MGMA Insights: Celeste Headlee on Beating Burnout and Reclaiming Work-life Balance

MGMA Podcasts

In this episode of the MGMA Insights Podcast, host Daniel Williams welcomes journalist, author and public speaker Celeste Headlee to discuss themes from her book Do Nothing: How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving. Headlee shares her personal experiences and surprising insights from her research along with practical strategies for finding balance and reclaiming one's sense of self.

Key Takeaways:

• Sharing her personal journey into addressing burnout, Headlee discusses the parallels between the demands of journalism and the medical field while noting the common links of burnout in journalism and healthcare.
• As Headlee researched burnout, she encountered a series of "epiphanies" that challenged her long-held beliefs about the necessity of work for human fulfillment and well-being.
• Headlee's research uncovered evidence that for most of human history, people worked far fewer hours than the modern-day norm, with some cultures celebrating extended periods of rest and leisure.
• While technology itself is not inherently problematic, the constant presence of devices and the inability to distinguish between work and personal use can have detrimental effects.
• Sharing her own strategies, Headlee advocates for a more intentional and balanced approach to technology use such as setting time limits, creating "opening and closing" hours for email and social media, and even going on tech-free vacations.
• Headlee's overall message emphasizes the importance of reclaiming control over our lives and finding the balance that allows us to thrive professionally as well as personally.

Resources:
Celeste Headlee on the Web
Do Nothing: How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving

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