You'll Be Better at Your Job

By Minda Zetlin | Posted 6/14/23

This is a lesson I learned the hard way in 2012, at my first in-person board meeting as president of ASJA. Shortly before that meeting, I had started as an Inc.com columnist, and I was determined to do well at both things, both of which were highly important to me. I traveled to New York City the evening before the board meeting and then sat in my hotel room that night, working on a column. I'd been scrambling hard for days, trying to get everything done. With less than six hours to sleep before I had to get up for the board meeting, I crawled into bed, the column just barely completed.

The next morning, I crawled out of bed again and made my bleary-eyed way to the conference room for the board meeting. There was just one problem. I was the president, therefore I was the one leading the meeting. I couldn't glance at my email or momentarily let my mind wander, as I'd done at countless meetings before. (I bet you have too.) I had to be as focused and mentally alert as I could be for every minute of the meeting, which would last from about 9 a.m. to about 4 p.m., with a break for lunch.

I got through the meeting without falling asleep in my chair and without doing anything outstandingly stupid, which was an accomplishment in itself, given how tired I was. I don't think we made any terrible decisions that day. But fifteen highly accomplished and very busy people had pulled themselves away from their work and families to join me at this meeting to plan a path forward for our organization, and I'm sure some of them left thinking it hadn't been a good use of their time. Worse than that, it was a missed opportunity to do what we were there to do: plan a strategy for the organization's future.

I was painfully aware of how badly I sucked at my job that day. It was a valuable lesson in setting appropriate expectations for my own energy level and my own brain. I'll get into brain science more in chapter 19, but for now, the important thing to remember is that the amount of time we can think clearly and perform at our best on any given day or in any given week is a lot shorter than we would like it to be, and a lot shorter than we think it is.

On the other hand, the list of things to do that we all keep in our devices, on paper, or even just in our heads is a lot longer than we would like it to be. We will never get to the end of that list, and we will never be able to do all the things that we think are important. Even if we do, new important things will come along to take their place. This is why productivity experts so often tell people to take the bottom items off their to-do lists and focus on no more than three tasks each day. In a world of multiplying opportunities, obligations, and work overload, learning to do less and to protect your own energy level is a superpower.

Career Self-Care

Minda Zetlin is the author of Career Self-Care: Simple Ways to Increase Your Happiness, Success, and Fulfillment at Work. …