Burnout Plagues Workaholics and Workaphobes Alike
Burnout is one of the often-cited causes of pastoral turnover in US churches
and ministries. Burnout happens when a minister gets sick and tired of his and her work. On average, this happens to pastors every 4 years (of course, these numbers are old; interestingly the average minister stays in his or her job as senior pastor for 7.7 years), forcing them out of their current position into another ministry or career.
There are two internal states that lead to burnout: workaholism and workaphobia. While each of us will move back and forth between these two poles over the course of our working lives, we probably have general characteristics of one or the other that define the majority of our work time. Either we can’t seem to stop working, or we can’t seem to start.
While these problems may seem quite different, they are the same in one crucial way: both workaholism and workaphobia show a lack of peace about our work. We workaholics do not believe that we can delegate our work to anyone else – if the ship needs cleaning, we think that we can do it best. We workaphobes, on the other hand, cannot find the edges of our work and so alternatingly go comatose from sensory overload or flit from fire to fire, trying to keep the ship afloat but neglecting to look toward the horizon.
Neither workaholics nor workaphobes know how to practice peace. Both tendencies need to know how to schedule rest first.
Schedule Rest First
Reality drives ministers doubly insane. The five steps to a peaceful ministry day are:
- Schedule Rest first
- Driving second
- Maintenance third
- Due dates fourth
- “Important” items last
Scheduling rest first is the most important (and, therefore, the most difficult) part of practicing peace. Scheduling rest first cuts to the heart of the twin disorders of workaholism and workaphobia. Scheduling rest first embodies God’s way of dealing with the world, and symbolically and really humbles our grand notions about our effectiveness in the world.
Scheduling rest first has a paradoxical effect: it causes the workaholic to stop and forces the workaphobe to start. When we practice this discipline, it begins to infuse our day with peace.
The Rubber and the Road
Pull out a sheet of paper and apply this general rule: Schedule 10 minutes of rest for every 1 hour of work. Lunch does not count. If you like working in hour-long chunks, schedule a break of ten minutes at the end of every hour. If you have like hour-and-a-half chunks, schedule fifteen minutes at the end of every block. Have fun, and feel free to mix and match the lengths of time.
Next, schedule one hour for lunch. If you are not working during lunch, take it off. Get away from your computer and get some rest (for some ideas, see below).
Finally, schedule when you will quit for the day. This may be the most important part because it is easy both for the workaholic and the workaphobe to feel like they are never done with their work. Choosing to be done for the day is a large part of practicing peace . . . that and your significant relationships will thank you.
You should jot out your schedule on the sheet of paper, something like this. The summer is low-key for campus workers, so, as an example, here is the schedule I have been keeping:
9-10:30 Work
10:30-45 Rest
10:45-12:15 Work
12:15-1:15 Lunch
1:15-2:45 Work
2:45-3:15 Rest
3:15-4:45 Work
4:45-5:00 Rest
5:00-5:30 Clean things up and go home.
The amazing and counter-intuitive thing I have found about scheduling rest first is that I have been more productive and peaceful in my ministry life than I have ever been before.
Once you have set your schedule for the day, set an alarm for the beginning of your next break. This will free your mind from having to watch the clock and free it to pay attention to the tasks you have set for yourself. When the alarm goes off, set it again for the end of the break. This will have the same effect – you can pay attention to your rest (and really rest!) while not having to worry about when you will need to start again.
And when you rest, really rest. Do whatever you need to do to experience some peace in your day. If you work in an office, this would be an ideal time to go chat with your co-workers or grab a cup of coffee (but take your alarm with you!). Pray. Read a novel. Take a walk. Listen to some music. Sing. Read something funny. Do what it takes to experience God’s peace.
And then, when the alarm goes off, get back to work. You will be amazed at the results.
The five steps are cumulative, and you will have an easier time adoptingthem if you take it slowly. Make the effort to practice scheduling rest first every day this week, and leave your experiences (good or bad) in the comments section!
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. How can I schedule rest first when I do not have enough time in my day as it is?
A. This is the workaholic’s quintessential question, and it’s a good one. We will in the next several weeks be addressing this question in more detail, specifically in relationship to getting out of debt to your work. Briefly, you will always have enough time to do what God has called you to do, and I believe that God has called you to peace.
Q. What about the people who say that I do not work enough as it is?
A. This tends to be the question of the workaphobe. In time, we will address getting buy-in from the leadership in your church or your ministry supervisor for new patterns of work and rest. Many of these leaders are workaholics who generally feel that workaphobes do not know how to keep their promises. (If we workaphobes were honest, we would agree that we make more promises than we either keep or even remember.) In the meantime, be honest with the people to whom you are responsible for your work and assure them that scheduling rest first is the first step to increased productivity and responsibility in your work. Being intentional will go a long way to easing their concerns.
Q. What if I can’t find a good way to stop working at the end of the day?
A. We will get to this soon. In the meantime, check out this fantastic post at Cal Newport’s blog, Study Hacks.
