Why are you always tired?
There’s a sentence I hear all the time: “I feel like I’m constantly running around putting out fires.”
This feeling almost always comes with a sense of guilt.
We secretly believe that if we were more disciplined, woke up half an hour earlier, or mastered the latest productivity app, we’d finally be able to get everything under control.
But what if it’s not your fault?
What if the problem isn’t a “failure to stay organised”, but rather the impact of prolonged stress?
Your Brain is in Survival Mode
When you’re surrounded by constant notifications, back-to-back meetings and tight deadlines, your nervous system doesn’t necessarily distinguish between an urgent email and a real physical threat.
Under this constant bombardment, your mind starts to perceive every pending request as if it were a danger rapidly approaching.
The result? A chronic sense of urgency takes over.
The Physiological Alarm Response
When faced with this ongoing perception of threat, the body activates the classic fight-or-flight response. The sympathetic nervous system kicks in and stress hormones are released:
- Your heart rate and breathing speed up;
- Your muscles become tense;
- Your attention narrows, focusing almost exclusively on the “emergency” of the moment.
The problem is that this system was designed to help us respond to occasional threats, not to operate under pressure for 8 to 10 hours a day.
When your body remains in this state of hyperactivation, without enough time to recover, you stop choosing what actually matters and start reacting to whatever is shouting the loudest.
Being “constantly putting out fires” becomes your survival response.
Two invitations for you
Turn Down the Noise
To help you stay focused and reduce the number of perceived threats competing for your attention, try turning off notifications from WhatsApp, social media, Teams and, ultimately, email. I imagine it may feel difficult to switch everything off at once, so start with one source of notifications and build from there. You may be surprised by how much more present you feel when you’re not constantly being pulled into the next thing.
Create a 10-second pause.
When a new notification, email or “urgent” request comes in, pause for 10 seconds and ask yourself: “If I deal with this after I finish what I’m doing, what’s the worst that could realistically happen?” The aim isn’t to ignore important things or become less responsive. It’s to slow down your automatic fight-or-flight response and create a small space between the trigger and your reaction.