 I had a 3 hour commute every day for many years working in Toronto, while clinically depressed, while being accountable for my work and responsible with a full team and boss and co-workers. So when I say that this video comes out of me genuinely knowing how you feel and out of a place of empathy, I really want to express that because I know how hard it is to get a foot in the door to get the smallest Excel spreadsheet complete by saying hi to co-workers. I know how difficult that is and I hope that these three tips can help you make the most out of your day. I really hope that. So if you're new to the channel, my name's Scott, company depression to expression, where we have an honest dialogue about mental health. All the links are in the description below if you want to join the mailing list. If you want to check out my website, hire me to speak, anything you'd like, it's all in the description. Okay, so let's get to the three tips here. Tip number one, it's going to seem a little ridiculous at first, but this really helped me plan your day into 15 minute increments. I know, I know that sounds ridiculous. But what I mean by that is multitasking is proven to burn out the brain. That's where burnout comes from. Our brains can't switch that fast. It's actually very inefficient. You aren't any more productive trying to do two things at once than you are doing one thing with your full attention. What I'd recommend for your mind at work is to do one thing at a time. That's how I plan out my days, 15 minutes at a time. Now, of course, you can combine these things. So let's say you want to plan out the next hour from 10 to 11 a.m. From 10 to 10, 15, I'm looking at email. From 10, 15 to 10, 30, I'm going into Excel. From 10, 30 to 10, 45, I'm responding to emails that I didn't get in the last 15 minutes. Does that make sense? Reducing burnout is massive when dealing with a mental health problem. Now, if you need to do email for a half hour in a row, well, there's 15 and 15. But I'm encouraging you. That's what helped me so much is to plan out the day in small increments so that doesn't lead to feeling overwhelmed because you have a massive to-do list. One thing at a time. Now, the second thing I'd like to share with you, and it seems a little weird, but it definitely helped me a lot, is pack your own lunch. Pack your own lunch. Meal prep on the weekends if you can. Have lunch for five days already prepared in your fridge. Spend a little more money on Tupperware so you don't even need to transfer the food in the fridge from one old container to one new one. Those of you who haven't dealt with depression, I know this seems weird, but to literally get up in the morning, fridge to bag, and you're done, that is a lifesaver. That's so much less effort than having to make a meal, and for me, that was so much less effort having to think about what I want to eat, where I want to eat, how much money is it going to cost? Too much mental effort for when you're trying to get your life in order and do your work at the same time, thinking about existence and having an existential crisis. Pack a lunch. One less thing to worry about. Okay. Now, number three, this was very, very important to me, and I hope you can really resonate with this. If you've dealt with depression in the past, or you know someone who's dealing with depression and you're trying to help them, there's one thing, having something to look forward to every single day after work. I'm going to repeat that. Having something to look forward to every single day after work. If you're working and you don't even love your job, and even if you did love your job, you don't like it now because depression is the greatest liar and fool of all time, the jester of our time. It just fools you consistently thinking that the world is terrible. So if you make an effort to have a plan every single day, five days a week after work, I'm looking forward to this. That's going to just make you feel so much more driven and so much more willing to actually get through the day because you know that there's a light at the end of the tunnel, no matter how small. You know that you're working towards something. You're not going through this whole eight hour day just to take the train home to do it all over again. Do you seem like, do you see how that would have felt like a lifeless pit of hell for me? That my job was terrible, a hour and a half commute, eating dinner, going to bed and doing the whole thing over again. In the wintertime in Canada, I commute in the dark. I'm in the office and it's cloudy and I commute back in the dark. Very important for me to have something to look forward to when feeling depressed. Now, Scott, I have nothing to look forward to. How small can this thing be? Let me tell you something. Let me tell you mine. Let me tell you my little thing that I look forward to every single day. Going home and watching an episode of MASH. And I usually watched it with my mom because she grew up with that show. Now, if you're younger than me, you probably don't know what MASH is. If you do know what MASH is, please comment and I'll definitely respond if you know what MASH is. Let's talk about the show all the time. But that is one thing that I look forward to. The act of getting on the couch at the end of the day and finally having that time with no expectation, no worry, no deadline where I could finally unwind and it's something that I looked forward to and the show was comedic most of the time and the story and the characters. I just loved it so much and it hurt so much when I actually ended the series and I finally completed it. So what did I do? I watched it all over again and it was something I could look forward to again. Small things. Are you looking forward to listening to a certain podcast that you couldn't listen to during the day because you can't focus while listening to a podcast and doing your work? Are you looking forward to writing down gratitude lists? Are you looking forward to maybe on your commute if you take the train writing in your journal? A diary when you get home? Are you looking forward to cooking a different kind of meal? Are you looking forward to having a McFlurry at the end of your work day even though I wouldn't recommend it. Not too great for depression. But what is one thing you can really look forward to at the end of the day? Those three things that helped me considerably get through the days guys. Look forward to something. Pack a lunch 15 minute work increments. There you go. I really hope this helps. Please let me know how you're doing. Please comment. I'd love to hear from you. All the links in the description to join me everywhere on my Patreon account to join live streams, join the email list to get updates and free giveaways and merch and all types of stuff. It's all in the description. I love you all so much. Thank you for taking the time to watch this. Stay strong. Keep being you. And don't forget to express yourself. You got this. You got this.