Reclaiming Your Mind: Escaping Burnout in the Age of AI

It’s Sunday afternoon. I’m stretched out on the couch, laptop resting on my knees. Honestly, if you can find a moment of absolute, unapologetic stillness in today's chaotic world, you’ve already won.

We are on the 11th day of Ramadan. I won't lie—that first day kicked my ass during a late-afternoon meeting. But the human body is a ridiculously adaptable machine. Nowadays, my alarm goes off at 3 AM for suhoor. It has evolved into this bizarre, hyper-focused productivity ritual. While the rest of the world is dead to the world, I’m eating, going down random YouTube rabbit holes to wake my brain up, and ruthlessly purging my inbox. There is a profound, untouchable clarity in the silence of the early hours.

Speaking of productivity, I’ve been having a heavy, fast-paced affair with AI lately—specifically Co-Pilot’s Researcher agent. It’s my new playground. Whenever there's a complex topic I need to deep-dive into, I throw a prompt at it. While it scours the digital abyss for the backstory, I stay focused on the actual deep work.

Will offloading my research to an algorithm make my memory lazier in the long run? Maybe. Do I care? Not really. It’s giving me leverage. It seems my obsession didn't go unnoticed, either. I was recently named an 'AI Champion' in a newly formed global corporate group at work. My goal isn't to preach about the robot takeover; it's to show people how to use this technology as a mental crowbar to lift heavier weights without breaking their backs.

March also means navigating the glorious bureaucracy of tax season. I just drafted my provisional tax return and spent time chasing down a missing school invoice for Okan so I can hit 'approve' tomorrow. Then begins the agonizing wait for the tax refund. It’s funny how the human brain finds a weird, calming satisfaction in checking off these mundane administrative boxes.

Speaking of waiting, the Eid holidays are approaching. Half the year is practically gone. We haven't made concrete summer plans yet due to the usual family uncertainties, but I refuse to let it be another unplanned blur. At 43, you start to realize that a real vacation isn't just about changing your location; it's about reclaiming your mental bandwidth. I need a break where my mind actually rests. (Note to self: I haven't even logged my annual vacation in the system yet. Own your time, or the company will own it for you.)

Notice what I’m not talking about today?

I’m not complaining about being buried alive in corporate stress. The brutal, soul-crushing audit that was weighing on me for months is finally over. A new peer joined the team, balancing the scales.

I’m not saying I’ve suddenly achieved perfect zen and only work a strict 8-to-5. I still have moments where the pressure spikes and drives me crazy. But here is the critical difference: I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I’m stepping out of that reactive, constant firefighting mode. I actually have the energy to dream again. To set new goals. To think about the future instead of just surviving the week. And honestly? That is the greatest proof of healing.

For now, I'm going to clear out the leftover tasks I pushed to Friday's to-do list. I want to walk into Monday morning with a clean slate, not that familiar pit in my stomach. Protect your peace.

Back to Lausanne — One Year Later, With a Full Heart and an Even Fuller Inbox

This Sunday holds a special meaning for me — and not just because it's Mother’s Day. After a full year, I’m heading back to Lausanne. The excitement I felt last year when visiting our company headquarters for the first time has mellowed this time around. Firsts have a magic of their own, don’t they? But truth be told, my mind is full and my calendar even fuller, and this Swiss trip somehow feels like just another item on my to-do list.

Maybe that’s what happens when real life refuses to pause, or in other words: "that's the way".

Last Thursday, I had an off-site training that took me away from my inbox for a few hours — a dangerous luxury. By Friday, even with extra hours of work, I couldn’t reduce the number of unread (or “read-marked-but-not-really-read”) emails below twelve. Still, I have hope — and a small dream for tonight and tomorrow: to catch up, inch by inch, if the universe allows.

To make my three-hour flight more productive (and mildly entertaining), I dedicated the first two hours to watching the original Star Wars — something I had promised myself, even added to my New Year’s resolutions. I’ll be honest: when something doesn’t convince me, I struggle to engage. But I powered through, ticked the box, and now I can at least say I get the references. Sometimes, done is better than perfect, right?

Mission Completed

Why Start with IV? I Will Learn Soon...

Projects, Priorities, and… Precision Knives?

Tonight — and this week — I’ve got a few things planned. One of them is to finalize a small automation project I built using Microsoft 365’s Finance Agent and turn it into a short, clean-cut video to share internally. I’m hoping it might inspire a few colleagues. I was already visualizing how to structure the clip — what to say, what kind of background to use — even as I watched the movie on the plane. Fingers crossed it turns out well.

If I can squeeze in a bit of email cleanup, find a decent meal, and hit my steps goal with a walk around town, I’ll call it a productive evening. Bonus points if I manage to grab those special kitchen knives my relatives asked for — apparently, no trip to Switzerland is complete without them. I wrote about this last time too: yes, Switzerland is expensive, but if there’s one thing that offers serious price-for-value, it’s those knives.

Migros Without Victorinox Knives

Looking Ahead

I’m scheduled to fly back Friday night. What will I be taking home with me this time, I wonder? The main goal of this visit is to reconnect with our Lausanne-based stakeholders and, if all goes well, spend an evening in conversation with someone very dear to me (he knows who he is when he reads this). Whether it’s dinner, deep talk, or a bit of quiet mentorship — it’s these moments that matter most.

And so, the journey continues — altitude included.

With gratitude,
Volkan

Behind the "Fantastic Job": Progress Bars and Punching Bags

Dear Father,

First of all, it's great to have the chance to dedicate some quality time to writing this letter, just one week after the previous one. It's early Sunday morning, and for the second day in a row, I've slept more than seven hours—finally recovering from the fatigue of sleeping only five to six hours each night over the past week.

It’s been a week of “getting used to it.” After the disappointment of last week, I had scheduled meetings from Monday to Thursday, where I had to present various assessments. This required me to simplify tables, check with consultants, update the files, present them to stakeholders, record and archive the sessions, and document the meeting notes. After each session, I felt like a progress bar in my mind moved a little further. Completing all sessions—especially Thursday’s—without any issues was the main objective of the week. Thank God, I managed to do that.

But it wasn’t over. On Thursday afternoon, our finance director rightfully asked for a status update on the first batch by Friday. I had planned to complete many quarter-end, statutory, and ad-hoc tasks by Friday, but I had to reschedule them. I managed that too—and thankfully, I heard the words “fantastic job” as feedback.

Yesterday, I told my aunt about this appreciation, and she asked me what it meant. Clearly, “fantastic job” doesn’t hold the same recognition value in Turkish for someone in their seventies. It reminded me of my days in Romania, when I was a guest auditor—back then, it was the first time I heard “fantastic” as praise.

When I finally stepped away from my laptop on Friday evening, I had nearly ten emails I’d already read but marked as unread to revisit. Still, I had to head to the shopping mall where my son watched “A Minecraft Movie” for the second time since its release. I kept repeating to myself: “Oh my God, thank you, it’s over.”

It was a heavy week, and thankfully I won’t be in presentation mode in my upcoming meetings. That, in itself, is something I’m grateful for. I know next week won’t be light either—statutory closings, treasury activities, and ad-hoc requests will keep me busy. But, as they say, “this is the way.”

Aside from work updates, this week also marked the end of my three-month coaching journey. At the end of December 2024, our function offered me an external coaching program in recognition of my efforts in an initiative. My coach, based in Switzerland, had spent his entire career in multinational companies. One day, he lost his job and began this new path.

Whatever I shared with him about my work and interactions made complete sense to him—he had lived similar experiences. On top of that, his technical knowledge enriched our sessions, making the three months fulfilling.

In our final session last week, he left me with some warnings. When we began, I took a “saboteur assessment,” and my top saboteur was being a Pleaser. Let me share the definition:

“The Pleaser has a strong need to be liked by people and attempts to earn it by helping, pleasing, rescuing, or flattering them. The Pleaser needs frequent reassurance from others about their acceptance and affection and can’t express needs openly and directly. Instead, the Pleaser expresses needs indirectly by making people feel obligated to reciprocate care.”

You can read more or take the test here: https://www.positiveintelligence.com/blog/pleaser-saboteur/

Michael, my coach, ended the session by warning me that working so hard to please others could eventually lead to burnout—waking up one day with no motivation toward work or to-dos. This has stuck with me, and I’m doing my best to find balance. That’s partly why I’m taking the time to write. And surely, I need to make time for my daily walks and workouts when I go to the office.

Let me briefly talk about exercising. Yesterday, a rainy Saturday, I dropped my son off at his special school and then went to the office to use the gym. Normally, I prefer cardio and avoid weights. But after checking my weight and realizing I’ve gained a bit since Ramadan, I started with elliptical walking. After 30 minutes, I noticed the sandbag and boxing gloves. I geared up and started kicking the sandbag, thinking of all the emails I’d been tagged in—not about the people, but the extra tasks and requests I didn’t say no to, trying to please others.

It’s not usually my style, but it was exactly what I needed. When I removed the gloves, my hands were red. I found a disinfectant spray and applied it to the sore areas—it reminded me of the pandemic days…

Now, I hear my son and wife have woken up. That’s my cue to say goodbye—until next time.

Best wishes,
Volkan

PS. This letter is written to my "father," and there is a metaphor here; he knows himself.

Quotes from "Do It Today"

Here are some quotes from one of my favorite bloggers who generally writes on productivity: Darius Foroux. He has recently published a book called "Do It Today". The book is very motivating in terms of reminding some small steps which can be taken easily and bring great results by time. Of course, some of these quotes belong to important thinkers but it is nice to find them in one book together within a harmony:

One of my personal rules is this: Never complain. Another one is: Read and exercise every day. And: Close the day every evening by setting your next day’s priorities.

At the end of each day, you should play back the tapes of your performance. The results should either applaud you or prod you.

"Always connected,” isn’t a good thing for your focus and productivity.  It’s the same as going to the gym. Or having dinner. Or having a romantic evening with your partner. You don’t do those things for 24 hours a day.

Procrastination can be a sign that you’re doing something that’s not meaningful. Don’t let procrastination become a habit. After all, the worst procrastination is putting off your dreams and goals. If you’re waiting for the right time, Benjamin Franklin says: “You may delay, but time will not.” If you don’t listen to me, listen to him.

People who make phones and apps are smarter than us. Their only goal is to get you hooked. I think it’s good to realize that. That’s why I often try to remind myself not to depend on smartphones too much because my attention matters more than productivity. It’s time to reclaim your attention. And thereby, reclaim your life. It’s worth it.

“Fools learn from experience. I prefer to learn from the experience of others.”

The further I advance in age, the more I find work necessary. It becomes in the long run the greatest of pleasures, and takes the place of the illusions of life.”

Rest reduces stress. Improves creativity and productivity.

"So, to prevent fatigue and worry, the first rule is: Rest often. Rest before you get tired.”

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing — that’s why we recommend it daily.”

"A man who chases two rabbits catches neither.”

We say: “OMG! I don’t know what I want!” And then we have a full-on panic attack. Be honest — it happens to all of us. Especially, when you see that your old college friend just got married. Or that your co-worker, who started at the same time as you, just got promoted. It’s at those moments of weakness when we shine a spotlight on our own uncertainty about life. One of the biggest thinking errors that I’ve made was that I thought I needed to know what I exactly wanted to do with my life. The truth is that no one knows what they truly want.

So it’s not important to know exactly what you want to do with your life. People change. Economies change. So, it’s not even realistic to boldly claim “I know what I want!” The only thing every person needs is a sense of direction. A vision of where you’d like to go. Look, you don’t need to know your exact destination. You often read about people who say they always knew what they wanted. But that’s just a small portion of the population. I’ve personally never met someone like that. Most of us don’t have that conviction from day one. It grows over time.

Your first priority is to identify what you want and then make sure you take the path that’s going to give you that. There’s nothing sadder than to see someone get to be seventy-five or eighty years old and look back regrettably because they pursued the wrong target.

Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.

Stay close to yourself—there’s no point in pushing yourself so badly that your life becomes miserable. In the end, we all need comfort: It’s one of our basic needs as human beings. But we also need growth. So whatever you do, don’t stay in your comfort zone for too long. Try to keep moving forward every day: Even if it’s just a tiny step. No magic.

Belief will help create the fact.

You don’t get to the highest levels of the sport without having the basics in order.

It’s the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.” When you repeat the basics, you don’t only become great; you will stay great. It’s a challenge that all high performers face. I repeat the basics of many things in my life: Fitness, philosophy, kindness, business, writing.

In order to really find happiness, you need to continue looking for opportunities that you believe are meaningful, in which you will be able to learn new things, to succeed, and be given more and more responsibility to shoulder.

Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what’s left and live properly.

Where I’d had huge success, I had narrowed my concentration to one thing, and where my success varied, my focus had too.” Are you working on a lot of things? Is your attention not on one thing? There’s a big chance that you will not achieve the best possible results. Or worse: You might fail if you try to achieve many things at the same time The reason is simple: Most of us believe that success happens all at once. Real life is different. Keller and Papasan put it well: “Success is sequential, not simultaneous.”