Member-only story
3 Ways Timeblocking Kept Me From Overworking Myself Into a Breakdown — Again.
This isn’t just a productivity technique. It’s the guardian of my sanity.
The first time I worked myself into a breakdown I was a young father, about 22 years old.
I had a full-time job as a short order cook at Denny’s and a part-time second-shift job on weekends printing computer reports and backups (back in the days of tape drives and dot-matrix printers on endless rolls of green-striped paper).
I was miserable, of course.
I had been discharged from the Marines with, to quote the career counselor, “no viable job skills outside of Croatia.” My wife was still recovering from a very dangerous pregnancy, so most of the care of our two kids was also down to me. It was hard, but I was raised to Do Whatever It Takes for my family.
So when I got the chance to work a double on Friday at Denny’s, then go to the computer job, then return to Denny’s for the morning shift, that made sense. It would be a nice chunk of money in our ever-starved bank account, after all, and a Real Man who cared for his Family would do it.
I did it. And then I fell apart.
