The Traveling Introvert

Hello and welcome to the traveling introvert. Today I want to talk about accountability. It’s come up a lot recently with some of the work that I’ve been doing with clients and some of the work I’ve been doing with organizations. And it can come from things such as people saying, no one holds managers accountable. It could be, I need to do this thing, but I have no one to keep track of. Or I have a client working on a project, and I’m the kind of person that doesn’t get stuff done, unless there’s a huge time limit, or a milestone that I need to hit by a certain date. They need that external force, that validation, that accountability. And here’s thing, the way life is set up, we get toward accountability at an early age in school and University and at work, if you work for your if you work for a company, there is external accountability, because you have a manager. But if you work for yourself, or there’s some personal stuff, it’s really kind of not as easy to get accountability. And accountability is really vital for success in life.

Being accountable requires that you take responsibility for your actions and are able to answer for their outcomes. And it’s a really, really crucial trait and thing to have, not just in your personal life, but in your professional life as well. And so today I want to talk about six ways that you can be more accountable.

Set personal and professional goals. When you have defined goals, it’s far easier to be held accountable for your actions. If you don’t have goals, it’s easy to get kind of sidetracked and go after the shiny thing, and not really accomplish what you wanted to. Having realistic and achievable goals will help you stay on track. While at the same time giving you something to strive for.

And speaking of staying on track, it’s also one thing that you can do is track your progress. That way you know how close you’re getting to said goal. Right? This will help you stay accountable to yourself and see how far you’ve come. We’re really good at setting goals and not realizing the work that we’ve done to get there and sort of looking back, and we’re viewing and patting ourselves on the back that,” hey, I’m a hit this goal at this time, but I did all of this other work towards it”. You can track your progress in any way you want. In a notebook on an app like whatever works for you, but keeping track is key.

Another thing can be, tell someone about your goals. Telling others about your goals. Trick your mind and makes it a little bit more real and help you stay accountable. And it’s really helpful to choose someone who supports and encourages you. On one hand it could also be like, it could be family member or friend, or it could be good to pick someone who is very far removed, so you feel extra accountable to them. You can join a group or a class related to your goal, so that you are also surrounded by unlike mandated people. Tell somewhat about your goal, your actions.

Another thing you can do is create consequences for yourself. Now, if you find it difficult to be countable to yourself, maybe you can create consequences for not meeting your goals. Maybe you could give yourself a set amount of time to complete a task. And if you don’t, you have to do something that you’d rather not do. Maybe run a certain amount of laps or clean something. I don’t whatever it might be, creating consequences for yourself can work for some people. So, give it a try.

Another thing to help yourself, help you stay accountable, could be to set deadlines. If you want to be more accountable at work normally, someone will set deadlines for you. A project manager, a manager, manager, whoever might be, will help set deadlines. So, in your personal life, you should also set deadlines. It works. It will help you stay on track and avoid procrastination. When developing timelines and setting deadlines, be realistic and give yourself enough time to complete the task. If you go ahead and are unrealistic with your milestone setting, or your goal setting, it will help you feel kind of unmotivated and overwhelmed, and then you won’t want to do the thing. So be careful when you are setting deadlines.

And another thing you can do is find an accountability partner. This is someone who will motivate you to stick your goals and never get off track. Choose someone who has similar goals as working towards the same thing. You can meet up with your accountability partner regularly and check in with each other and offer support.

Again, accountability is a necessary trait to have to help you sort of get things done. And so hopefully these tips have been helpful and will help you be more accountable for your actions.

Thank you for listening. This is Janice at thecareerinrovert.com, helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.

Hello and welcome to the traveling introvert. Today I want to talk about living by your core values. So, here’s the thing, hopefully, if I ask you, what are your core values? You have an idea of what those might be. Your personal core values are thing that you believe are most important in life. These principles guide and dictate how you live your life and how you make decisions. Developing your personal core values is a really important exercise that can help you clarify what is most important to you. Knowing your personal core values ensures that you commit better decisions, set boundaries and help you live a far more, sort of, authentic feeling in life. And so, if you don’t know what your core values are right now, that’s OKAY. There are ways to kind of, and I’m going to talk about ways to develop and to sort of help you live by your personal core values. And these might change over time. Don’t think that because you’ve OKAY, I’ve, I’ve got core values check, and I should live by them. They may change just because of the world around your things that happen. But first thing to do is clarify what’s most important to you.

Developing your core values as an important first step. But how exactly do you accomplish this? Core values guide how you live your life and make decisions. There are many ways to develop your core values. One way is to think about what you believe in and what’s most important to you. What about, what do you stand for? What do you value most in life? Another way to think about developing your core values is to look at your past behavior. What principles have you consistently upheld in your life? Once you developed your personal core values, it’s really important to let them be, sort of north star, guide you. It’s important to live by them. And this means making decisions based on your values and setting. And setting boundaries based on your values and living in alignment with your values. This will help you make better decisions, right?

One of the benefits of developing and living your personal core values is that it will help you make better decisions. When you know what your core values are, you can make decisions based on those values. They can help you avoid making decisions that are not in line or in tune with what’s most important to you and guide you down a different path. Decision making therefore becomes much easier when you know what you stand for. When you clearly understand your core values, you can use these to guide all your decision making and any decision-making process that you create. It can help making tough choices with confidence and clarity. Not only that, it helps you set boundaries. I’ve always talked about, as an introvert, how important boundaries are. And setting boundaries help you protect yourself from people and situations. It can help you identify relationships that are not healthy for you. If a relationship is not in line with your core values, it might be time to set some boundaries, or even end the relationship. And part of this is when you’re clear about what’s important to you, you then start to breathe life into those values that are quarter you and help you avoid your living a life that feels little off a little inauthentic or out of alignment with your values. And then for living within this alignment, you’ll find more meaning of purpose in your life. When you live a life that is true to your values, you’re more like to feel fulfilled and satisfied.

Now, on the other side, living by your core values, can sometimes mean making sacrifices. For example, there may be a time where you must give something up because you want to uphold your values. This can be difficult sometimes, but it often necessary to help you live a life that is true to your values. And don’t get me wrong, not all sacrifices are equal. Some may be small, such as giving up a material possession, how the sacrifices such as giving up a relationship or a job might be far more significant. But all sacrifices require you to give up something to live by your true values and stand by your values.

Now, when you have these values and you know what they are on your crystal clear on them, there will be challenges. There will be occasions that prove difficult to uphold your values. You may be tempted to give up or cave in to pressure. But if you want to live by your values, you should be aware that these challenges will come up. They are not always negative. They can actually help you grow and become stronger. So even though challenges may be complex, they can ultimately help you lead a more fulfilling life. So just talking about that, these are ways that can support you in developing and living by your personal core values. And this, in return, were enabled you to lead a more fulfilling life.

Thank you for listening. This is Janice at thecareerintrovert.com, helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.

Hello and welcome to the traveling introvert. Today, I’ve talked about Burnout in the past, but today I want to talk about why it is so common, the commonality of burnout, why almost every person that you talk to in a room will have experienced burnout in some way, shape or form, during their lifetime. And right now, more people the most probably experiencing burnout within the past two to three years.

According to dictionary.com, burnout is a state of physical, mental and emotional exhaustion. And is categorized by feelings of doubt and disinterest. But most importantly, a decreased sense of accomplishment on achieving your goals. Burnout occurs when you feel like you are unable to meet the demands of your life, and you’re not getting the support that you needed to cope and carry on. And this is a problem that generally is caused by chronic stress.

When you are under chronic stress, your body is in a constant fight or flight state. This can lead to physical symptoms such as headaches, insomnia, gastrointestional problems, intestinal problems. Sorry. Burnout may also lead to mental health problems such as anxiety and/or depression.

Burnout has been coming increasingly common due to the demands of the life we live in right now. You’re expected to do more and be available far more than ever before. Technology, which is great, has made this possible for you to be connected 24/7. However, due to this, you are far more likely to take on too much, too much responsibility. And, don’t get me wrong, there’s never just one factor that contributes to burnout. But I’m going to talk about some of the most common ones.

Unreasonable workloads. When you are given or have accepted, more work than you can reasonably handle, it can lead to feelings of overwhelm and then anxiety. And this sustained, so it becomes chronic, then will eventually lead to burnout. One of the other things could be a lack of control. It’s not uncommon to feel powerless in a job or life when things aren’t working out quite as planned. However, a lack of control can also lead to feelings of powerlessness and almost despair. And so, this can contribute to burnout. How long will these unrealistic expectations? What expectations are placed on you that are unreasonable, and therefore you cannot meet them? Also, there’s a flip side of that. These unrealistic expectations can lead to feelings of failure and inadequacy when things don’t work out as you thought they would, no matter if they were realistic or not.

Another thing that can lead to burnout is poor work life balance. If you’re working too much and not taking enough time for yourself, it can lead to burnout. You need to try and set up your life in a way to provide time for you to relax and recharge and not be overworked, so you can avoid and/or recover from burnout. One area that is definitely overlooked when it comes to burnout is having a lack of social support. If you don’t have a support of network of peers, or accountability buddies, or a coach, or a mental and generally all of these things, it can be really tough to manage the stresses of life or your work. And this, along with some the way it works out, can lead you to feel isolated and lonely, which can also help trigger other negative emotions. And then you go in this downward spiral. So having that lack of emotional and social support can also lead to burnout.

Then, here’s one that is very, very common in the workplace, is a lack of appreciation. It is so disheartening when you don’t feel appreciated for your efforts. And it’s possible if you are doing something and you don’t believe what you’re doing is valued, it will lead to a loss of enthusiasm and the belief that your labor is meaningless. And we all know that people leave bad managers, not bad jobs, but if you have a good manager and your job, makes you feel undervalue, you will still leave, or just be led to burnout, because you’re just tired.

Then there’s a conflict of values. When your personal values conflict with the values of your job, your organization, or your manager, have definitely had a client where their values were at odds with their manager. They just found it really hard to carry on. When you experience this conflict, it can be very stressful. A lack of value alignment will lead to a sense of a dissonance and frustration, which can lead to burnout, because you’ve always got this, this conflict happening. That is a definite stressor.

Burnout is a serious problem that can profoundly impact your health and well-being. So, if you are struggling with burnout, or think you are struggling with burnout, please seek help and support to help overcome it.

Thank you for listening. This is Janice at thecareerintrovert.com, helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of the week.

Hello and welcome to the travelling introvert. Today I want

to talk about work, working hard. We have a habit of wanting to be always seen

as working hard. And there's a difference between being a hard worker and

always working hard.

Working hard is often lauded as like the key to success. You

must work hard, pull yourself up by your bootstrap, struggle through, keep

going. And the thing is, there is levels and working too hard can actually be very

bad for you. And there are a lot of different ways how overworking, more than

working too hard, is bad for you and can negatively affect your life. If you

want to be happy and balanced and successful, overworking isn't the way to go.

You can do it in short sprints, but for long periods of time

it's not the best thing to do because it can lead to burnout. When a person is

burnt out, they might feel like they can't keep going, or they're not cut out

for the demands of their job. However, burnout therefore can lead to

absenteeism, lower productivity and increased risk of error. If you are

experiencing burnout, take a step back and assess your work situation. You know

what?

Even if you're not experiencing burnout, take a step back

and assess if your work situation is attainable. Are you taking on too much? Do

you need more help? Are there changes that you can make to your work schedule,

or your routine, or the way you do things to help you feel less overwhelmed, so

you can recover from burnout? If you are overworked, you are more likely to get

sick.

Your immune system will eventually fail if you are

constantly working hard and putting in long hours with very little breaks or rest

or recharge time for both your body and your mind. When you don't have that

time to relax and to recharge, your body is more susceptible to illness. And so,

if you're constantly feeling run down, it might be time to assess your work

schedule. And along the lines of overworking and getting sick, you're also more

likely to get injured. If you are overworking your body when you are tired,

your reflexes are slower. And because of this, there are more accidents just

waiting to happen.

So, if you become aware that you are getting sick or hurt

more often than usual, maybe take a look and maybe it's time to cut back on

your working hours if you can. Now, along with the fact that you are more

likely to get injured and sick and feel burnout, because of all of these things

compounded, you are much more likely to make mistakes. When you are exhausted

and overworked, focusing and paying attention to detail is harder. And many

people sort of drink a lot of coffee to try and combat that. And that might

work in small doses, but over a long period of time it's just going to keep

building up. You're going to find it harder and harder to pay attention. And as

a result, you are more likely to make mistakes, not just at work, but during

your life in general.

You might be slower to make that turn when you're driving.

You might be slower to see someone. And that's how accidents happen. And we

already talked about getting sick and getting injured and so accidents, and

accidents is when you make a mistake. If you're making a lot more errors, you

are therefore costing your company money.

And so maybe it's time to rethink how much you are working.

And because of all of these things and so many other things that kind of

combine when you are overworked for long periods of time, if you are working

all the time, when do you have time to actually enjoy your life? When you're

constantly hustling, it's super easy to forget what brings you joy. So, if

you're feeling unhappy and unfulfilled, it might be time to reassess just how

much work you are taking on, and how hard you are working. No one can tell you

what your balance is.

You yourself need to find your unique balance between working

and playing and being successful and feeling happy. And it doesn't always look

like inequality on a scale, it works for you and your particular needs.

However, working too hard can and will harm your health.  So, take time for yourself. Relax and recharge

or you will end up burning out.

Thank you for listening. This is Janice at thecareerintrovert.com,

helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.

What Is Introversion?

This is the tendency of turning

inward more. Introverts spend most of their time analyzing what happening o

them and around them. They are more in touch with their feeling and the

feelings of others. They take time to energize and recharge in their lives.

They also need people in their lives unlike what most people think. It is only

that it is different for them. They just need a balance.

Journey into learning oneself

Most introverts at an early age,

think something is wrong with them. They tend to be extroverts only because it

does not work for them.  There is this

one point that people forget, Introverts Think then speak while extroverts

speak to think. Understanding this will make you understand more about these

two people. Introverts will tend not to note their surrounding as most of the

time they are in their heads.

Their behaviors come to them

naturally. Most books that are out there, there were written for extroverts

rather than introverts. It's not true to think that introverts generally want

to be alone.  They just do not like

excessive exposure to many people. They like a controlled environment.

Time Management

Introverts need to have order in

their lives. The best thing that they do is have a calendar and plan about what

they will be doing. This is unlike most extroverts who just wing it. The

calendar happens to bring order into most introverts' worlds in the corporate

world.

Misconception about podcasting

Most people tend to think that

podcasts are just for introverts. This is far from the truth. Podcasting is for

almost everybody.

Scary Things for an introverts

Putting yourself out there is the

hardest thing for most introverts. Introverts need to be understood more in

society. A study has shown that the number of introverts is 50% of any

population but for some reason, the actual number is shown to be lower. This

recent study just shows that introverts need to be heard more.

Find David on

quietandstrong.com

This is a bonus episode for national introvert day

Introversion

These are the kind of people who are more comfortable alone

or in a room of people who are hardly interacting with each other. As for

Angela, she might be an Ambivert which is a person who has a balance of both

introvert and extrovert. This highly depends on the circumstance or setting.

Job Recruitment

HR professionals have more to them than what we see. They

have to make decisions for the company and keep the company alive from the

sidelines. There is a misconception that HR is just for recruiting and protecting

the company.

In a company, the HR manager should be able to make

decisions based on the information got from both the company's side and the

worker's side. This is very important since in some cases there are wrongful

terminations.

Habits

Regular habits are very important in a person's life. Some

habits are hard to break but others are not even worth breaking. These habits

are the ones that help us in life, may it be meditation, reading, and more.

These habits will one way or another define who we are in life.

Angie can be found on LinkedIn at

linkedin.com/in/-angelabates.

Speaker 1 (00:01)

Hello and welcome to the traveling introvert. Today I want to talk about burnout. I know I talk about this a lot, but for this particular episode, I want to talk about the fact that burnout is not just about being stressed out. I was having a conversation with a client recently and they we're talking about the end of the year and list of stuff to do and just general stuff to do and having projects in mind and what are you going to do next year? And the usual stuff that happens around this time of year, which happens to be the end of the year, in case you're listening at some other time.

Speaker 1 (00:43)

And I mentioned that, hey, maybe you don't want to do anything for the next month because you're showing signs of burnout. And the response was like, yeah, but this is the least stressed job I've ever had. How could I possibly be displaying signs of burnout? And so there was a couple of things that were interesting. One, that because they said they were very used to being in very toxic work cultures where they were stretched pretty thin.

Speaker 1 (01:14)

Chain of all trades was the phrase used, and how they were everything to everybody and therefore they were used to being in a very stressful environment and that was a past job and now they're in a new job and it's been the least stressed they've been this job is less stressful. And so I made a statement, actually, which was stress doesn't equal burnout. I understand that you are no longer in a toxic as toxic or a different type of toxic work environment, but you are still currently in a toxic work environment. It's just a different type of toxic. You know that frog that's in boiling water and it's fine, it's fine, it's fine.

Speaker 1 (01:55)

It really isn't because it's killing the frog. The frog gets out, but it's just jumped into a pan that the water isn't boiling yet, it's still warm, it's still bad for the frog, but the frog thinks it's fine because it's not as bad as the other pot. So a lot of people get confused and think that when you're talking about burnout, it's just about how stressed and overwhelmed you are. And that's not always the case. Yes, definitely, burnout can come from stress, but burnout can come from so many other areas.

Speaker 1 (02:26)

Burnout can come from having to make too many decisions every day for an extended period of time. This is one of the reasons why moving house can be extremely stressful. It's not the fact that your moving house and going to new space that is normally joyful, but having to make decisions of do I keep something? Do I throw it away? Do I give it to charity?

Speaker 1 (02:45)

What do I do with it? Having to do that for each and every item in your house is exhausting because we only have so much cognitive function to make decisions per day. Another thing is when you are in constant conflict, even if it's microconflict, this is something that happens a lot to people of colour. They are always experiencing microaggressions, right? That can be wearing, that can grind you down, that can lead to burnout, that can lead to you feeling very angry all the time.

Speaker 1 (03:15)

Another thing could be just disagreeing with the values that you have, don't aren't in line with your manager's values or your company's values and fighting that all the time can be wearing. Having a person in your team that is always that squeaky wheel and not necessarily in a good way, that's always going behind your back or backstabbing or you're always waiting for them to say something nasty that is grinding on you and that could lead to burnout. Because you're dealing with this negative emotion constantly and fighting it, and it takes extra energy that you don't have. Burnout can come and I'm not even then talking about like a physical burnout. Burnout can come from so many different things in so many different ways that don't think that just because you're not stressed, and I'm putting this in air quotes, stressed, doesn't mean that you cannot be experiencing burnout.

Speaker 1 (04:12)

So just stop and think for a minute, oh, hey, maybe I am wicked tired, maybe I am experiencing a form of burnout and what can I do to neutralise that or get myself better? And don't think that it's just do one thing and for a week and that'll be fine. No, this is something that needs to be worked on on a regular basis and with thought and intention.

Speaker 1 (04:40)

So please move forward with your life with the intention of dissipating or getting rid of or getting better from burnout. Thank you for listening. This is Janice at The Career Introvert, helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.

Speaker 1 (00:01)

Hello, and welcome to the travelling introvert. Today I'm gonna talk about work life blending. So I was talking with a client the other day and this this conversation happened where they mentioned that a key executive of the organisation that they work with, they were at a leadership conference conference and this particular executive was like I don't want to talk about work life balance, I want to talk about work life blending. And this particular executive mentioned that even while they're on vacation, they made sure that they took an hour a day to look at their emails this way. They felt that they continued to be in the loop and also didn't feel the stress of having to play catch up when they came back after their vacation.

Speaker 1 (00:53)

So any organisation that mentions work life blending should be a huge screaming red flag. Work life blending to the point where you are always thinking about work unless you're like you're a founder, I get that, but you're just a director of an organisation or a manager of an organisation. Work life blending should not be something that your organisation talks about at their leadership conference. To the point because then the question there's a couple of questions here because when there is work life blending and you are taking an hour or two of each day of your PTO, in some countries that means you are actually working that day. That is not PTO.

Speaker 1 (01:46)

So what happens to that extra hour of PTO? Does it go back in your PTO bank? What goes on there? Also, this probably means that you are taking your work laptop with you on vacation. You could be working in a country that you're not supposed to be working in.

Speaker 1 (02:07)

Also it could mean that you have your work emails on your phone if you have a bring your own device policy connecting to an unsafe WiFi network, possibly while you are on vacation. Doubt you were going through the company VPN, but that's a different conversation to be had. The more important conversation is if any organisation tells you that they are all for work life blending run away.

Speaker 1 (02:40)

Work should not bleed into every aspect of your life, it sets. And the fact that there's an executive saying this means now that at a leadership summit means that now all the leaders are very much like oh, so I guess I need to put work email on my phone now and respond at all hours of the day or at least as quickly as possible. But this shows an inherent lack of planning and a lot of organisations do this. They don't have a plan for what to do when someone goes on vacation. How is their workload distributed?

Speaker 1 (03:17)

What happens to their email when they come back? Is it a soft landing or a hard landing? Most people come back and they're dreading the hundreds of emails that are going to be in their mailbox. Is there a way to mitigate that? Is there a way to let people know far enough in advance that they're going to be on vacation?

Speaker 1 (03:35)

Therefore they should email somebody else having a backup, making sure that backup human is trained on whatever has to happen next. Or very much like this person's on vacation for a week, everything else is going to be on pause. So this other person isn't overloaded just because someone is on vacation. It's all about workload balance. It's a workload balance and a lot of managers and organisations don't even think about it.

Speaker 1 (04:04)

And it's something that is really, really important. Also, when people go on maternity leave, if you have maternity leave and you go, what happens? Do the rest of your team just get overloaded? Does the work get spread out and do people get extra time off? What happens?

Speaker 1 (04:17)

It's all about the planning and organisations are really good for planning about when they get work and projects, but not for when people have to need to deserve to take time off. So companies out there, I challenge you, show me your plans, what you do when people take time off, whether it's expected or unexpected, what do you have in the pipeline? What do you have as a plan, as an SOP, as a guideline for what happens when people take the time off they deserve and they need to come back and be productive for your organisation. Thank you for listening. This is Janice, at, the career introvert, helping you build your brand and get hired.

Speaker 1 (05:00)

Have a great rest of your week.

Hello and welcome to the the the Traveling introvert going

to talk about workaholics. And the reason I want to talk about workaholics is

because so many of us come and live in a workaholic environment. And we might

not think about it, but you probably grew up or working in a workaholic culture

or maybe a family or even your business that you've almost self imposed on

yourself that you are now a workaholic. And what do I mean by a workaholic? And

my question to you would be when was the last time you left work on time?

When was the last time you didn't take your laptop on

vacation with you? When was the last time you didn't have your work emails on

your phone and then you were checking every time there was a ping? It is so

easy these days with the expected 24 hours access and people expecting you to

respond very quickly, that we become workaholics. And for introverts it's even

worse because part of that workaholic culture means that you do not have

downtime or recharge time or creative brain time or just time to help prevent

burnout and zoom fatigue. So thinking about your average work day or work week,

what does that look like?

One thing that some people do is every day they look at

their calendar and they try and make sure they have no more than say, two or 4

hours of meetings on their calendar. Because, let's be honest, how much are you

really concentrating if you have more than 4 hours of meetings or conversations

on your calendar? Some people go for four day work weeks, so they preserve maybe

a Wednesday or maybe a Friday morning or a Monday afternoon. So they can do

deep, focused work or just have free time for anything that might pop up. What

about vacation?

I know that a lot of people do have very limited vacation

depending on where they're living, but how can you strategically use that

vacation to get what you need as a human and what this all comes down to? And

sort of also how often do you cheque your email? How frequently do you respond

to people immediately? All of these things tend to be because we have a lack of

limits and guardrails and boundaries without limits in a fully flexible, remote

first environment, it is super, super easy just to keep on working and to be

working constantly. Not consistently, constantly, especially if you've grown up

in a school with a university, with people around you and your family and the

culture that is workaholics related.

You might obsess over your client designs, you might obsess

over your clients, you might obsess over the project that you're doing. And it

feels great until it doesn't. Because without guardrails and boundaries and

limitations, you're more than likely to work 8910, 1112, 14, 15 hours a day.

And when I say work, is it going to be quality work or is it going to be work

under stress and dress. And when you're tired, when you work these kind of

days, you're not giving yourself time to be sick, to take a break, just to

breathe, to give your eyes a rest from the screen.

There's things that we don't do. So clear limits to meetings

and work hours, helps prevent burnout, helps prevent zoom fatigue, helps

prevent you from doing harm to yourself. You need clear limits and boundaries.

Most people are way more productive and focused when they have a self imposed

boundaries, limitations, maybe even a condensed schedule. And sure, you might

not always achieve that goal of having no meeting Monday, but if you do it,

more than not, you will see the benefits.

You need to be intentional about putting in these

guardrails. You need to be intentional about setting these boundaries each

week, each day, to ensure balance and focus productivity without wasted time.

And a lot of it can be done with asynchronous sort of practises, but just

something to think about. Are you a workaholic? Thank you for listening.

This is [email protected] helping you build your

brand and get higher. Have a great rest of your week.

Hello and welcome to the travelling introvert. I'm going to

do a travel episode. It's been a while, there's some less travelling going on,

but I want to talk about cruise ships. I have being on one, I'm contemplating

going on another and I have many people asking me and I see a lot of videos

also going on about well, the extroverted people will want to do all the

partying and the introverted people, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah

and generally not covering the information that you want about cruises. What I

will say is that most cruise lines do what is called sort of traditional

dining, where you are sat at the same table every night with random humans.

If that is not something that you are into for various

reasons. I recommend NCL because you can eat at any time and anywhere and or

virgin except for the Korean barbecue place because you can go and eat when you

want. Where you want and you are not forced to sit and socialise with complete

strangers who you may or may not like for the duration of your cruise. One

thing I will say about cruise ships is there a lot of hidden nooks and crannies

where you can just sit and read a book and no one will bother you or just watch

the water go by.

People may games rooms are extremely popular, definitely

made friends in the games rooms. If you are a solo cruiser, there is a lot of

cruise ships that do solo supplement. There are quite a few that now aren't and

are definitely creating environments that are really good for solo.

I've got solo surfers in my mind and I know that's not the

right word for solo travellers. And one thing that would be great if you just

want to get away and have some peace and quiet, there's definitely the spa

option within a lot of the cruise ships so you can get a day pass and you just

go and you go from hot tub to sauna to steam room to just lounging around and

that's a great recharge thing to do. And there's generally no children allowed

in those areas as well. If you are into trying different types of cocktails,

that is one huge plus point for maybe all inclusive places, but also on cruise

ships because you've already possibly bought a beverage package. You can go and

try things that you wouldn't normally try or you're not sure about or any of

the above and you can go and sit and have a cocktail or a beverage or try

something in any way that you want or take it back to your room and enjoy the

water.

I highly recommend getting a balcony just because when you

want to recharge, you get to go and you still get to enjoy being outside

without necessarily being outside with a bunch of people. Having said that,

most cruise ships are large enough that there are little nooks and crannies

where you can sit and watch the water and not interact with other humans if you

don't need to. But you also have the option of interacting with humans in a way

that you have control over, which is incredibly nice. But being able to try all

sorts of food, being able to drink all sorts of drinks and there's games,

there's arcades, there's all sorts of things to do when you want to recharge

and be by yourself and there's lots of things to do with other humans. It's

kind of like a staycation, but a floating staycation.

I've probably talked about staycations before, where you

would go and stay at a hotel, maybe in the town that you live in or maybe the

next town over if you want to get some work done or you just want to recharge

or you just want to treat yourself. And so this is a different version of that

that just happens to be floating and maybe you get to travel to a couple of

different islands while you are at it, even if you are travelling with another

human being or with a group of people. The great thing is that as long as you

have your own room, you all can do things together and then you can separate

and come back and do things in your room or somewhere else and then agree at a

time to meet, to then have dinner or lunch or games or whatever it might be. It

is great for groups of friends as well. I am definitely looking forward to I

think I'm probably going to book another one and to see how that goes.

A lot of cruise ships have a big central area that tends to

be very, very noisy. However, the Virgin Cruises, apart from being out, only

have lots of different smaller areas within one big area, how they've described

it as a yachtlike experience, but on a cruise ship. So I'm curious how that

works out. That's just a little bit of random information about cruising if you

are an introvert and or a solo travelling. So thank you for listening.

This is [email protected], helping you build your

brand and get hired and recharge. Have a great rest of your week.