This article has been written by AllBright Australia member + guest-contributor, Tess Robinson, founder + creative director of Smack Bang.

‘Are these people crazy?!’ was the first thought that came to mind as I read the blog title, ‘How to achieve a work/life balance in three easy steps’. 

Three easy steps and the key to happiness, balance and sweet apple pie is in your hands? Sure, and I’m a five-time world pole vaulting champion. 

As I continued, it came as no surprise that the blog post didn’t deliver me the sacred position of the Holy Grail and open the heavens above to let me into a world of enlightenment. It did however, make me think about the never ending tug-of-war between ambition and mental clarity and what effect being overworked takes on our wellbeing. 

As a working mother juggling the throes of two young kids and two growing businesses, I’ve spent some time in the hellish pits of burn-out. Not the most charming place I’ve visited, but I’m grateful to have been there, done that and bought the tee-shirt. It may sound cliche, but those moments of complete and utter burn-out make the moments of achievement that much sweeter. Those moments have taught me to be grateful for the ebbs and flows of ‘busyness’ and to be patient with myself and my life. I now know what serious stress looks like (as I'm sure we all do), and can flag the warning signs with myself much sooner these days. 

When I was a little girl, I used to tell my mum that I didn’t want to go to sleep because it was a ‘waste of time’. I’ve always been a Type A personality that prides itself on ‘doing’ rather than being. I’ve spent a huge part of my life thinking I have to do all the things, all the time. Things really hit a feverish pitch when I launched my first business, a creative agency called Smack Bang. And we all know how that goes: I began creating more work for myself than I’d ever be able to accomplish and there was a LOT to learn -- tax to deal with, staff to pay, clients to win, a never ending inbox to attend to, media channels to manage, strategy to plan, phone calls to return, a team to build, invoices to be sent, money to make, products to update, and parking fines to be paid. The to-do list was endless — As it seems is often the case; the more work you do, the more work you create. 

What is a requirement for success, in the modern world, is that you give a damn about everything. Which is good, great, beautiful in fact… but also incredibly tiring after a while. 

I guess the thing is, I am so passionate about what I do and still feel so excited and aligned with my ‘job description’, that I could work around the clock ‘til the early hours of the morning and feel fulfilled, great, groovy in fact. But there is one small problem -- I am at war with my mind and my body, (and not to mention the needs of my young family). Whilst my brain says, ‘Keep going, this is fun, hallelujah let’s throw back espresso #7 and keep moving!’, my body screams ‘We need to slow down!’.

Of course navigating any career path requires hard work, blood, sweat and a little too often, tears. You have to commit to the cause, put in the work and make it happen. And every now and then, perhaps you do have to stay back, learn html via Youtube clips and prioritise your working life above those other areas. But often the result of slogging it out day after day, week after week, and not prioritising your wellbeing, is a big rude shock that slaps us in the face one morning when we just can’t actually get out of bed. No-one can go full throttle forever, trust me, I’ve tried.

So, how do you survive when even your coffee needs a coffee? 

Here’s what I’ve found helps to get some healthy perspective back into my life when I’ve overdone it.

Cut your hours back.

I’d really love to meet the person who decided that the majority of us have to work five days a week with only two day left for adventure and fun. How can we carve out that so-called ‘work life balance’ with that kind of timetable? Sometimes, the best thing you can do is take back control of your time as much as you can. Gain some support by sharing the workload within your team or maybe even take a day off  to get yourself back on track. 

Learn to leave it at work.

This is a hard task to master, but when the time to work has come to an end try to switch off for the night or weekend. There is no use attempting to recharge if all of your ‘rest’ time is spent thinking or stressing about work. I think working this muscle is even more important in the age of remote work post COVID, when your computer is fortunately, but also unfortunately, just the next room away. 

Don’t try to do everything.

You only have 24 hours in each day. Don’t try to fit in 1,000 tasks. Learning how to prioritise the must do tasks each day is a much more efficient and realistic way of tackling your workload. Slash every non-urgent item off your list and just do the bare minimum for a week. Even if you technically have more time in the day, you can now spend this time really nailing the things that matter most. They call it working smarter, not harder for a reason. 

Focus on the bright spots.

Stress and burnout can cast a dark cloud over our work lives. In these moments try to remember the reasons why you love what you do and the life you live. Maybe you have really great colleagues. Or a really supportive business partner. Or the loveliest, most reassuring partner at home. Or just a dog who can listen to all your problems and not talk back? As much as you can, try to focus on the bright spots in your day.

Take a holiday.

Walk away from your life. Even if it’s just for a few days. Escape is good for the soul. We put ourselves under so much pressure and sometimes the best way to vent that pressure is to pop the lid, let the steam out, and go someplace else for a little while. 

Take an email hiatus. 

Set an autoresponder and drop offline. We’ll miss you, but we won’t die if you don’t write back to our email. It takes a bucketload of self control, but taking a day off your emails might just give you the time and space you need to recalibrate.

Bring some silence into your life. 

Take five minutes to sit quietly, calmly and peacefully. Breathe deeply and mindfully. Maybe you meditate. Maybe you listen to the sounds. Maybe you just stare at the wall and wish you were someplace else. Either way, sit still, come back to yourself and give your brain the chance to be silent. You may just find you have your very best ideas in these moments. 

Ditch the shoulds.

Rid your vocab of the word ‘should’, it is toxic. We place expectations of ourselves that we “should do this, should do that”. The expectations society sets for us are intense and often unrealistic. Drop ‘should’ ASAP and replace it with some more positive self talk. You’ll be surprised how much further this strategy can take you.