Move over, quiet quitting! Quiet vacationing is here

Get yourself into a productive flow state by blocking off time for deep work during your peak energy hours, setting up in a location that is conducive for inspiration, delegating tasks to free up your attention and letting others know you'll be unavailable, writes Bernard Coleman, the VP of people at Swing Education. "Blocking head-down time on your Google calendar or in Outlook helps set clear boundaries and can minimize interruptions," Coleman notes.

Soda cans bottoms are beveled with a concave design for two reasons -- most importantly, it helps keep the pressurized soda from bursting -- and they can easily be stacked on top of one another. It is that latter feature that one TikTok creator has exploited, demonstrating how to use the leverage of the beveled bottom of one can to open the pop-top of another.

Last year, I knew I was burning out. My job as the pastor and founder of a spiritual community that had been going strong for nearly 14 years was no longer bringing me joy. We had always been small, but closing for a year during the pandemic and doing only online celebrations had depleted our already tiny attendance, and it seemed that we were not going to regain our in-person numbers.

We still had bills to pay, and the dwindling attendance and contributions were exacerbating the situation. We looked for new income streams and found a few, but that required more work from all of us, but most of it fell to me to do. I already had a full-time job, but now, I had three!

Burnout was inevitable.

Kristen Hendrix and Rebecca Zucker offer valuable advice I wish I had seen last year. Hendrix warns that burnout is approaching when you put the needs of others ahead of self-care and release the other activities in your life that give you a sense of satisfaction.

Zucker offers a range of questions to ask that can help you identify burnout before you're already toasted to a crisp. The questions that would have helped  me include: "Where do I feel the most ineffective?" and "What did I previously enjoy about work that I no longer do?"

I think if I had identified the answer to these questions earlier, I might not have burned out. It's hard to feel joy in something when you feel like nothing you do is effective. Asking these questions before the burnout may have helped to identify solutions.

If you're feeling a little singed right now, it could be the best time to explore these questions before the burnout fire begins to rage in your own life and work.

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