Oh hey everybody. I'm having some trouble with my tripod so my camera right now because
I know you're, you're dying to know what it's sitting on. It's perched on a stack of a Webster's
Unabridged Dictionary, a box that my Beats by Dre headphones came in, name brand drop,
on top of that there are two magazines and on top of that is my camera. Hey camera. Life
hacks, by me.
This week on Stuff Mom Never Told You I had weird body things on the brain and not so
much weird but kind of strange and awesome at the same time. On Monday I highlighted
seven strange and kind of just awesome facts about the male body. On Wednesday it was '7
Strange Facts about the Female Body'. Then on Friday after I had been flipping through
probably one of the Vogues that my camera is sitting on and noticing all of the bizarre
model poses, I just wanted to see what it would look like if I tried to integrate modeling
into my day-to-day work life. If you want to tweet me a photo of yourself in some kind
of model pose, doing some sort of everyday task, I would love it. That's me drawing a
giant heart. You can tweet me @cristenconger. I will respond, I will love you. Moving onto
Ask Cristen, first of all thanks to everybody who commented on last week's video 'Do Grades
Matter?'. Overall consensus was a collective screw grades. If you can just get through
school things will be okay. It was also really interesting to get an international perspective
from a number of commenters who live outside the US. ThingsToRantAbout for instance commented,
'This is such a weird time for year thirteen (seniors?) in the UK as we find out our exam
results in a few weeks which affects if we get into our chosen university or not. Everyone
I know can't even think about results otherwise they up going to a really dark place. I think
there's a massive pressure on teenagers to perform, so much so that break downs and panic
attacks were perceived as "normal" during our revision/exam period. Totally unhealthy.'
That's why I think it's important to underscore that while yes grades are important, grades
are not everything and if you need some comfort in that regard, seriously, go to that video
from last week 'Do Grades Matter?' and just read all of the comments from all of the employed
and functioning adults who said hey I didn't do great in school but I've got a job. ASampleofSteve
also commented, 'I appreciate your adherence to the principle of "correlation does not
equal causation".' That makes me so happy that you have noticed that theme. It's one
of the simplest and yet to me one of the most important research principles to abide by.
Say it with me folks. Correlation does not always equal causation. Also on last week's
Ask Cristen I asked you all whether you'd be interested in me doing a mini-video series
on productivity and focus and motivation, particularly with school starting back up
and overwhelmingly you said yes. So guess what? I'm going to do it! Hopefully it will
help me with my own productivity and focus. Thank you for giving that to me. You see how
this works? This is a relationship people. To kick off these conversations about productivity,
Natasha P has a great question. 'I'm going into grade twelve and get stressed out really
easily even though I know that [grades] are not super important in high school in comparison
to university. I work so hard that I'm worried I will burn out once I get into university
when it actually counts for more. What do you recommend I do to ensure I don't burn
out or give up once I get into the university of my choice?' Burnout is actually something
I think about a lot. I make two podcasts a week, I make four videos a week and I run
a website called Stuff Mom Never Told You. The answer to avoiding burnout can't just
be like, well take a break. You can't always take a break. One big thing I started doing
a little while ago that has really helped me break a cycle of procrastination that would
lead to anxiety that would then amplify feelings of burnout is something called 'Eat the frog'.
Eat the frog comes from this Mark Twain quote which goes, 'Eat a live frog every morning
and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.' It's this idea that if there
is something that you really need to get done but you kind of don't want to do, it's your
frog. You eat that frog first thing in the morning, it's all downhill from there. I have
this habit of making to-do lists everyday. Productivity tip. To-do list for today. And
I noticed that there would be certain items on the to-do list that would show up day after
day after day. Those were my frogs. I either need to re-prioritize and just move it on
to some other time down the road or I need to eat the frog. And how did I know that it
was a frog? Not only did it show up on my to-do list all the time but when I saw it
on my to-do list all the time it caused me anxiety. Burnout at least in the way that
I experience it is not simply just a lack of ideas of just like having no motivation
whatsoever, it's also this mentally drained feeling and dread of having to do anything
else that I experience in the form of anxiety. So eat your frogs, just as you should eat
your kale. On top of that set realistic goals for yourself. This is something I have to
remind myself of as well. When you try to force yourself to do more than you're really
capable of, that compounds the feelings of anxiety and burnout because you feel like
a failure. You're human, allow yourself to be human. Part of setting realistic expectations
might include tracking your time, whether it's for a day or maybe even for a week or
two, just to see how you really use your time and if there are areas where you could use
it more wisely to thus give you more time for the all important rest. Rest doesn't necessarily
mean sitting around and doing nothing at all. My rest for instance usually involves lots
of cooking or hanging out with my dog or reading or going to yoga. But if and when burnout
does happen, one thing that I've also found very helpful is not just blaming the work.
Try to take it a few levels deeper, what is it about the work that you're doing that is
causing you to feel burnout. I have learned that I can get really burned out if I spend
too much time working in isolation. It's really important for me to also have feedback from
other people and brainstorm with other people and collaborate. When in doubt watch a Stuff
Mom Never Told You video or two hundred of them because there are over two hundred of
them for you to watch. Now I want to know what your tips are for avoiding and dealing
with burnout, let me know in the comments below and as always ask me your questions
so I can give you some answers. And spirit fingers.