Busy But Uninspired: The Hidden Fatigue of Midlife and How to Cure It

Do you ever look at your enormous daily to-do list, feel completely overwhelmed by everything you have to get done, and yet feel intensely bored by the actual tasks in front of you?

Many of us expected that once our children grew up, our pace might slow down. But if you are anything like me, you are a busy, active person by nature. Instead of clearing my plate, I piled more onto it. 

When our two youngest became adults and began college, I had thought I would lighten my load a bit. Instead I took on more volunteer roles in our church and planned more DIY projects for around the house. At the end of the harvest season in 2019, I thought to myself that for the next year and going forward I would curtail some of my gardening and make summers easier. And then 2020 came, and I planted an even bigger garden, which grew again the following year, and then some more the year after that. My garden is now bigger than I've ever had. 

I don't seem to know how to do less. If that sounds like a brag, it comes with a huge downside.

Today, I am actually sleeping less than I did when my kids were young. My days are packed to the brim, and yet, for a long time, I found myself feeling deeply tired and entirely uninspired.

image: Patrik László on Unsplash

It is a frustrating paradox: How can you feel simultaneously over-extended and totally under-stimulated? How can you have too much to do, yet feel a heavy mental fog of boredom over your daily chores?

I used to think the answer was simply to work harder or push through the monotony. But I recently discovered that when our schedules are full of routine obligations but empty of creative challenges, our mental energy drains to zero. We don’t necessarily need a lighter workload—we need a qualitative shift, a different kind of fuel.

For me, that missing fuel arrived when I decided to launch a private newsletter to pair with this blog. The moment I began working on it, something inside me woke up. It reconnected me to a piece of myself I hadn't seen in years. 

image: jules a. on Unsplash

I remembered how much I loved page design when I was my high school's yearbook editor, layout crafting in a business publication when in college, and writing a hard copy cooking newsletter in my late 30s. 

I wanted a greater outlet for writing, but I also wanted a cozy, less public space—away from the public gaze of a Google search—to share personal stories of frugality in my home with a trusted community.

I didn't realize it at the time, but by introducing this new creative challenge, I was curing my own midlife fatigue. It gave me a sense of ownership and excitement that my daily chores simply couldn't provide.

image: Justin Kauffman on Unsplash

Over the next few days, we are going to look at why being "busy but uninspired" happens to active women, and how you can strategically redesign your day to find your own creative spark plug. We'll also take a look at some ways we can give ourselves the care we need, so that we can live up to our purpose.