Have you been feeling tired, de-motivated, or overwhelmed lately? You might be experiencing burnout. Here are some ways you can avoid burnout in your business.
Delegate
In order to be successful, you have to do everything yourself. FALSE. Delegating is part of being a good leader! And chances are, you don’t even enjoy doing everything that is required to run your business. So why not outsource some of it or hire someone to do the things you aren’t good at/don’t enjoy doing? Avoiding burnout in your business starts with determining what you must do yourself and what you can ask others to do. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. Be aware of yours and delegate.
Set realistic goals
Unrealistic expectations and goals can quickly lead to a sense of failure and guilt, both classic warning signs of burnout. This is why it’s important to set realistic goals so that you can make progress on a daily basis instead of spinning into a paralyzing state of overwhelm.
One good way to do this is to sit down at the start of each day and write a daily to-do list of manageable, top priority tasks you’d like to accomplish that day. Think: “If I only have time to get a few things done today, what absolutely has to get done?” Be sure to keep it short! Limit yourself to one side of a post-it note if you have to, so that you’re held accountable. Setting realistic, attainable goals like this is a great way to avoid burnout and keep your motivation up.
Factor in failure and grace
Expect failure. If that sounds depressing, it shouldn’t! We’re all human, which means shortcomings, missteps, and thresholds are all inevitable. But there’s grace to be had each day for those failures: you just have to reach out and claim it. So if you’re looking for a tried and true way to avoid burnout and cut your stress levels, factor both failure and grace into your day. Because if you don’t, you’ll be taken by surprise when you fail and you’ll crash and burn when you aren’t patient with yourself. Grace is what gets us back up after we fail and says that we are still valuable and capable of trying again.
Take care of yourself
Did you know that a more than a third of American’s don’t get enough sleep? There’s a difference between hardworking and working too hard. Having a good work ethic is awesome and we at dotedison are all about rolling up our sleeves and putting our hand to the grindstone to get the job done. But we also live by the motto “work hard, play hard.” We’ve learned the hard way that you can’t burn the candle at both ends and expect yourself to be able to do your best work. (On occasion we also consume ridiculous amounts of caffeine to help us push and meet a deadline, but we tend to do that even on our best days.) Bottom line: know when to hustle and when to call it a day. Remember, rest is productive too.