Imagine its 3:00 AM in the morning, you've had a few hours
sleep and you wake up thinking I haven't put my minutes on the
system. That was me years ago when I
found it difficult to switch off and anything that was on my To
Do List would pop into my mind late at night or even wake me up
from my sleep. I want to talk to you today
about switching off and how to do that effectively so you
regain back some of your time and minimise that cortisol, that
stress hormone that keeps rising up as you're thinking about all
the things that you need to do. Let's talk.
Very soon I am going to be releasing my brand new social
work coaching online hub where you can access audios, videos
and downloadables to support you with your personal and
professional development. We're going to be starting a
brand new community and I want you to be part of it.
So stay tuned to future episodes where I'll share more about
that. And of course, as always, check
out the links in the podcast notes.
Isn't it amazing how as the social workers can multitask
until the cows come home? That's a saying over here in the
UK and essentially means we can do that over and over and over
again and multitask next to multitasking, have all these
tabs open on our computers and in our minds and still keep
going. As a result of that, though,
it's difficult to switch off. I can name countless times I've
woken up in the middle of the night thinking of all the things
that I needed to do, should have done, or needed to call someone
back. One of the most difficult things
I found as a social worker was getting to a place where I
accepted everything that I want to do can't be completed that
day or that week. There's an element of acceptance
that needs to happen as you enter into the world of social
work because there's always going to be something to do with
crisis intervention and with all the different things that
happened in the day or the changes that happened in the
day. Coming to a place of acceptance
around what you cannot achieve is part of the process.
So when we talk about switching off from work, we first of all
have to consider what the benefits are.
And I know most of this is inferred, but I'm going to tell
you anyway. Improve mental health and
physical health. When you switch those tabs off
in your mind, you actually get to do the one thing you need
most in this job, which is to rest.
Rest is going to give you that enhanced productivity and focus
you need when you're at work. And of course, it's going to
serve the relationships you have personally and professionally.
It's going to serve them well. I want to share a quote here.
Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few
minutes, including you. I love that quote.
But somehow in our minds, if we just keep going, we'll somehow
get everything done in that day. And we know it won't.
But we somehow make up in our minds that that's exactly what's
going to happen if you just keep going.
But what we do know is just keeping going can actually be
ineffective. Now, I know there's challenges
in attempting to find ways to switch off and simply just going
out with friends or turning on some music, it may not do it for
you. Let's keep it real.
We're all individuals. We all have different
responsibility, personal responsibilities, our minds and
our bodies work differently to each other.
So this is not a blanket approach.
I'm just giving you some food for thought that may spark an
idea for you that's going to work for you.
But in the midst of thinking about what it is you could do,
we've also got to consider the challenges in making that
happen. And I'm not talking about, oh,
you end up working more overtime.
I'm talking about what you can do.
What are your relaxation techniques?
Now, I know there is a lot of research around managing your
nervous system. And when your nervous system
becomes attuned to a certain level of stress and pace, that
high pace that's required to, to keep up in social work and
support your families effectively, it can continually
seek that cycle, therefore making it familiarity.
And this familiarity then becomes a cycle.
And if we're not careful, it can become a hidden cycle.
And therefore you will struggle to find ways to calm down
because your nervous system is used to a particular pattern.
And there are ways you can calm your nervous system down and
really begin to work on yourself internally to create that
disconnect between work and your time and your personal life.
And one way that you can do that is through breathing techniques.
There's several apps out there which will support you in
finding good solid time effective.
Because I know as social workers, we are all strapped for
time breathing techniques. That's going to help you.
That's going to help calm down your nervous system.
There's exercises that can help with that, doing stretches and
deep breathing or meditation as some may call it.
I know there is an app at the moment called Balance.
I haven't used it and I'm not endorsing them.
I don't know how it works, but I've seen an advertisement that
is encouraging people to join free for a whole year to access
their services, which will support in managing stress,
overwhelm, etcetera, etcetera. There's headspace.
I definitely have used that before.
I'm not endorsing or advertising them, but I've used that years
ago and that was a massive help to me at the time.
So perhaps headspace might be worth.
There's ways in which you're resourceful.
We're all social workers. Find the resource that works for
you. Take 10 minutes and do a little
bit of research on social media or on on the Internet and find a
way, find a resource that's going to help you with this.
Because social work, there's no deep breathing in social work.
You must be joking. You've got to get your Cape on
and be flying out that door sharpish to support your
children and families and make things happen.
That's keeping your nervous system right up there.
And This is why I'm inviting you now to think of ways to calm
yourself down. There's a quote by Plato who
says the greatest wealth is to live content with little.
It's an interesting quote, I would say, given that the task
of social worker is by far not little.
But in order to disconnect from your work you have to minimise
and simplify. Let's now think of some
actionable steps that you can take to switch off starting
today. You've got no excuse.
It's Monday, right? So you're starting it today.
OK, for those who can, and I can't shout, so I'm saying it in
capital letters. For those who can set a specific
end of the daytime, your preferable time.
Now what I used to do was build in overtime to that end time.
So my end time when I was working one of my last jobs was
let me think 5:00 or was it 530? I can't remember one of the two.
So what I would do is build in 30 minutes overtime and I would
have an alarm that goes off 30 minutes after the end of the
day. And the alarm had a message.
I'm going to share the message with you now.
And I want you to think perhaps of, of including this in your
end of day routine. The message said, be there for
me now. And I put loads of pretty emojis
next to it. So it was really stark when it
came up on my screen. And it made me feel joy.
It made me feel happy. And it made me feel like, OK,
come on, Liz, it's time to close the laptop and have your time.
Have your personal time. Because rest is just as
important as showing up. So think of a message that you
can send to yourself, that an alarm that you can set that has
a specific inspirational message.
Maybe it's a quote, maybe it's something you want to tell
yourself. Maybe it's something to increase
your confidence, whatever it may be.
But I want you to think of that message.
Get that alarm set or get that e-mail sent.
Get it on a schedule and set the time 30 minutes, 45 minutes
after your end time. That means your contract end
time and try your very best at a minimum of two to three times a
week to make that happen. If you can only manage once a
week where you finish on time where that alarm goes off, that
is still progress. Don't take those moments for
granted. What is your activity after
work? I want you to think of that now.
You may have children who think me time.
The only me time I get is once they're in the bath and they've
had bedtime and then I crash on the sofa.
That might be the case. So perhaps for you on your way
home before you drive or when you park up at your at your
drive when you get home, perhaps that's when you put on that
two-minute meditation app that I've referred to wherever you
can find the time. We haven't even talked about
lunch breaks yet. Let's bring that into the mix.
And don't laugh at me, lunch breaks do exist.
Not that I had them that often. So I'm not speaking to you from
a place where I had it every day, but I set myself a plan and
I made a decision. Three times this week, minimum,
I'm having a lunch break. Whether it's 3 o'clock, 4:00 or
12:00, it's happening. Whether it's 30 minutes, 40
minutes, or I have my full hour, it is happening.
Think about small pockets of time.
If you can't take the hour out for the day, 30 minutes.
If you can't do that, 15. If you can't do that, 10.
Whatever it is, make sure you're building in that time that is
for you. That enables you to disconnect.
Now, I know in general, social work requires so much of you
that some of the things I'm talking about like ending on
time and having lunch breaks. We know it's inferred that is
unlikely to happen every single day of every week for the year.
But what you can do is work with what you have.
Work with what is considered a minimum for you.
A minimum of one lunch break a week, A minimum of 15 minutes
away from the computer per day, A minimum of leaving on time
once a week. So then you're not building
yourself up to fail because we know lunch breaks and ending on
time is unlikely every single day of the week.
So what can we do with what we have?
Link that to what is your need, what do you need?
What's going to work for you? Don't forget, this is your
responsibility, right? We know organisations have a
responsibility to us and our well-being, but you're the one
who has to take the action. You're the one who may have to
raise something in supervision to say that you're too stressed
right now. You need support.
Communicating your boundaries to yourself and to others.
It's a skill and it's something you'll have to continue.
Work at fail, work at win, work at fail, and just keep going
until you've got the right boundaries in place that support
you to thrive in the job that you're in.
And lastly, don't forget to take your holidays.
I'm going to tell you this very brief story.
When I started my first two years in social work, I did not
have a break until year 2. And just as we were entering
into year two, my manager said to me, you haven't had a break.
And by the time the next annual leave comes around, I'm going to
demand I'm commanding you to make sure you've had two weeks
by the time that happens. She literally begged me and I
tell you something, it hadn't even entered my mind to have a
break. I had a day off here and there.
Of course I had bank holidays. I'd have two days off here or
three days off there, but not a full 2 weeks to disconnect.
And from that moment, I made a conscious effort to do so.
I want you to be thinking about these things because this is
what's going to help maintain, help maintain you and of course,
maintain the relationships professionally and personally.
Because if you don't pour into you, who else is going to do it?
That you have enough left to pour out for someone else.
I trust this has been useful for you and I will see you next
week. God bless.