🔬 Life Experiment 14, 2021

Hey There.

These last two weeks were insane 10 - 16h workdays—first, the physics experiment preparations, then running the experiment and measuring. Things go wrong. The crew of 30+ people has to work in sync for things to work. It's exhausting. Physically and emotionally.

But this is all part of the package of a large nuclear physics experiment.

There's a tone of things to do, to fix, equipment is misbehaving, and any mistake can cause the whole experiment's failure.

Luckily I participate in only a few weeks like that a year. I have no clue how some can sustain 100 days of this a year. With few weeks, I'm more than happy for the year 😂

The schedule was basically: work, sleep, work, ...

It was such a busy week that even my mail inbox isn't at 0 anymore. Grrr.

🔬 Weekly experiment 13, 2021

Such workloads are not new to me. I can cope with them. I don't crack under pressure and stress. I might get a little hyped and nervous; I'm not as calm as usual. But I can perform reasonably well and deliver. Sort of switch goes off in my mind, and I enter the execution mode.

Anyone who worked with me before knows that I become a bit of a robot. With the goal in sight, I don't waver.

But I hate this state. Not in the moment when I'm all in, but afterwards when I have to enter the real world again and start to experience the overwork.

What happens when you lose track of time? You forget that you need to service your body and mind. You burn out.

I learned what my body's limitations are the hard way through several burnouts in the past.

So these days, I try to avoid crazy weeks at all costs. If I can't, I make sure that every hour or so, I take a walk, get some fresh air, drink something, eat something, go to the bathroom. Not for long, 5 min, but enough to clear my mind and stretch my legs.

Some might see this "practice" as selfish, but truth be told, it's essential that we all take care of our mental and physical well being. Because it's when we are tired that we start making mistakes, get irritated quickly, and all of that then starts to spill on the rest of the team.

Sure sometimes, when something is super urgent, needs to be finished ASAP, we push through. I mean, you can try and plan everything, but you really can't. That's life. It would be really cool if you could plan it all, though.

After a "push", make sure to get as much rest as possible. Why do I follow the mentality:

Before you can take care of anyone else, you need to take care of yourself.

Because it's true.

How to "capture" yourself?

If you never experienced proper burnout before, you will fail to recognise it. When people tell you to slow down, you'll be like: Nah, I'm fine.

And you might actually be OK. Your body can survive a little higher tempo than your peers. But we all have a threshold, and once we cross it, the whole world comes crashing down.

The funny thing is that in stressful situations, you can immediately see who can take care of their own mental health. If people are unfamiliar with the stress handling skill set, they will burst out, their behaviour will drastically change under pressure.

But if you see a persona that is somehow happy, energised and jokes all the time despite all the stress, look closely. They have probably few tricks up their sleeve. Ask them:

How come you are so calm?

In 99% of situations, they'll say I learned the hard way how to manage stress.

Most people, when stressed, won't even notice that others around them are calm and energised. They will be just off and have no clue why. Matt D'Avella is one of the semi-famous YouTubers/people that openly talks about anxiety in his video I still have anxiety . I mean, if this guy with an audience of several million isn't afraid of sharing his story, you can probably share yours with at least your journal 😉

It's time to do some cleaning.

Thinking 🤔 experiments

We did a lot in the last two weeks:

But in the haste of the situation, we tend to forget to stop and reflect. That's why I do thinking through writing. To reflect and gain clarity. I take care of my mental health through writing.

Writing is like Mr Musculo for the mind. It allows you to capture the state of your mind on paper. Analyse-it and figure out what's going on.

For example:

How do we detect that we are burning out?

Well, first, you need to know how much you can sustain before you break. To be frank, that's the best assessment idea that comes to my mind. Yet fucking dangerous.

Then you need to observe your body's responses, tiredness, irritation, stress... If you start exceeding the threshold that makes you uncomfortable, pause. If possible, stop.

My observation system for how much I'm burned out is journaling. By writing down how I feel, I can spot pretty quickly regularly if I'm burning the candle.

Now, of course, the are other ways to handle this. Some do long walks, play video games, think, talk about it. Get buried in the physical labour around the house.

I would say that writing allows you to process the baggage that's piling up the most brutally and most effectively. But again, it's up to you to pick a process that works for you. Just make sure to take care of yourself.

Want to have a discussion on thinking experiments? Sign up for the one on one session here . I promise I don't bite.

Don't forget to experiment and cheers till the next experiment.

Ziga

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