A farmer's time is precious
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Jodi:
Welcome to the Successful Farming Podcast. I'm Jodi Henke. Ever feel like there's never enough time in the day to get everything done? If you're a farmer, there probably isn't. Some people cope with the time crunch better than others. But everybody needs downtime, time to relax and do something you enjoy to brush off the stress. In this episode, Michigan State University Extension Health Educator, Sean Knurek, has some tips to help farmers do just that. Talking about reducing the stress of a farmer's time, on average how many hours does a farmer put in per day you think?
Sean:
There's no one answer to that really. It depends on so many factors. Depends on what season it is. Depends on the size of the farm, location. There's some numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics that suggest that the annual average for most farmers is about 60 hours a week. That can push 80 hours a week during harvest time. It could be less than 40 hours a week in the off-season, and it totally depends on the commodity too. I mean we've had experiences with dairy farmers that work sometimes upwards of 18 hours a day... so that really depends. But point being is, the work of a farmer is far more than your typical nine-to-five worker.
Jodi:
Say you've got someone working these 60 to 80 hour weeks. Why is this such a stressor? What happens when you do that week, after week, after week?
Sean:
I like to frame everything in terms of imbalance. You know, we're always looking for balance in our lives to live a good, healthy life. There's something we cite in some of our presentations called The Eight Dimensions of Wellness. These eight dimensions, the physical, intellectual, financial, environmental, spiritual, social, occupational, and emotional. The occupational wellness is, it's defined as having a healthy work-life balance. When you're working 80 hours a week, you're going to be skewing more towards that, and there's a potential for neglecting yourself in one sense or another. Now, you're probably getting your exercise so physical might be all right. But you might not have the intellectual challenges that you might want.
Sean:
You might not have that chance to read, watch movies, listen to music. The financial stress is always on the radar for those working in Ag, but particularly, and what we focus on in our coursework a lot, is that social-emotional side of things. You know, if you're focusing so much on work, what's that at the cost of? It could be the cost of your relationship with your family. It could be something else that would be neglected, your social circle, your friends, spiritually perhaps. There's so much stuff to do maybe you didn't get everything done. You may have to skip service on Sunday, and then there's a part of you that's there's a void there. And the longer that we have that void, the more that we're continually stressed by everything that we have to deal with. It starts to take a toll.
Sean:
We want to really be aware because when we have stress that's unchecked that can lead towards a numerous amount of physical problems, cardiovascular health particularly, our blood pressure can rise, increase of stroke, increase of heart attack can rise. I mean that's a direct threat right there. But a lot of times then you start feeling a level of emptiness because you're not taking care of yourself as a whole, as a person. So then what can potentially happen? Well, maybe you get into self-coping skills that aren't as positive. It could be self-medication. Maybe you have a beer, or an extra shot of whiskey, or something like that, and next thing you know you've introduced something else in your life that can affect all the spokes of the wheel of life. That may have been a long rambling answer, but it's pretty big.
Jodi:
Is there a point where a person recognizes that, "I’ve really got to reel myself in and take some time?" Do people realize that, or do they just have to make themselves do it?
Sean:
You know, it really depends on the person. What stresses one person doesn't necessarily stress another. And how we go about handling our stress and putting some focus into trying to take some of that weight off our shoulders really depends from person to person. So if someone's got a good set of hobbies, someone's in better physical condition, someone really prioritizes family relationships, they're going to put that effort in there and there's going to be balance in that part of their lives. Now, our body will tell us a lot of things when we're stressed. The question is, "Do we listen to it?" Is our sleep becoming an issue. Are we having difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep? Is our nutrition lacking? Do we have other health conditions that need to be managed even in between all of the work and all the hours that we have to put in?
Sean:
Again, I think everything comes back to balance, but a lot of times we need to have that time for recreation, to sit and calm down, to listen to ourselves, and really do that self-awareness, self-reflection, "Is this too much for me right now?" So my point is, especially in our classes that we teach about stress and mindfulness particularly, is we have to allow ourselves some time each day, even a few minutes, just to listen to our bodies, listen to ourselves, and try to realize if maybe we're having problems, and if there's too much going on right now. If that's the case, then we got to try to lean on our support systems. Some kind of confidant, or good lifelong friend, a family member, to maybe vent a little bit, to talk about what we're bottling up, what's frustrating us.
Sean:
That could be very difficult to do because that's a vulnerable conversation, and the research has shown, particularly when you're focused on males, that males are not as likely to have that type of conversation. They're much more resistant to it. It shows also in the research they're much less likely to seek assistance during these difficult situations. A lot of times when we meet with farmers and stuff, we find it very important to speak with other family members in the house. Because if we have an obstinate or stubborn individual that's just not going to listen to some of the things we may have to say, we try to talk to the other important people that are there, that are in the environment, in the picture, and maybe try to pass some of that information along to them so that by osmosis or diffusion maybe we can get that message across. So it's tricky.
Jodi:
You recommend logging your work activities and time spent. How do you do this, and why?
Sean:
It kind of parallels with the individual going through a weight-loss program. Right? You don't know how many calories you're actually consuming per day unless you write it down, unless you're actually measuring out your food. Similarly, with regard to our time, it's not a bad thing to do an audit. I hate using the word audit. Makes everybody think of the IRS-
Jodi:
Makes everybody nervous.
Sean:
... so we don't necessarily want that. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. The article that I wrote was kind of worded as such. But really figuring out what time do we get up? When do you get out and start working on your first tasks? What times of the day do you feel like you just have more energy? Again, everybody's a little bit different. Everybody's clock, some people are morning people, some people are night people. The goal of having a little ... You could do it on a smartphone, or you can use paper and pen. Break your day and assess your day in 30-minute blocks. What did you get done? What were you trying to do? Did you feel like you were successful? And if you do this even for a short period of time, even for a week or so, you're going to identify those periods of time where you're more productive.
Sean:
So the question is, once you do that can you leverage that for your advantage? Are you going to be able to get some higher-functioning jobs done? Let's say for example there's some business work or marketing and paperwork that needs to be done. Sometimes that requires a little bit of extra thought, a little bit of extra sharpness. Do you do that in the morning when you have more coffee? Are you a morning person? Or is that something that's better off to do before or after lunch? Time management is tough. I mean everybody's struggling with that throughout the world with what's happened with the pandemic as all of our routines have been completely shocked. So many people are still working from home, myself included.
Jodi:
Me too.
Sean:
That's why I got that virtual background. You don't want to see the cat boxes right behind me. But work-life balance is very difficult to maintain when your work is only a few feet away from where you live. Ideally, by taking the time to write out what you're doing throughout the day, it maybe gives you an opportunity to optimize your workflow, your work order. Maybe there's some times I'm a little bit lower energy. Maybe I can just do more menial tasks during that time. It's really being self-aware to the point to try to make yourself work more efficiently. And if we can do that, if we can schedule or block-off times for particular tasks, particular projects, all of a sudden then there's a lot less that diddle time where you're just kind of lose your sense of time for a little bit.
Sean:
Next thing you know, maybe 30 minutes have gone away and you haven't done much of anything. You don't know what happened. You never know what happens unless you actually write it down, so that's really the gist of that. Everybody's going to be, again, a little bit different. But if you can identify those times a day where you can get more work done in a more efficient manner, then that opens up blocks of time later in the day, or early in the morning, or however, for self-care, for doing some things that you want, something outside of the occupational side of things.
Jodi:
Why is it important to take time for yourself every day? What does that do to your psyche?
Sean:
Oh, I mean it's thoroughly important. It's that work-life balance. You need a break. You need to take care, or you need a follow-up with something that's interesting to you. It could be watching a documentary, it could be reading a book, reading the news. We're not just programmed to work all the time. We have to, I don't say we have to, we should, it's in our best interests to, again, try to maintain that balance when it comes to wellness as a whole. One of the first things they talk about in a lot of public health programming comes from the World Health Organization. I believe it's the 1952 definition is, "Health is not just the absence of disease." Right?
Sean:
So it's great that we're not sick all the time, but if all of our time and all of our energy is put into just our job then, again, looking at those dimensions of wellness, something else may be getting neglected. And intellectually that's not as good for us if we're not challenging ourselves, keeping ourselves sharp. Similar to like doing that Sudoku every morning, something like that. Something to keep our brains going and moving. Spiritually, if you're an individual who find solace in their faith in their spirit, if you kind of let that go, you feel this emptiness. Then all of a sudden the next thing you know, you're questioning your own meaning. You're questioning the purpose of life.
Sean:
It could open the door to an existential crisis, and that's something we really want to be careful of. And particularly with regards to isolation, again, same thing that we've seen in the pandemic. If we're not staying in contact with the people we love, the people we like. We're social creatures as human beings. Again, if that gets neglected ... Now, I understand that's going to happen when you got to work 80 hours a week from time-to-time. But if we're not allowing ourselves to be those social animals that we are, then that's going to affect us, and ultimately our stress increases and there's the potential for significant health issues.
Jodi:
You mentioned earlier about talking with the loved ones, family, friends, or whatever. How important are they in getting the farmer to say, "You know, that bolt that needs tightening will be there tomorrow. Come, let's do this. Let's play cards. Let's watch a movie," or something like that.
Sean:
It depends from household to household. But the odds are, if you have an individual who's just so work oriented and so focused, the family or that real close inner circle might be the only person he or she listens to. So it's very important to make sure that we bring the families together, because you have to remember, just because an individual may be out working in the fields, or working on machines or something, or anything like that, that doesn't mean that the rest of the family is not being affected by everything that's going on in their sphere too. So trying to bring them into this discussion can be really helpful. You know, it takes a village. Right?
Jodi:
Right. Are there any other tips that you would like to pass along to farmers to help them get through these long weeks and maybe other tips that they can use to get some of the time back for themselves?
Sean:
I think one of the biggest ones, and this is a huge issue all throughout the country, is the issue of sleep. You know, you can work yourself to exhaustion on some days, but you know what, it's funny, your mind is ready for sleep, your body's ready for sleep. All of a sudden you lay down in bed, and next thing you know, wide awake, can't fall asleep. It's so counterintuitive, but allowing yourselves time to shut the TV off, maybe read a little bit because that blue light can keep you up late at night, it can kind of disrupt your sleep schedule a bit, you can work to try to avoid that.
Sean:
But I think what's really important too is just sometimes just taking that time to just sit, breathe, listen to some music, and just have quiet, and have that time for yourself. Actually allowing yourself and maybe even scheduling yourself time to wind down. Because then that puts us in the position, "Hey, if we can fall asleep, our body can kind of regenerate, get ourselves back up to par for the next day when we're ready to get up and do it again." So I really stress doing what you can to help make sure that you're getting the sleep, the restorative sleep that we need, tremendously important.
Jodi:
Well, and if you don't get enough sleep, I mean it affects your concentration. It affects communication. You know, the ability to react to situations that may need immediate reactions.
Sean:
Yeah. Yeah. Because during prolonged periods of stress, our body releases a hormone called cortisol, C-O-R-T-I-S-O-L, and cortisol is really nasty. That gives us that energy boost. I think of it kind of evolutionally. All of a sudden there's a caveman and a woolly mammoth, what are you going to do? Are you going to fight the woolly mammoth or are you going to run? We're going to run. So you get that big boost of energy out of that, our heart rate goes up, blood pressure goes up, because there's a legitimate threat. Right? Fight, flight or freeze. And I'll tell you what, nowadays we don't necessarily face dangers like that per se, but that hormone still builds up in our bloodstream. And if we don't find ways to do physical exertion, exercise, or again, listening to music, playing music, drawing, something that stimulates our mind but also calms us down, then we run into the problem that cortisol builds up even more stress.
Sean:
Then what happens is, yeah, we're foggy. We can't concentrate. We become inefficient with what we're doing and what we're trying to do, and then we run the risk of becoming accident prone. If you want to talk about something that's potentially very dangerous to our health. You know, we don't want a user error or anything like that causing a tractor to tip, causing major damage, potentially causing death. That's kind of an extreme example, but it's realistic, and that's tough. That's tough. Stress just keeps working in us, keeps working on us, and we need to take some time for ourselves to manage it. And when we can do that, basically all parts of our life benefit from it.
Jodi:
Hopefully you heard some helpful tips and relaxed just a bit by listening to this podcast. Thanks to Sean Knurek for being my guest today, and thank you for listening. For Successful Farming, I'm Jodi Henke.