“Life runs in rhythms. Every ‘more’ needs a ‘less’.”
(Richard Seidl)
Today I broke my fast. After days of nothing but water, juice and broth, I had solid food again. An apple and a pear. They tasted indescribably good. I fast every year. It gives me clarity. Energy. A reset. A way of getting out of habits and the like.
Fittingly, today was the first sunny day in ages, and you can feel the sun getting stronger. The birds are singing and the first spring flowers are coming up. Here, too, a new cycle begins, one that repeats every year. Look at nature and you see these rhythms everywhere. The seasons, the phases of the moon, or simply day and night, rain and sun. And they exist in our own lives, too. Highs are followed by lows. And then highs again.
But in everyday life, we allow this less and less. This still needs doing, and that too. We jump from one Teams call to the next. A quick sandwich at lunch, and the roller coaster keeps going. One last look at the phone before bed, and first thing in the morning, straight back to it. Always higher, faster, further. We know it isn’t good for us. We just don’t act on it. We happily ignore the extreme consequences (burnout, depression and so on). Won’t happen to me. I’ll relax on the weekend. Except the weekends are already full: kids’ birthday parties, tax returns, Netflix. No pause. No room to breathe.
Small Rituals for a Digital Detox
It doesn’t have to be a full fast. We can create small moments of calm throughout the day, again and again:
- Don’t check your phone until after breakfast, and put it far away early in the evening.
- Close all tabs and programs when you finish work and start fresh in the morning.
- Leave gaps between your Teams calls.
- Go outside for a walk at lunchtime.
- Turn off the radio and simply don’t let yourself be bombarded for a while.
- Sit with silence (sooo hard).
- Turn off notifications.
- Use screen time limits, for social media for example.
- …
Just try a few of these and let a break be a break. No reading, no phone, no other distractions. I have come to believe that this kind of self-care will be indispensable in the years ahead. Of course we have to get to grips with AI, of course we have to write and work through our user stories and get our tasks done. But anyone who runs flat out all the time and never takes a rest will burn out.
Sprint Fasting for Agile Teams
And maybe the same would do one or two projects some good. Instead of pushing even more stories into the backlog: just don’t. Take a sprint off, one in which the team relaxes, finds clear thoughts again and does nothing. Sprint fasting, if you like. And then start the next sprint with new, fresh energy.
Sounds crazy?
Yes. But better that than following the crowd into burnout.
So for now, just this: take a break.
