Burnout And Deep Work

As I make my way trhough Cal Newport’s Deep Work, I am thinking about some of the habits and rituals that I’ve put in place to encourage a habit of deep work and to stave off burnout in my professional career.

• Burnout. Working long hours of low productivity and highly distracted. Carries on into the evening. Then into the weekend trying to hit deadlines
• Solution was to start observing Sabbath. Practice that I haven’t been too good of as of late. for me, Sabbath means disconnecting from my work in pursuit of leisure. In this regards, Friday at twlight, no matter where I am in my work. I put my phone on the desk, turn off my monitors, walk out of the home office closing the door behind me and not go back in until Sunday morning. Free from the tyranny of the desktops, laptops, and cell phone – I focus my Saturday on reading dead-tree books, playing games on the switch, watching movies, and hiking. The goal is both to avoid work, the internet, reading about work, as well as any non-leisurely chores (yardwork, house cleaning other than tidying up messes made on Saturday itself, finances/bills, planning or even thinking about work). Cooking is leisurely.
• Lately, my schedule has a hard stop on all work and chore related activity at 2300. Since I bed at 0200, this gives me three hours to unwind with a regiment of reading fiction and playing on the switch.
• PC gaming is problematic. Since I want to get off and away from the computer in my leisure time and yet also enjoy playing Minecraft and the ocassional FPS. But nights in which I play a PC game become days in which I sit in front of my computer for 12 hours. Console gaming, I’m forced to admit at least moves me into the living room, and gives me an interface other than a keyboard. It no longer feels like an extension of work.