Nonstop work. You wake up at 6:30am stressed out and you’re on your computer grinding nonstop until way-too-late in the evening or early morning
This leads to burnout, and in a state of burnout it’s hard/impossible to be productive (or hell, strategic)
A really badass leader will help you and your team re-baseline so that people can recover and you can get back to being productive
I ended up taking this situation and applying it to a more micro level: to the individual. To myself.
Fast forward a year, and I’m having an absolute burner of a week. I am extremely stressed out, I’ve had too much caffeine, I feel like I want to cry because I haven’t been sleeping enough, my calendar looks like a messed up Tetris board, I’m arguing with my then-partner outside of work, and overall I feel like I’m reaching the point where I wonder:
“Can I do this? Can I make it through this week? Psht, can I even make it through today?”
Yes. Hell yes. You absolutely can. Here are some ways I’ve learned to re-baseline amidst particularly rough times at work. Here’s my summarized pattern:
1 | Create Space
2 | Jolt the System
3 | Take Control
4 | Plan for Rejuvenation (and make it happen!)
ONE - Create Space:
Look at your calendar. Move things that are not critical to another day to give yourself some space back for GTD (get thinking done) or GSD (get shit done).
Review upcoming deadlines or commitments you have and try to get them extended.
When you propose an extension, do not apologize for it. Simply state that to get the quality outcome you’re going for, and that more time is needed (oh man this is likely going to be another newsletter topic — pushing back / adjusting timelines)
Meditate and/or do deep breathing for at least 3 minutes
My favorite exercise is to breath in for 6 seconds, hold it for 6-8 seconds, breath out for 8 seconds over and over again until you feel some physical relief
Visualize the Extremes — this is my favorite tactic to re-baseline at any time, period. I take 60 seconds to imagine the worst possible scenario I could be experiencing right now, and then I imagine the absolute best possible scenario, and then I try to pinpoint where I am along that spectrum. In most cases, you will realize that things could be wayyyyy worse than they are right now. Once you’ve done this, take some time to think about 3-4 things you are thankful for. Visualization is important here. Simply writing down, “i’m thankful for my spouse” is not enough — visualize that person, the times you’ve had together, and what you’ve achieved together
Give yourself some grace. We do the best we can every day, and credit is due for what you have done. The next time you see, “shit, I’m 30% behind my goal of 100%”, take some time to appreciate (and communicate) what has gotten you to 70%. This is a big aspect of OKRs and keeping environments psychologically safe…
And a note for managers: you need to do the same for your employees. Call out what they have accomplished, how they have showed up. Give credit, show gratitude, coach them on how to make strengths even stronger… especially while you’re giving critical feedback. If you don’t do this, you risk sending your employees on an emotional spiral that will impact their morale and their ability to perform consistently over time
TWO - Jolt the System:
Tactic 1: Do a very high-intensity workout; it can be short
Tactic 2: Take a cold shower, or at least do a cold water blast amidst a hot shower
(Maybe Weird) Tactic 3: Primal scream (hey, it doesn’t work for everyone, but sometimes it feels really good to just get a big yell out in the car)
Tactic 4: Listen to music that pumps you up
Tactic 5: Talk to a friend who will help you get back on track — sometimes this is someone who will just listen to you, sometimes it’s someone who will give you the proverbial smack in the face and tell you to “get it together! You’ve got this!”
Tactic 6: Ensure your nutrition game is on point. For me, these are my daily green shakes. For many folks, this is coffee / tea
But beware having too much caffeine — there is a wide body of research around the effects of caffeine intake over time. I am not a doctor, do not take this as medical advice… You have to do what works for you, but too much caffeine can be a recipe for higher stress
Tactic 7: “Will what I’m contending with right now matter in a year?” is a great question to ask yourself. I got this from one of my favorite books, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff, and It’s All Small Stuff
THREE - Take Control:
Ideally by now you have calmed down a little bit, you’ve forced yourself to get some perspective, you’ve created some space in your schedule, and you’ve jolted your system. Now it’s time to take control… That is, to focus on what you CAN control and to move with speed on accomplishing what you can
Think about everything you have accomplished in your life. Think about all of the difficult things you have gotten through. And remember that you will get through this, too. That you’re going to look back on this moment in a year, and you will have gotten through it
Re-do your to do list and highlight three things you can do, and make sure there are some quick-to-accomplish tasks in there. This will help you build momentum.
I use Notion for task tracking and have for years. It is my Life Operating System in a way, and I constantly re-build my to do list to ensure focus is kept on the most critical + high impact things
FOUR - Plan for Rejuvenation (and make it happen!)
Celebrating is one of the most important things you can do. Psychologically, it is so important to have points where you know you will get a breather.
Celebrate when you have made it through a challenging day / week, and take some time to think through how you did it. Revel in the growth you’ve made happen, and how it will serve you going forward
Schedule time to GND/Chill if that’s what you need to make sure you get that time on a regular basis
Make sure you have time set aside to relax — truly relax…Sitting and doing something that requires minimal physical load from you. My Oura ring purchase has been SUPER helpful for this (no, I am not getting paid to drop products; I just genuinely love this device)
To the extent possible, make sure you take a day (or more) off from work regularly to recharge. I try to take at least one Friday per month to handle personal life things + have a bit of a longer weekend
If your recharge time gets disrupted, track why/how it got disrupted and try to think through what you need to do to decrease the chance of the disruption happening again. And then make sure to re-allocate that time somewhere else.
Example: If you have an excessively late night / early morning, make sure you stop work earlier or start work later for at least one of the upcoming days to sort of rebalance
Closing Thoughts
Above is how I re-baseline. It doesn’t always work, but I’ve found the tactics and reminders above to be truly essential to keeping me happy+healthy+productive on the work front, especially with the pressure of many different threads at work.
I think re-baselining effectively is a key part of a healthy relationship with your job. This is especially important while you are taking on more responsibility or new projects and the learning curve + ambiguity of the situation may take more energy to contend with.