Ness Labs: What to Do When You’re in a Functional Freeze 🥶

Small, low-stakes changes are less taxing on your depleted resources. Adopt an experimental mindset by trying one tiny experiment each week: perhaps a five-minute morning meditation, a quick walk during lunch, or turning off notifications for an hour each evening.

Start by accepting that your energy has limits and that recovery is a legitimate need. This might mean deliberately scheduling downtime, setting boundaries around work hours, or saying no to additional commitments.

Resist the urge to immediately implement an ambitious self-improvement plan. Instead, acknowledge your current limited capacity with compassion. If you’re constantly exhausted, fighting that reality will only create more frustration.

Look for recurring patterns: Do you consistently postpone personal activities? Do certain work tasks drain you more than others? Are there moments when you feel more alive and present? This awareness isn’t about self-judgment but rather about gathering data that can inform your next steps.

Set aside time for an honest assessment of how you spend your energy and attention. Practice self-anthropology by taking field notes, tracking your activities and energy levels for a day, noting when you feel engaged versus depleted.

Breaking free requires deliberate action, but not in the form of big changes that will only add to your overwhelm. Instead, it involves small, intentional shifts that will gradually rebuild your capacity for self-directed growth.