Amy and Andy Neary discuss managing overwhelm during lockdown. Amy argues for sitting with loneliness and boredom instead of filling every moment with virtual hangouts. Andy tells managers to cut unnecessary Zoom meetings, shorten the ones you keep, and let people work alone.
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Good afternoon and welcome back to highly Caffeinated conversations with Andy and Amy, episode 16, so I want to talk. A friend of mine had sent me her calendar for work because she was like, Amy, I'm feeling so overwhelmed with all these work things that they're throwing at me on top of having the kids home and trying to help homeschool them. Her calendar had not only the regular usual weekly meetings they would have, but, but it was filled with like this book club and this happy hour meetup and this fun time and all these other things. And she's like, I just can't do all of these things. Like, we never had this before. So I want to talk about. Andy will talk about the business aspect of that. But, you know, in this time of pause, there is the lesson to be learned of sitting with yourself. Sitting with loneliness, sitting with boredom and the uncomfortableness that comes with that, but the growth that comes out of that. Asking yourself why you feel alone when you feel certain feelings, are you giving yourself time to process that internally and figuring out what this means in your life, are you quickly just reaching to fill it with like a book club or a conversation with a friend or I'm just going to scroll on Instagram, filling it with stuff? It is in those times of uncomfortableness and boredom and loneliness that we learn things about ourselves that make us grow. So instead of like, it is important to connect with friends and family, but if you're doing it just to do it, or you're doing it to avoid dealing with whatever is going on in your mind, I want you to pause and kind of like learn to not continue to what I call seek outside of ourselves for solutions to that. You know the answer. You can help yourself sometimes.
And if you're a team leader, an organization, this same holds true for you as well. Do not overwhelm your team with Zoom get togethers, whether that's a meeting, a happy hour, whatever it is. Number one, quit holding 60 minute meetings on Zoom, which should last 15. If you want your people to be productive right now, actually teach them how to get more done in less time. They have kids, pets, spouses that are distracting them. You've got to be okay with the fact they are going to be distracted. Don't expect them to work the same amount of time that they did while they were in the office. Number two, all these events, ways to connect are great, but do you realize you are literally exhausting your people by having them jump on Zoom as often as you are? Literally, they're battling the energy of their desktop trying to connect with people, and they're ending the day exhausted, so they're literally less productive than you want them to be. And they are actually taking longer to get their stuff done, so they're working long into the night. So our advice is one, get okay with being alone. Getting uncomfortable with your thoughts. Amy said it. That's where growth happens. And number two, if you run a team, quit exhausting your people with all these meetings. Yes, we want to connect, but at the same time, we have to learn to be alone, too. So until tomorrow, enjoy today. Live today.
