#5: 3 strategies to avoid 'pivot burnout' (and find the time to make the progress you want)
Pivoting from academia is a second job for your already stressed life.
It’s hard to find the time to work on all the many different pieces.
Our busy daily lives and the inevitable fires that pop up make it all too easy to put off the work that will transform us.
That leaves us stuck.
Today I’m going to share the 3 strategies that kept me from pivot burnout.
When I pivoted out of academia, I was: a professor, grad program director, MA and PhD advisor, and parent (among other things) … in the first summer of Covid 19.
It was an intense time, but sticking to the game plan below saw me through it.
Say no to things that won’t accelerate your pivot. Be ruthless.
Say no to more peer-reviews, honors theses, special events, and extra committees. Right now, you must choose you.
Try to get out of any commitment that you now regret accepting. Someone else will be guilted into it, trust me.
Remind yourself: You’ll have time to volunteer for all sorts of good deeds after your pivot.
Now is the time to focus on you. That’s OK. If you don’t, other people will happily take that focus and all the benefits.
Read the book Essentialism by McKeown if you need “saying no” inspiration.
Pick the one thing that will make the most difference.
This is your “essential thing.” Work on it relentlessly.
Through coffee chats and your own research, identify the tipping points that will turn you from an interesting but passed-over candidate into one who gets an interview.
What are the biggest difference makers?
Ask your connections in the field, “What is the next area I should focus on to become a more competitive candidate.”
Once you have some options, pick the one that either seems the most impactful or most possible to you. Go all in on it.
For me, I realized the biggest difference maker would be a strong portfolio.
Yes, I could tinker with my resume. Read more blog posts. Prep for interviews. Attend yet another webinar. All these things were important. But they were not the most important. I still did these things sometimes, but I de-prioritized them in favor of the portfolio.
It became my “essential thing.” I told myself that if I could make even a few steps of progress on it in a given day, then that day was a win.
After you complete your most important thing, identify the next biggest difference maker. Repeat.
Iterate. Draft thing 1. Once done, draft thing 2. Now back to iterate on thing 1. But always have a single priority vs. being scattered.
Establish a daily time block to work on your pivot.
30 minutes. 60 minutes.Decide each day how you will make progress on your “essential thing” during that time block. Staring at a blank page counts. (Don’t doomscroll alt-ac forums, though).
I was experimenting with different approaches to bullet journaling back in 2020. I would put three things at the top of the page for each day. These were the tasks that mattered most.
Sometimes I couldn’t get all three, but I had to make progress on at least one.
Does it require an early morning or a late evening hour? Probably. Does it suck? Yes.
Will some people be more privileged and have an easier time with this compared to people in other life situations? Yep.
Run your own race.
Consistency may look different for different people. Maybe “daily” isn’t possible for you. So what is? Mondays and Wednesdays?
Use that precious time block to make small progress.
Do it every day — or whatever your cadence. Small bites.
Results will compound.
^ This approach may not suit you. But if you’re feeling stuck or overwhelmed, give it a try.
TLDR:
- Be clear with yourself about your true priority and so "no" to everything else.
- Focus your energy on the most impactful tipping point or bottleneck.
- Put in small bites of time consistently.