By Allister Frost | Keynote Speaker & Author of ReadyAlready
Reading time: 3 mins
“I survived today, but tomorrow I have to do it all over again.”
Ever had that sinking feeling? You leave work utterly drained, only to realise the hamster wheel will still be spinning, perhaps even faster, when you start again tomorrow.
Change fatigue acts as an invisible drain on your daily energy, locking your mind into survival mode when you most need clear thinking. Constant process changes, yet more restructures, and silly-sounding corporate buzzwords all take their toll.
In our quest for future-readiness and a little calm, we have to accept that the momentum of the world outside is beyond our control. But the way we choose to meet that momentum is entirely in our hands.
Here are five super-simple and practical ways to shake off some of the exhaustion and rediscover positive energy when workplace change feels relentless:
1. Enforce the ‘One-in, One-out’ rule
Roadworks drive everyone mad, but the bloke holding the Stop-Go sign understands a fundamental law of human capacity: traffic only flows when one side comes to a dead halt first.
Ambitious teams constantly try to run both sides on “Go”. They pile exciting new initiatives straight onto an already exhausted department, then act surprised when everything grinds to a halt.
Protect your own bandwidth. Before you agree to take on another project, green-light a fresh priority, or adopt a new platform, pick a zombie task sitting on your desk and kill it off. Red light it, forever!
Stop something old before you start something new.
2. Put a curfew on the ‘meeting skids’
Racing between back-to-back meetings and calls with no time between to breathe is just poor boundary control.
When you spend your entire working day breathlessly skidding into meetings a few minutes late, your brain stays locked in reactive panic. Fresh possibilities only become visible when you have enough room to catch your breath and think.
It’s time to prune your calendar! Shorten your standard 30-minute meetings to 25 minutes, and chop hour-long sessions to 45. Build in non-negotiable ten-minute buffers to walk away from your desk, stretch your legs, and let your head reset before the next screen appears. You’re a human being, not a human doing. Give yourself time to just “be.”
3. Identify and scrap your ‘Wallpaper of Work’
In every organisation, mindless routines pile up over time. We follow legacy processes, fill in redundant data trackers, and yawn through soul-crushing weekly status catch-ups purely because someone set up a recurring invite years ago and nobody has questioned it since.
I call this the wallpaper of work. Mindless routines shield us from the effort of thinking, and left unchallenged, they become organisational rigor mortis.
Reclaim your daily energy by asking a “why?” about one routine task. If an update report works as well as a two-line message, or a legacy review meeting has outlived its usefulness, take it off the schedule entirely.
Quick challenge: Pick one meeting on your calendar today and ask yourself: If we cancelled this entirely, would anything actually break?
4. Step out of ‘Threat-Rigidity’ with a beginner’s question
When fatigue sets in, the natural human reaction is to retreat into your comfort zone. Psychologists call this threat-rigidity: tightening our grip on old habits and defending our patch because everything around us feels chaotic.
You can break that grip with curiosity.
Look at the most frustrating change landing on your desk right now and ask yourself: If I joined this team only this morning with zero baggage, what would make this shift exciting? You still won’t love every corporate pivot, but shifting your posture to explore possibilities can help restore your sense of personal agency.
5. Trade ‘No, because…’ for ‘Yes, and…’
Change fatigue thrives in cynical conversations. Listen closely to your next team catch-up and count how many times good ideas get suffocated by a damning “No, because…”
“No, because” is sometimes a sensible caution, but it drains the life out of collaboration and signals that new thinking is an unwelcome risk.
Flip the dynamic by adopting the classic improv rule: answer with “Yes, and…”
Even when an idea feels half-witted or daft, building on someone’s thought changes the mood instantly. Replacing a defensive posture with generous collaboration can bring the spark back into an exhausted team.
Disruption will always arrive at your door, but you have the power to stop it from grinding you down. Pick just one of these resets today, clear a little white space, and take back control of your working week.
Get a fresh dose of future-ready thinking from me, Allister Frost, delivered to your inbox every Friday. Join the ReadyAlready community at hello.allisterspeaks.com.