Hello Sam
Burnout is a word I'm seeing and hearing a lot right now. But what is it?
Burnout was actually listed by The World Health Organisation as an “occupational phenomenon” in 2019. It’s a result of chronic workplace stress and occurs when you experience heightened levels of stress for an extended period of time; it takes a major toll on your physical and mental health. The WHO lists burnout symptoms as: “feelings of exhaustion, increased mental distance or negative feelings towards one’s job, and reduced professional efficacy”.
Our physical, mental and emotional wellbeings are clearly critical to us as people in business if we are to continue growing our business. Our business’ financial wellbeing depends on our personal wellbeing and that of our team.
So how can we avoid burnout?
Here are my 5 top tips to avoid burnout in business - Keep organised
How you manage your time is how you manage yourself. Set yourself realistic goals for the week ahead (for the next 90 days if you can) and list out all the activities that need to be done to achieve those goals.
Delegate where you can, ensuring that the person or people to whom you delegate know exactly how you need it doing and when it needs to be done by. (BEWARE: poor communication here will inevitably lead to frustration and more stress when the job’s not done how you wanted it!)
Everything else needs to go into your diary in a way that gives you a clear structure for your day. Be sure to put in the most important tasks first and be realistic about how long it will take you to complete it. Smaller, less important activities can be fitted around the critical jobs.
Most importantly, get into a rhythm and stick to this diary!
2. Take breaks
Make time in your diary for short breaks with a longer one at lunchtime. I like to have a 5 minute walk around outside between my Zoom meetings but it could just be that you go and fetch yourself a glass of water to rehydrate, or close your eyes and do some deep breathing for 5 minutes.
3. Exercise
It’s really important that we take some form of exercise every day. The benefits of regular exercise are well-known and well documented but in particular exercise lifts your mood and gives you energy. It also increases our physical fitness and reduces the risk of chronic health problems. We spend too much time sitting still which is not good for us. So be sure to include exercise time in your daily diary – and stick to it! I do mine early, first thing in the morning, to make sure nothing crops up to get in the way.
4. Unplug during non-work hours
If we work from home, it can feel hard sometimes to separate our personal and business lives. Even if we don’t work from home, it’s still likely that we’re checking in on things using our phones. To avoid burnout, we need to set up boundaries and be able to switch off from business. A great way to do that is to find a creative hobby. Getting creative is also a fun way to get the right-hand side of our brains engaged which is a part of our brain more and more neglected these days. Make it fun!
5. Ask for help
Being in business can be tough and lonely at times. Sometimes it feels like there’s no-one to talk to about the challenges and ups and downs. But keeping all your stress to yourself is downright dangerous – and unnecessary. Get professional help, reach out to a good friend, join a group of like-minded people and build relationships.
If you suffer from mind-made limiting beliefs, why not come along to our next power hour masterclass where you’ll learn powerful techniques to manage your mindset. It’s from 1-2pm on Tuesday, 20th July. You can book your place HERE.
For our full range of upcoming power hour masterclasses you can visit our website at https://businesswellbeing.club/events/
In the meantime, if you have any questions, just hit reply!
Till then …
Enjoy your day!
Best, from
Ros
Business Coach 07818 646672
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