WorkWorkWork

The young people are very unhopeful towards the future, according to recent studies. And how can you blame them, the world is not getting any easier or enjoyable, but the opposite.

You would think that work is easier now, as we have so much technology to help, but no. Work piles are increasing with the piles of instructions of the technology. And increasing work pile to the brain is not the same as doing it to the muscles. Or to say, the brain can and will get tired too.

Those who have a hard job, and a wage that haven´t increased with the inflation, are upset and exhausted. Eventually the brain won´t manage all the stress, it´s an organ as well as all the others. Constant stress and work overflow will sicken it; cut the thinking, creating harmful over energy, makes it hard to concentrate, which will then result in more phycisal things; anxiety, stress in general, fear of going insane, hard to fall asleep and when you do, you wake up at night thinking something about work.

I know because it happened to me.

I hate it when I have to admit that I was wrong in something. And this is one of those things.

I thought that you can´t get burn out from an office job, I always thought it would be something more related to physical jobs.

I know people who have had burn out, friends and customers but still I thought that there was something more in their lives causing it, it couldn´t just be the job, in a office. In your own, quiet office, with a chair where you can sit all day and have drinks and snacks beside you all the time. Nurses and busdrivers can only dream about that luxury.

But then, I started an office job with a 100% motivation. I was so gullible. I thought that the tasks and timelines were possible to do in my working hours. When I started to realise that my daily to-do list was increasing and increasing, I had to be quicker, and more efficicient. Quicker calls, shorter texts, sharper tone of voice, better organisation, and of course, extra hours, every day. So that the list wouldn´t blow up the next day.

I worked like madman almost a year, 10 months exactly, trying to achieve my goals that was put for me, as the bigger bosses had aligned.

Then one week, I noticed that I couldn´t remember very well things I just did. I didn't remember if I had brushed my teeth in the morning, so I asked my kids if they saw me doing it, or I just smelled my breath. I had things lost all the time, when I mopped the floor, I didn't remember which floors I had cleaned so I had to do it all again. I was like an 80 year old, and I am not even 40 years old yet!

So I panicked, my family members have alzheimers, we have the gene, so I thought that I got it really early. Then I couldn´t sleep anymore, I had anxiety, and I felt overall like crap.

But after that week, I thought, how odd that I function well on the weekends. I doubted that alzheimers take a brake on weekends.

So, I thought it is the brain, but the cause is not inner, but outer, it´s the work.

And of course it was the work. I was so motivated. I thought I could do it, and more, and better. I have always been the high energy person, who thrives at work and solves any problem.

When I eventually understood that my goals in reality were just a distant dream, I paralyzed. I felt like such a fool. A stupid, stupid girl when I was supposed to be a clever woman. I was also so angry, how I had did this to myself, and how I was made to believe these goals were possible for one person to do.

What a drop of motivation when that lighting finally struck me. From 100% to 50%.

I didn´t take any sick leave when this happened, because when I was off work, the list just got worse, so no, sick leave was not an option, it would had only made things worse. So I just cut back, fortunately, I could do it. I managed my own calendar.

I also thought about changing a job, but to be honest, I heard the same story everywhere, everyone was exhausted. So why change and then learn again new things and systems? And it´s wasn´´ t like I had the CV that made employers´ socks roll in their feet. Sometimes you just have find the midway to manage life, in general, I think.

But yeah, I understand now the stories I read about the burnt out people and I don´t underrate their experiences anymore.

Now, I feel the opposite and I understand why the statictics are going up. Then, by coincidence, I watched this short video about how to get your concentration back, and got to know that there is a new diagnostic invented, ADT;

"Difficulty concentrating is nowadays so common that we've started to talk about ADT (attention deficit trait).The brain is overworking and the endless list of tasks causes feelings of inadequacy and worry. All this tends to cause chronic stress. Chronic stress is known to cause problems with learning, memory and concentration. " 

So we managed to create a new disease apparently by acting every day like we´ ve never seen a phone before. Almost devouring it. 

But the good thing is that the brain can be modified and adjusted again and get rid of the Tik Tok brain. The most important advice of all is just doing something else than watching screens when you get home from work; listen to music, exercise, do art etc. Remember that social media is not relaxation for the brain, but the opposite. When the brain gets off from work, don´´ t feed it second long infos, although you would think that you are not really "thinking" about them that much, just watching and rolling down the page, that is not true. The brain 

But as I know that I don´ t have the willpower for that, I´ ll just use the best trick there is and what will definitely work;

I´ ll set up a daily screen time to my phone.

Just like my kids have.