Multitasking Without Burnout

Your to-do list shouldn't control your life. 6 methods that kept me from losing my mind: (And doubled my output) 1. The Two-Minute Rule If something takes less than two minutes, do it immediately. Not later. Not tomorrow. But now. This simple rule prevents small tasks from snowballing into overwhelming anxiety. --- 2. Never Miss Another Detail I used to scramble taking notes during meetings + interviews, missing key points and action items. Now, I use Rev’s VoiceHub to auto-record and transcribe everything. It’s more accurate than alternatives like OtterAI and it’s easy to share the info with my team. --- 3. The Focus Formula 3 hours of deep work beats 8 hours of shallow work every time. Block your calendar, turn off notifications, set a timer, and just start. Watch your output soar. --- 4. Energy Management > Time Management Stop planning your day around the clock. Instead, match tasks to your natural rhythms – creative work in the morning, meetings after lunch, admin work when energy dips. Work with your body, not against it. --- 5. The Weekly Reset Ritual Every Sunday, clear your inbox, plan your priorities, set three main goals, and prepare your workspace. This turns Monday from a bottleneck into a launchpad. --- 6. Automate Everything Possible If you do something more than twice, automate it. From email templates to calendar scheduling, let tech handle the routine so you can focus on what matters. --- These tools & techniques will help you stay organized, manage your time better, and maintain your sanity. Try them out and see which ones work best for you. Reshare ♻ to help others. And follow me for more posts like this.

Want to solve problems like a McKinsey consultant? Top strategy firms like McKinsey, BCG, and Bain rely on a structured, hypothesis-driven approach to tackle complex challenges. The McKinsey Problem-Solving Process: Define the Problem Craft a clear, concise problem statement to ensure alignment among stakeholders. Structure the Problem Break down the problem into smaller, manageable components using frameworks like issue trees. Prioritize Issues Identify which components have the most significant impact and address them first. Develop a Work Plan Outline the analyses needed, assign responsibilities, and set timelines. Conduct Analyses Gather data and test hypotheses to uncover insights. Synthesize Findings Combine insights into a coherent story that addresses the problem. Develop Recommendations Formulate actionable solutions backed by data and analysis. Communicate Results. Key Principles: Hypothesis-Driven: Start with an educated guess and test it. MECE Framework: Ensure components are Mutually Exclusive and Collectively Exhaustive. Iterative Process: Refine your approach as new information emerges. Learn More: For a deeper dive into this methodology, check out McKinsey's guide on mastering the seven-step problem-solving process. https://lnkd.in/gKHEWKJ2 What strategies do you use for problem-solving in your organization? Share your thoughts below!

7 Neuroscience-Backed Ways to Master Your Energy (Not Just Your Time) Most people obsess over time management, but the most successful leaders focus on energy management. Because no matter how well you plan your day, if your mental, emotional, and physical energy is drained, productivity suffers. Here are seven neuroscience-backed ways to optimize your energy and operate at a higher frequency: 1. Start Your Day with Dopamine, Not Distraction. Your first hour sets your brain’s tone for the day. Scrolling social media depletes dopamine. Instead, move, breathe, or visualize your day to prime your brain for focus and motivation. 2. Master the 90-Minute Ultradian Rhythm Your brain works in 90-minute cycles of peak performance, followed by a natural dip. Work in 90-minute sprints, then take a 10-15 minute recharge break (walk, stretch, deep breathing) to sustain focus. 3. Move Your Body, Move Your Mind Exercise isn’t just for fitness—it boosts neuroplasticity (brain adaptability), increases BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), and enhances problem-solving. Even a five-minute movement break can reset your energy. 4. Regulate Your Nervous System with Breathwork and Cold Exposure Deep diaphragmatic breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system, shifting you from stress to clarity. Cold showers or splashing your face with cold water also reset your nervous system, increasing alertness. 5. The Power of Intentional Recovery Your brain doesn’t distinguish between work stress and emotional stress. Mindfulness, meditation, or even a 20-minute nap helps clear mental fog and improves cognitive performance. 6. Eat for Cognitive Clarity Blood sugar spikes lead to energy crashes. Focus on protein, healthy fats, and fiber to sustain brain power. Hydration is also key— even one percent dehydration reduces focus by ten percent. 7. Align Your Work with Meaning and Flow Energy isn’t just physical—it’s emotional and spiritual. Purpose-driven work activates the brain’s reward system, releasing more dopamine. The more aligned you are with your work, the less it feels like work. Your energy is your most valuable resource. Don’t just manage time—elevate how you show up in the time you have. ♻️ Repost to help you network master emotional intelligence. 🔔 Follow for strategies on High Performance and Wellbeing. #leadershipdevelopment #mindfulness #highperformance #emotionalintelligence #worklifeharmony

Most people are not overwhelmed because they have too much to do; they are overwhelmed because once everything hits a list, it starts to feel equally important. I actually like to-do lists. If something is not written down, it is easy to forget. The problem is that once everything is written down, everything starts to feel mandatory. The list stops being a memory aid and turns into a source of pressure. I see this clearly in my own weeks. I can be busy for days, crossing things off, staying active, keeping things moving, but when I step back and look at my actual goals for the month or the quarter, the thing that truly matters often hasn't moved. The list keeps you busy, but it does not help you choose. When that happens, it usually means the important decision was never made upfront. Instead of deciding what outcome I was optimising for that week, I let the day decide for me. Whatever feels easiest or most immediate gets done, rather than the work that actually moves the needle. What has helped me is planning every week before it starts. Before I write any to-dos, I try to be clear on what outcome would make the week feel successful. Simply put, by Friday, what needs to be true for me to say this week was productive? It is rarely a long list; one or two things at most. Once that outcome is clear, planning becomes simpler. I only write tasks that clearly feed into that goal. Everything else can wait or be pushed to the following week. And each day, I focus on my one to three non-negotiables, the things that must get done that day to support the weekly outcome, and I try to do them first. Urgent things will still come up. Sometimes they genuinely change the shape of the week. When that happens, I deliberately reassess rather than letting the list expand unchecked. When the order is wrong, cognitive load rises, and you end up doing a lot without moving much. When priorities are set early, even a full week feels calmer. You get more done without feeling more overwhelmed.

In my first leadership role, I never left work before 9:00 p.m. I used to carry a list of the things I needed at the drugstore, but never made it because the drugstore closed before I left work. One day, a mentor visited me at the education nonprofit I was running at the time. I showed her the list and joked about never making it to the store. She asked me why I wasn’t leaving work earlier and I said, “Well, there's so much to do, and my staff likes to stay late, so I have to stay late.” She pushed back: “Jen, you have to go home so they can go home.” She was right. I needed to model how we prioritize our time. Her advice to me: make a Mission To-do List. Here’s how it works: 1️⃣ Put your mission across the top of a piece of paper and your to-do list down the side 2️⃣ Go through every item to see how much it actually drives the mission or not 3️⃣ Remove any items that are not critical to achieve your mission (or at least move them to the bottom of the list) The exercise inspired me to slim down both my own to-do this and the list for our team. Suddenly, the t-shirts for our summer field trip didn’t seem so important, especially in comparison to finalizing the Algebra curriculum. We focused on the things that mattered and removed or reprioritized the rest. The mission-based to-do list is a powerful exercise that I’ve used with every team since. At Rising Team, we call it BGF, which stands for “Boat Go Faster.” It's based on a winning British rowing team that asked themselves the same question about every addition to their regimen before the Olympics—”Will it make the boat go faster?” In my experience, focusing our to-do list doesn't diminish our productivity. If we do the more important things first, there's often still time to get to extra pet projects. What a mission-based to-do list does is protect our time and energy for the things that matter most—our mission and our team's well-being. 📃 Tell me: Is there anything you can take off your to-do list today? 👇🏼 #leadership #teamdevelopment #prioritization —- Like this post? Follow me for more insights on leadership, team building, and the future of work. Subscribe to my LinkedIn newsletter Leadership is Everywhere: https://lnkd.in/g_VETsRY

Is it time to throw work-life balance out the window? Since leaving my corporate role and starting my own business as a leadership coach, I've paid close attention to how I manage and protect my energy. As someone prone to burn out, it's really important to me that I take simple steps to be more mindful with my time. Fundamental to my approach is that I now view work-life "fluidity" as inherently more rewarding than some idealised notion of perfect work-life balance. The word balance implies a neat and tidy world where equal amounts of time and focus can be given to your home and work life. And where the 9-5 is an absolute boundary between your work and your home life. For so many of us, this just isn’t realistic. Work-life fluidity is about making intentional choices and working in a way that gives your focus to these choices – both personal and work-related. Here are my 5 tips to make work-life fluidity work for you   ⭐ 1. Use your personal values and motivations to guide you   Sit and reflect on what’s most important to you and why. Figuring out your values and what motivates you is a really powerful way to frame what you want most out of your career and your life. ⭐2. Identify your priorities – at work and at home   Make a list of your priorities across your life and map them to your values and motivation. Remember – you can’t do everything, but you can typically do the things that are most important to you. Prioritise the priorities and be ready to delegate or discard the rest.  ⭐3. Use time blocking to make your diary work for you    I use time blocking to manage my business and my home life and to create boundaries that protect my productivity and my energy. Plan your diary in advance and block out time for the most important tasks and events that you’ve identified in tip number 2. Give equal weighting to these if you can – for example, if exercise is non-negotiable, treat it with the same importance as that meeting you cannot miss and schedule it in. ⭐4. Role model this approach to the people around you    You’ll be most effective when the people around you – your team, manager, peers and family and friends – understand what you’re prioritising and why. Make yourself a visible role model for effective work-life integration and for setting respectful boundaries. ⭐5. Don’t apologise for your choices    We are all doing our best and that is going to look different for everyone in different seasons of their life. The point is your path has to be meaningful for you. In letting go of the notion of balance, you are liberating yourself from an impossible idealised version of yourself and showing that you can set boundaries and create habits that serve you. What habits do you find most helpful for work-life fluidity? Share in the comments! #HolidayMode #VacationMode #LinkedInNewsUK #worklifebalance #worklifefluidity #selfdevelopment #leadershipcoaching #professionaldevelopment

Forget Hustle Culture, Embrace Harmony: How the Wheel of Life Revolutionizes Your Well-Being The relentless grind. The glorification of burning the midnight oil. Hustle culture might be splashed across headlines, but it shouldn't come at the expense of your well-being.  In today's whirlwind world, achieving a life filled with balance and self-care can feel like a distant dream. But what if there was a simple tool to help you prioritize both and craft a life that's not just successful, but deeply fulfilling? Enter the Wheel of Life. This powerful tool, developed in the 1960s by Paul J. Meyer, a pioneer in life coaching, offers a visual snapshot of various life domains – career, health, relationships, personal growth, and more. By assessing each area and assigning a rating based on satisfaction and fulfillment, we gain insight into where we may be thriving and where there's room for improvement. The circle, resembling the spokes of a wheel, organizes the most important aspects of your life, such as: ✅Family ✅Health ✅Wellbeing ✅Career ✅Finances & more But how exactly does the Wheel of Life empower you to prioritize balance and self-care? Buckle up, because we're about to delve deeper: 1. Holistic Assessment: We often compartmentalize our lives. The Wheel of Life encourages a holistic view, recognizing well-being is multifaceted. 2. Priority Setting: Struggling to carve out "me" time? The Wheel of Life helps pinpoint areas where balance and self-care are most crucial. Maybe it's setting stricter work boundaries, prioritizing exercise, or nurturing relationships. This tool clarifies your priorities. 3. Goal Setting: Once you've identified areas for improvement, the Wheel of Life empowers you to set actionable goals. This could be establishing work-life boundaries, committing to a fitness routine, or scheduling quality time with loved ones. Clear goals propel you towards greater balance. 4. Tracking Progress: The Wheel of Life isn't a one-time fix. Regularly revisit the exercise to track progress. Celebrate achievements and adjust strategies as needed to maintain balance and self-care. 5. Accountability: Sharing your Wheel of Life with trusted connections – friends, mentors, or coaches – fosters accountability and support. Open dialogue and feedback keep you motivated on your well-being journey. The Wheel of Life is a game-changer for prioritizing balance and self-care.  It helps you cultivate a life that's not just successful on paper, but deeply fulfilling and sustainable. Let's ditch the burnout and embrace well-being! How do YOU prioritize balance and self-care? Share your tips and favorite tools in the comments!

As someone who works 7 days a week, I have had to create weekends and strict rest periods inside my days of active work. Saturday and Sundays are more led with personal tasks but I can't fully disconnect from the mission on weekends and so day naps, strict working days of 10am-3am and working after 8pm (the kids bedtime) become a method of achieving all of my goals and commitments. My consideration for you is: Clarify your values: Reflect on what truly matters to you. Identify your core values and aspirations in both your professional and personal spheres. Understanding what is most important will help you make more aligned choices. Set boundaries: Establish clear boundaries between work and personal life. Determine specific times and spaces dedicated to work, and make a conscious effort to disconnect and engage in activities that bring you joy and fulfillment outside of work. Communicate your boundaries to colleagues, clients, and loved ones to foster respect and understanding. Prioritise self-care: Taking care of yourself is crucial for maintaining overall well-being. Prioritise self-care activities that recharge and rejuvenate you, such as exercise, quality sleep, hobbies, and spending time with loved ones. Remember that self-care is not selfish; it enables you to show up as your best self in all areas of life. Assess your workload: Evaluate your workload and responsibilities realistically. Be mindful of taking on too much and learn to delegate or say no when necessary. Recognise that you have limitations, and it is essential to avoid burnout by finding a sustainable balance between productivity and rest. Foster open communication: Engage in open and honest communication with your employer, colleagues, and loved ones about your work-life balance priorities. Clearly express your needs and concerns, and seek solutions that accommodate both personal and professional commitments. Collaborative dialogue can lead to mutually beneficial arrangements. Embrace flexibility: Explore opportunities for flexible work arrangements, such as remote work, flexible hours, or compressed workweeks. Flexibility can help create more space for personal pursuits and enable a better integration of work and life responsibilities. Practice mindfulness and presence: Cultivate mindfulness by being fully present in the present moment, whether you are at work or engaged in personal activities. By focusing on the task at hand, you can enhance productivity, reduce stress, and derive greater enjoyment from your experiences. Regularly reassess and adjust: Recognise that work-life balance is a dynamic process. Regularly assess your approach, considering your changing circumstances and priorities. Adjust your choices and commitments accordingly to maintain a harmonious equilibrium over time.

How to solve a problem in a structured way? The same structured approach applies to business problem statements, such as: - How to increase our crude palm oil (CPO) production? - How can we create a market for Hydrogen FCEVs in Indonesia? - How to reduce employee probation failure rates? “Many problems look complex, making it difficult to know where to start.” Why? - Because a problem is an aggregation of many components. How do most people approach a problem? Sporadically. - Sometimes we’re lucky and find the answer, but other times we're not.  - Each problem is unique, and one solution may not fit another problem or its root causes. What’s the example? - Say I have a broken lamp (it won't turn on). Easy, I just change the lamp. - But then, after a week, it stops working again. I try replacing it with a new lamp (best brand), and it fails again after another week. Now it gets interesting. What should I do? - Sporadically, we can list potential root causes:  -> Unstable voltage from the power source, Wiring issue, Corroded lamp socket, Wrong installation, Incorrect lamp wattage, etc. But how do we ensure we have listed them in a structured way, so we’re sure we have mapped all “components” of this problem? - It’s called a logic tree, with MECE (Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive) and the 80/20 rule as guidelines. But don’t jump into solving it yet. Has anyone clarified the problem first? - Is it one lamp or many lamps that are problematic? - What if you think (assume) it’s a one-lamp problem when actually it’s an all-lamps problem? - You will waste your time and energy solving the “wrong problem” and end up with the “wrong solution.” What are your thoughts on the importance of structured thinking and problem solving in today’s professional landscape? aseptamar.com --- 1) [Corporate Workshop] For readers interested in bringing my workshop to your company, feel free to message me. -Explore overwhelming feedback for my problem-solving and structured presentation workshop, through my profile or website aseptamar.com. -This includes testimonials from the Senior Executive Vice President of a major Indonesian private equity firm and a logistics tech CEO, among others. 2) [Private Class] Next session is on Saturday, August 24, 2024 -Offline/In-person, 9 am - 6 pm. -Message me if you’re interested (limited seats)

A few years ago, I had a colleague who transformed the way I think about success. He wasn’t the loudest voice in the room or the fastest to deliver results. But over time, everyone started noticing something—his consistency. Every morning, without fail, he’d spend 15 minutes reviewing his priorities. Every Friday, he’d share a short reflection with his team. Every month, he’d block two hours for self-learning. These weren’t grand gestures. They were habits—small, intentional actions repeated over time. As Head of People, I’ve seen this pattern again and again. Talent gets you noticed. But habits shape your career. They influence not just what you achieve, but how you lead, learn, and grow. The truth is, building good habits isn’t about willpower—it’s about design: Start small — one meaningful habit at a time. Anchor to what already exists — connect it to your daily routines. Be patient with yourself — progress is built on persistence, not perfection. When leaders model this, they don’t just improve themselves—they inspire teams to create a culture where growth is natural and continuous. Because in the long run, it’s not the big, one-time wins that define us. It’s the small choices we make every day. What habit will you start (or restart) this month? #Leadership #PeopleFirst #Culture #Habits #ContinuousLearning #GrowthMindset