Thank you for sharing!

I went through a corporate buyout and was laid off from my last job. The company changed direction and didn’t need the whole branch I was in.

I’m happy you’ve found your rhythm. That sounds great!

“Sabbatical” is a new concept to me as well. Where I’m from, they are unpaid.

I do subscribe to the idea that you should definitely provide a sufficient value to earn a paycheck and I do like the idea to first look inwards for the problem. I don’t think what you described is a sustainable way to live though. Expectations are external and you don’t have much, if any, control over them. If “not being at 100% of expectations is the same as suicide” for a long period of time, than that mindset itself is suicide. How can you always meet a 100% of something you have no control over?

Don’t get me wrong, I know people’s situations are vastly different and sometimes you do what you have to do at a given time to survive. But if you operate like that for a long-time, I don’t think your psyche will stay intact.

Thank you for sharing!

Thanks for sharing!

30% more productive sounds great!

Thank you!

I should probably do something similar and mute all my notifications from work after work-hours. Sometimes people like to explain tasks for me in the evening to not forget them the next day. It really doesn’t help with unwinding.

Thank you for sharing!

I like your mental game! I’ve been doing something similar but maybe not as in-depth.

Thank you for sharing!

I do try to remind myself that work is always there waiting for me. Even with the unmet weekly goals the work just transfers to the next week.

As for hobbies - I love drawing as well. I used to do it regularly. I do have unfinished sketchbooks but my workplace isn’t somewhere I can really draw. I probably should actively try to pursue that again. It’s somewhat therapeutic and takes my mind off of things.

Thanks again!

Yeah, that’s sound advice! Thank you very much!

Thank you!

Thank you very much for the insight!
The last paragraph is what I was suspecting from the start.

I appreciate your response!

Best of luck to you too!

You pinpointed all the pain points at my workplace. We are a startup, understaffed, in my opinion, and long estimates are frowned upon. Our main project is what we were hired for, so transferring is also not an option.

Thanks for chiming in!

I do take short breaks (one or two days at the end or the beginning of the week) but not too often, because we are understaffed, and my vacation would mean more work load for my colleagues.

Thank you for the advice!

Caring less might certainly help. It just feels wrong to me to take the paycheck and not put my heart into the work. Maybe some kind of a balance could be found.

Thank you for sharing your experience!

I’ve never seriously kept a thought diary. I’ve kept a “thought dump” but I might try to write down more thoughtful notes and later try to go over them more critically.

I especially like your idea of keeping regular contact with management about delays. It reminded me that I’ve actually done that a couple of times and it really felt liberating. Like… taking actual responsibility and not hiding it, but at the same time… somehow sharing the responsibility because you obviously can’t handle the task at hand alone.

Thank you sincerely for this comment!

I appreciate your advice and I’ve added a bit more information! Thank you!