Protecting your energy while work is going well
Nicola Tik

Right now things feel manageable. You are on top of your work, your energy is holding up, and you feel more or less like yourself. That is a good place to be, and it is worth a moment's thought, because staying well is a lot easier than rebuilding once things have slipped.

Why it is worth thinking about now

It is tempting to only pay attention to how you are coping when things get hard, but the steady periods are exactly when it is easiest to build in habits that keep you well. Protecting your resilience while you have it in the bank takes far less effort than trying to recover it later. This is not about waiting for a crash or expecting one, it is about keeping the good balance you have got going. A little attention now pays off quietly over time.

Keep doing what is working

When things are going well, it helps to notice what is actually keeping you steady, so you can hold onto it when work gets busier.

You could try:

Build in a bit of buffer

Good stretches are a great time to build a little slack into how you work, so a busy patch does not tip you straight into overload.

You could try:

Staying well is worth the attention

Feeling good at work is not something you have to leave to chance. A bit of ongoing care for your energy and boundaries helps the good stretches last and softens the harder ones when they come. Enjoying things while they are going well, and looking after what keeps them that way, sit perfectly well together.

In short