Are you finding it hard to concentrate? Do you feel more irritable each day? You could be experiencing burnout. Most people experience it at some point in their lives, and it's an important thing to learn how to manage.
Business owners are particularly vulnerable, given the intense tasks involved in the role. With nobody else influencing your schedule, it's easy to end up working too much, blurring work and non-work, and letting stress get the better of you. It's essential to proactively manage yourself to avoid burnout, especially as it can affect other areas of your life and business.
Here are some tips for helping avoid burnout.
Prioritize Your Health
Your business is essential, but you can't run it if you sacrifice your health. That's why you must prioritize eating well, getting enough sleep, and exercising. Too many business owners rush through meals, short themselves on rest, and exercise when the crisis is over. Since there's always another crisis, too often, these crucial tasks consistently fall by the wayside.
You can't be effective or happy if you don't take time to recharge. Make sure that you spend time with your friends and family, and that you maintain your hobbies. Spending time socializing or on recreational habits isn’t wasted time or something you should monetize. Hobbies are vital to sustained productivity and lets you use your brain in other ways, creating inspiration for different areas of your life. It's also essential to do nothing every so often to let your brain rest.
You know better than anyone what you value. It could be going to your kids' sporting events or getting out in nature for hiking, hunting, or camping.
Effectively Manage Your Time
It's a lot easier to set boundaries when getting everything done. You must focus on the crucial decisions you need to make and manage your time to best use your skills.
Keeping track of all your responsibilities allows you to be present when you need to be and set a good example by being on time. Keep a proper schedule, make appointments, and assign time for everything you need to do. Many people only "make appointments" when another person is involved, but you can also make an appointment with yourself, whether it's to get any paperwork done or take a proper lunch break. Also, this allows you to be punctual and make your appointments, which will then instill itself in company culture. If nothing else, many companies waste a lot of time waiting for someone who is always five minutes late to meetings. Don't let that person be you.
Set Realistic Expectations Through Clear Communication
Stress triggers burnout. Employees not doing their job, or what you perceive to be their job, creates stress for everyone. Make sure you set reasonable expectations for those around you. Ensure you don't expect people to have 25 hours in a day and that you treat them fairly. That goes beyond your employees to your spouse and children, as well. Burnout often manifests as being angry at family, which can impact those relationships profoundly.
If somebody says you aren't being fair, listening is essential. Make sure that you communicate clearly and, if you are misunderstood, realize that the only part you can control is how you present the information. Learn how different people need information. Doing so also sets a positive example for others and encourages transparent communication throughout your business, reducing and resolving conflict. Be sure to communicate important matters through multiple channels.
Seek Variety and Challenge Yourself
One cause of burnout is the feeling that you are just on a treadmill, making no progress. Too much repetition increases stress, and while it is worse when imposed from outside, you can easily impose it on yourself. If you start to feel that way, you need to give yourself more variety. If your role seems to be devolving into an endless round of paperwork, there are things you can do to change it.
Don't be afraid to delegate or outsource tasks to others. While you don't want to bore your employees either, you don't have to do all that paperwork yourself. Spreading the tedious tasks out means that no one person is overburdened, and outsourcing means you can hand them off to experts who can do them much faster than you could. Outsourcing routine HR functions (which often end up on the owner's desk) is one big step you can take to improve your work-life balance and avoid burnout.
Work on your learning and challenges. Take training courses, develop a new skill, look for new ways of doing things. At worst, you will learn something. At best, you may realize that your business is not doing something most effectively. Doing your professional development and making it visible helps encourage employees to seek out training opportunities proactively, which improves loyalty and engagement.
Maintain Wellness with a Balanced Lifestyle
Business owners are prone to burnout because they often take on too much. The business owner who "does it all" is a poor role model, and that lifestyle turns them into a poor boss. While it might seem to be a good idea to step in and take on random tasks, it's better to delegate or outsource those tasks so that you can focus on making more critical and challenging decisions. If you work through lunch, work late, and never use PTO, your employees will feel obligated to do the same thing. Then everyone ends up burned out.
Instead, seek balance in your life. You will find that doing so improves productivity and how your business operates.
