Overwhelm, work-life balance, sports and sticking around long enough to get noticed 🎥
Beating Overwhelm
Hey there, happy Sunday!
I'm going to be honest - I've been feeling a little overwhelmed lately. With things opening back up in the UK my days have become a lot busier.
Client work, content creation, and attempting to be a functioning member of society is a lot to balance 😅.
In the past, I would have let this overwhelm take over my week. I'd procrastinate, overthink and get nothing done.
But as soon as I started feeling a little overwhelmed I put into practice a few ideas and systems to stop overwhelm and get back on track quickly.
Instead of feeling bad and overthinking, I changed my state by going for a walk and taking some time to reflect.
Instead of letting the mountain of tasks stop me from getting to work I focused on the most important thing I needed to get done by using the ABZ framework.
And instead of letting this slump continue I hit the 'hard reset'.
If like me you're feeling overwhelmed at the minute this video might be of use to you.
Here are this weeks four finds:
I.
On enduring long enough to get noticed
(Article)
📝 Your favourite creators don't have any secrets to success, all they do is stick around long enough to get noticed. They work to improve, publish consistently and let time do the rest.
Most people find tv shows, youtubers, writers and podcasts years down the line, long after they started.
I found Peter McKinnon after he'd published over 100 videos on Youtube - sure his content was great but that content would never have been found if he didn't stick around long enough to get noticed.
Nathan Barry sums this up perfectly in this article:
"If step one in building an audience is to create great content, step two is to endure long enough to get noticed."
II.
On the problem with work-life balance
(Article)
📆 In this post, Anne-Laure talks about the problem with work-life balance and why it's an unhelpful concept for modern work.
"The concept of work-life balance implies that work is bad and life is good; it suggests that work and life are two dichotomous entities that need to be strictly separated and kept at an equilibrium; for some, it even insinuates that less work equals more happiness."
When we're doing creative and intellectual work, the concept of work-life balance doesn't apply in the same way as it would for a manual labour job.
As Jeff Bezos says "it implies there’s a strict trade-off. And the reality is, if I am happy at home, I come into the office with tremendous energy. And if I am happy at work, I come home with tremendous energy. It actually is a circle; it’s not a balance.”
III.
On why Sports Fans are Sports Fans
(Article)
As I was sat watching the Euros I questioned what it is that makes me like sport. I've played and watched various sports since I was a kid but never really stopped to think about why I liked it in the first place.
This short read from Tim Urban of WaitButWhy takes an interesting look at that exact question.
The central idea of this article is why so many people all over the globe are invested in various sports when in reality they don't mean all that much. If you're a sports fan I'd highly recommend giving this a read.
IV.
On working weekends?
(Tweet)
📌 I’m intrigued what your opinions are on this statement? [reply to this email]
A lot of people were outraged in the comments but on some level I agree with this statement.
I don’t think you should grind through every weekend, doing work you don’t want to. But if you want to achieve big things and you feel excited / compelled to work on something then I don’t see an issue with working weekends [as long as you take some time to rest].
Ultimately this comes back to making your work fun. Whenever I’m working on a weekend it’s because that thing is what I want to be doing most at that moment. When your ‘work’ doesn’t feel like ‘work’ it doesn’t matter what day of the week it is.
One interesting quote
"You’re either remarkable or invisible" - Seth Godin
End note
If you enjoyed this edition of the Sunday Filter then I’d love it if you could share it with a few friends. You can send them over here to sign up or share on Twitter.
Have a great week!
- Stephen