Post Project Blues (part of depression)

Introduction

It is not uncommon for staff to experience the post project blues after completing an intense assignment.

This has been compared with the Olympic blues that athletes can experience at the end of an Olympic Games, ie what happens after an intense performance after years of focused effort leading up to the Games.

“…It manifests as a mild illness or a slight drop in motivation or energy levels. But in others, it can morph into depression…”

Euan Black, 2024d

Industries most affected by ‘Post Project Blues’ include law, construction, finance, professional services, ie industries with lumpy workloads.

Post Project blues tends to occur when people allow their energy to become too closely linked to the assignment; this means some of themselves is lost when the assignment ends.

“…Not losing sight of your deeper purpose can therefore help minimise the effects of the post project blues by weakening the ties between your identity and self-worth and the achievement of your external goal…”

Euan Black, 2024d

You need to expect a slight dip in energy or performance after an intense assignment. One way to handle this is via what is called strategic recovery:

“…Workers take mini-breaks throughout the day to calm their nervous system and this makes it easy to focus on working hard when necessary and minimise the overall toll the project can take…”

Euan Black, 2024d

Some other tactics include:

• ‘humming’ for around 30 seconds (this activates your vagus nerve)
• panoramic vision reframing (gazing out the window and enjoying the panoramic view of your surroundings)
• taking regular breaks from your desk (

“…Most people can operate at a high level for a maximum of 90 minutes without needing a break…”

Euan Black, 2024)

• having a period of rest and reflection when an intense project ends (

“… It is like a series of marathons interspersed with sprints in between……Need particularly between those marathon periods, a little bit of recuperation and time to reset…”

Christine Wong as quoted by Euan Black, 2024d)