The “I Know I Should” Loop

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Have you ever caught yourself saying I know what I should be doing? I hear it all the time. Oh I know I should get more sleep. I know I should eat better. Oh I know I should exercise. I know I should stop relying on energy drinks. You know, the funny thing is, most shift workers don't have a knowledge problem. What they've got is a life problem, a roster problem, a timing problem. And I think we've been asking people to make changes without ever understanding the life that they're trying to make those changes in. So let's have a chat about that. Because it doesn't have to be this way.

Why Fatigue Feels Normalised

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For far too long, we've accepted fatigue, poor sleep, burnout, and declining health as simply part of working in a 24-7 environment. I don't believe they are. Whether you're a shift worker, trying to feel better, or a leader responsible for the people who keep your organisation running around the clock, you're in the right place. Welcome to a healthy shift. I'm Roger Sutherland, and after more than four decades of working 24-7 shifts with Victoria Please, followed by years of studying nutrition, circadian biology, human performance, and working with literally thousands of shift workers, I've made it my mission to change the conversation around shift work. Because healthier people create stronger teams, and stronger teams build better organizations. And it all starts by understanding how to work with your biology and not against it. Let's get into today's episode.

Why Shift Workers Still Struggle

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And welcome back to this episode of A Healthy Shift and the podcast. I'm ever so grateful of you listening to this episode. And if you get any value out of it, I do ask please that you either rate or review the show because no one's been doing that for a long time now. You can do this on Spotify and on Apple. And also just give it a review so other people like you can find it as well. We've taken a new direction with the podcast. I hope you're really enjoying it. I know I'm enjoying it a lot more. So I want to say welcome back and thank you for giving up your time while you're on your commute or whether you're lying in bed waiting for sleep or whatever you're doing for actually joining it, joining me. Now, over the last few episodes, I've been building a bit of a picture. First of all, we questioned the idea that you simply just get used to shift work. Then we talked about your body and what it's doing and how it's trying to protect you. It's not actually not work against you, it's actually trying to protect you from the signals that you're giving it. And last episode, we looked at the four biological signals that your body is depending on. And to go back over those, sleep, daylight, movement, and nutrient timing. Now, today's episode, I'm gonna ask a different question. Because if we already know all of that, why do so many shift workers still struggle? Now, I don't honestly believe that it's because people don't care. In fact, I actually think that shift workers care more than most just by their very role. They're out there caring and supporting and helping everybody else but themselves. But what you are trying to do as well is you're trying to keep your families together. You're trying to play mortgages, raise kids, support aging parents, ill parents, turning up for overtime, trying to pay bills. We're in a cost of living government crisis. But anyway, that's another issue. That's a whole podcast episode in itself, isn't it? But what we've got to do is you've got to get through another roster. You are juggling a lot. And somewhere in amongst all of that, you're expected to become experts in sleep, nutrition, and exercise as well. And it's no wonder that people feel overwhelmed. You know, one of the things that's always frustrated me is how often we blame

When The Roster Breaks The Plan

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people. Oh, you need more discipline, you need more motivation, you've got to have more willpower. But think about your own life just for a moment. Just sit there and think about your life. How many times have you started a new health plan on your days off? Only to hit your first run of nights and watch the whole thing fall apart. Not because you didn't care, but because your life changed. Your sleep changed, your meal times changed, your family routine changed, your energy changed, and suddenly that perfect plan didn't fit your reality anymore. And I've been there. I've been there more times than I can count. And I'd promise myself the next roster, I'd wait for the next roster, look at it. Yeah, that's a good time to start, and I'd start again. I'd meal prep, I'd plan my gym sessions, I'd have every intention of sticking to it. And what happened? The roster happened. Someone calls in sick, I would finish late, I'd have to go to court. Overtime happened. A job ran over time. Does this sound familiar? The problem's not the plan. The problem was the plan wasn't built for my life. And I think that that's where so much health advice misses the mark. It's often great advice for someone who works nine to five. Day walkers, is what I call them, Monday to Friday, sleeping every night, eating at regular times. That's just not the reality for most shift workers. And why are you trying to take advice from people and do things from people who are not going through what you're going through?

Build The Plan Around Life

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Now, this is why I've always believed something completely different. Don't build your life around the plan, build the plan around your life. It sounds logical, it sounds simple, and it actually is. It's just a different way of looking at it, and it's a different way of coaching. I don't give you a plan and say this is what you got to do, and you're trying to pack it into your roster. What I do is we look at your roster and we build a plan around that. Build the plan around your life. When I coach people, we don't chase perfect. Perfect is not acceptable, it's not even achievable for a shift worker. What we do is we chase repeatable. Because repeatable beats perfect every single time. We pick one thing and we repeat it. Can you do something on a run of four nights? Can you still do that when you're tired? Then, can you do that after 12 hours at work? Then can you do that while the kids are home? Because if the answer is no to any one of those, you know what? You're on the wrong plan. And that's why it's failing for you.

Repeatable Beats Perfect

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Now, one of my favorite questions to ask is this. What is there that you can still do on your worst day? Not your best day. Everyone has best days, but what can you do on your worst day? Your worst one. Because that's the habit that's actually going to change your life. It might be a 10-minute walk. Don't you dare tell me that you can't get a 10-minute walk every single day. Don't. Don't. Because you can. And you know damn well you can. You just don't make it a priority. Maybe it's getting outside for some daylight. What about if you got outside for a 10-minute walk? You've killed two. Maybe it's better picking a better overnight snack for work when you're on night shift. It's about the small things, it's about doing those small things consistently because that's what lasts. And when the chips are down and the pressure's on and the world's gone to custard, that's what sticks. That's what lasts. That's what's ingrained in your DNA. And here's something that I wish every single shift worker understood. You are never going to be perfect. And neither am I. Life gets messy. Your roster changes.

Habits That Work On Worst Days

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People go sick. Cars break down. The goal was never perfection. Not with me. The goal is having a system that you can fall back on again and again and again without guilt. Because guilt does not improve health. You can think that it does. You can remonstrate with yourself, pick on yourself, be unkind to yourself. Where does that get you? Research is quite clear on this. The more you bully yourself, the worse the outcome is. I know you think that that's what works, but if I was bullying you, you would push back against it and resent me for it. And you actually subconsciously do the same to yourself. It pushes you further away from what you're trying to achieve. What actually works is compassion and understanding and empathy, and having a system that works for your life, and that is literally what creates change. Now, over the last four episodes, we've talked about

Drop The Guilt And Use Compassion

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myths, biology, the signals that your body depends on, and building habits that actually fit your life. But in the next episode, I'm gonna zoom right out because I think we've been accepting something as shift workers that we should have changed a long, long time ago. And it's probably the most important conversation that I've ever had on this podcast. Not only that, but it's episode 400. That's right. 400 episodes of a healthy shift podcast. And over the last 10 episodes, I've transitioned into a new way of doing the podcast, and I am super excited with episode 400. It is next level incredible. I've listened back to it a number of times, and it actually excites me. It's fantastic. Honestly, it really is. So this one's episode 399. Your next episode. So I really, highly, highly recommend that you hit follow on the platform that you listen to your podcasts on and you turn your notifications on and get yourself ready and find yourself a good walk, a good run, a good commute to listen to episode 400 because it is a really good episode. I mean, I think they're all good, but I think this one is next level good. I was just excited with the way it all came out when I wrote it. Now, when it comes to this, if there's things that I've said that you go, oh my god, Roger gets it. I have coaching positions open. I can help you with this. All you gotta do is go to the show notes. Go back to the show notes and go down to the bottom, and you can book a one-to-one assessment call with me. Meet me, have a chat with me, I'll ask you questions, get a feel, make a decision. Let's see how we can help you, what your struggles are, what your life looks like, and I will then work out whether we're a good fit for coaching. Because the investment that you make will change your life. I can promise you that it will.

Episode 400 Preview And Next Steps

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We need to prioritize our health, it needs to be important to us. So listen to these episodes and go with that. Very important. If what I've said resonated, let's catch up and let's have a talk about how I can help you with this. Because I'm hoping that it's actually giving you an aha moment as to why it's not working for you. So if today's episode has resonated with you, I'd encourage you to stop chasing perfect this week. Instead, I want you to ask yourself one question. What's one thing that I can repeat? Not once, not when it's easy, but consistently. Don't wait for your day off. That's cheating. Because it's a day off. You've got to do it on a day when you are really under the hammer. Because that's where your life change begins. And if you know another shift worker who's forever saying, I don't know where to start, and I really, I just don't know what I should be doing. Or you know a shift worker that is really struggling, send them this episode. Help them feel seen, help them feel heard. They might just realize that it's not the motivation that they're lacking. They've just never been trying to follow a plan that was never designed for their life. Next episode, episode 400. It's a conversation that I've wanted to have for such a long time. I cannot wait to share it with you. And until then, remember, we weren't designed to work against your biology. You were designed to work with it. It doesn't have to be this way. I'm Roger Sutherland. Thank you for sharing your time. Thank you for listening. If today's episode resonated with you, don't let the conversation stop here. Share it with a colleague, a manager, a friend, a leader, or someone who has the opportunity to improve the lives of people working in a 24-7 environment. Because real change starts with awareness. And awareness changes conversations, and conversations change organisations. And organizations change lives. So thank you for spending this time with me. And until next time, I want you to remember this it doesn't have to be this way. Take care of yourself and take care of each other.