Yield Today, Thrive Tomorrow: Rewriting the Rules of Productivity | Somehow I Manage

As HETMA embarks on the #Roadto10K, this journey is about more than just growing our numbers—it’s about supporting the personal and professional growth of each member. Every month, we’ll explore a new theme centered on reflection, growth, mental health, and confidence. If the themes ever feel overwhelming, this column will offer them in small, approachable steps to help you engage at your own pace.

December’s theme is:

Yield to Traffic: Productive Rest
Shifting the burnout mindset through valuing recovery, healthy boundaries, and sustainable productivity.

When we think about productivity, our instinct is often to press harder on the gas. More hours, more effort, more output. But anyone who has ever driven knows that sometimes the safest, smartest, and most efficient move is to yield. Yielding isn’t stopping forever—it’s pausing briefly so you can move forward with clarity, safety, and purpose.

Productive rest works the same way.

When we shift from a burnout mindset—where rest is seen as indulgent or unproductive—to a sustainable productivity mindset, we begin to understand that strategic pauses are not weaknesses. They are essential. Rest becomes a conscious, empowered choice that honors our humanity and our priorities.

Two tools can support this mindset shift: the BRAIN acronym and the Eisenhower Decision Matrix. Together, they create a framework for intentional decision-making that protects your energy, honors your boundaries, and elevates what truly matters.

Using BRAIN to Pause Before You Push

I actually learned about BRAIN when I was preparing for childbirth (so excuse the pun in the headline above). Stopping to question the Benefits, Risks, Alternatives, my Intuition, and my ability to say ‘No’ was a really important tool to have when entering a complex medical situation. Now that I’m on the other side of that, I’ve realized that BRAIN is also a simple but powerful decision-making tool that can encourage you to slow down and check in before committing your time, energy, or emotional bandwidth. Consider the acronym breakdown below:

B – Benefit

What do you gain by saying yes or by pushing through?

Alternatively, what do you gain by saying no?
Is this benefiting you, or mostly someone else?

R – Risks

What physical, emotional, or relational risks exist if you say yes (or no)?
Could this contribute to burnout, resentment, or overextension?

A – Alternatives

Is there another way?
Could you delay, divide the task, or ask for support?

I – Intuition

What does your gut say? — Your body often identifies overload (or excitement and energy) before your mind does.

N – No (or Not Right Now)

Give yourself permission to decline—or delay.
“No for now” supports sustainability.
“No” can be a complete sentence.

Using BRAIN isn’t about avoidance. It’s about intentionality. With a little creativity, it’s a self-leadership tool that helps you yield just long enough to ensure you’re choosing the next right action.

The Eisenhower Matrix: A Map for What Deserves Your Energy

After you’ve used BRAIN to determine how you feel about a task or ask, you can further your sustainable productivity by using the Eisenhower Decision Matrix. The Eisenhower Decision Matrix helps you sort tasks by urgency and importance. It’s a visual reminder that not everything deserves your immediate attention, and not everything should be done by you. Here’s how the matrix breaks down:

1. Do (Urgent + Important)

These tasks require your attention now.
But only the true emergencies belong here.
Rest is protected when you stop treating everything as a raging dumpster fire.

2. Decide (Not Urgent + Important)

These are your strategic, high-value priorities.
Projects that move your career, your goals, or your life forward—if you schedule them.
Rest helps ensure you have the energy for this quadrant.

3. Delegate (Urgent + Not Important)

Tasks that need to get done, but not by you.
Delegation is a form of rest—it preserves your cognitive and emotional resources.

4. Delete (Not Urgent + Not Important)

Some tasks simply do not deserve a place in your life.
Deleting clutter—digital, mental, and emotional—creates space for recovery.

When paired with BRAIN, the matrix becomes even more powerful. BRAIN helps you think something through, and the matrix sorts where things belong. Together, rest becomes integrated, not accidental.

And importantly: it rejects the toxic idea that your worth is tied to your exhaustion.

When a new request lands in your lap, let this be your moment to pause, take a breath, and step back from the automatic yes. Give yourself the space to run the situation through BRAIN, and then deliberately place it where it belongs in the Eisenhower Matrix. Lead with intention. Protect your energy. And feel the immediate shift that comes from choosing rather than reacting.