Why you’re feeling burnt out

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Issue #19: Burnout, Father’s Day for the fatherless, little habits, work in heaven, Notion templates, E-ink tablets, and more.


Hey there!

Welcome to another edition of Reagan’s Roundup, the weekly newsletter all about personal productivity from a Christian perspective.

Hope you guys are having a productive week!

Lots of good stuff in this issue. But I wanted to first tell you about a short video I made this week talking about my experience of Father’s Day growing up without a dad.

It’s called To the Fatherless on Father’s Day.

To be honest, it isn’t really productivity-related, but I hope it can be an encouragement to a few people.

Now, let’s get into this week’s roundup!

The 6 Burnout Triggers

Most of us have experienced burnout at some point. But often we fail to consider precisely what is causing the burnout. In this short article, Chris Bailey explains the six areas that can be behind our burnout.  

  1. Workload – Too much to do
  2. Control – Feeling micromanaged or unempowered to do your job
  3. Reward – Lack of compensation or acknowledgment
  4. Community – Bad or strained relationships with colleagues
  5. Fairness – Things are happening that you don’t feel are right
  6. Values – The work simply isn’t meaningful to you

We often assume we are burning out because we have too much on our plates. But usually, there is more to the puzzle. If we take the time to consider why we are feeling burnt out, we will be better equipped to deal with the problem.

We can’t always control these six areas of our work. But by bringing some awareness to them, we can figure out what we do have the power to change, where our stress is coming from, and how to improve our work for the better.

The truth is no job will be perfect, because work is no longer perfect. God created us to work (Genesis 2:15) but because of our sin work is also under a curse (Genesis 3). The thistles and thorns of cursed work ever seek to thwart our efforts. Work in this life, therefore, will always be a mix of fulfilling and frustrating.

Even your dream job will be exasperating and draining at times. We should take care to try and identify and alleviate those sources of frustration where possible. But in the areas we cannot change, we must turn them over to the Lord in prayer and seek to be content with where He has placed us.

Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. 1 Timothy 6:6-8

🎙On the Podcast

Little Habits for Lasting Change with Joe Barnard

In this episode, I talk to Joe Barnard of Cross Training Ministries about the little habits that lead to big transformation for Christians.

The Redeeming Productivity Show is my weekly podcast. It’s all about a biblical approach to personal development and productivity. Subscribe on your favorite platform.

▶️ New Videos

🧑‍💻Happening on the Web

An Amazing Notion Template

Notion is one of my favorite productivity apps. And this week, I’ve been blown away by this incredible Notion template created by a follower of Redeeming Productivity. The link above is to a video tour of the template, and here’s more information about what’s in it. If you’re a Notion user, I think you’ll really dig this. And for more Notion videos, check out her YouTube channel Life with Notion.

What If Luther Had Picked Up His Phone?

Now, this is an interesting question.

“Would Luther have found soul-strengthening camaraderie listening to podcasts, or would he have been enraged by unorthodox voices? Would the gospel have advanced through his social media, or would Luther’s tweets—as his pen often did—get him in trouble? Would the internet have opened helpful theological resources for Luther, or would its glut have distracted him from the focused intellectual intensity his theological work required?”

The quiet rise of E Ink Tablets and Infinite Paper Note Takers

If you’ve come across ads for those Remarkable e-ink tablets, here’s an interesting breakdown.

Fruitfulness and Usefulness (Tim Challies)

There are a number of ways in which a tree and a Christian bearing fruit are similar, but perhaps most notably this: Though fruit is beautiful, it is not meant to be looked at or admired, but given to others.

Great insights on the purpose of being fruitful.

We may be accustomed to inventorying our fruit to see whether we feel its evidence within or whether we are aware of making some kind of spiritual progress. Well and good. But it is better still to look at whether that fruit is feeding and nourishing others.


✍️Quote of the Week

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something.”

– Steve Jobs


⌛️That’s All for this Week

Thanks for reading!

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See you next week,

– Reagan

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