Managing burnout as an entrepreneur

Managing burnout as an entrepreneur

As we’ve been exploring how to set up your business to give you the freedom, flexibility and fulfilment that you’re after, we’ve looked at all things business models, systems, outsourcing, financials, and, last week, mindset. This week, I want to take a slightly different approach to look at how you can recognise, prevent and manage burnout as you run your business.

As I shared at the start, I truly believe that running your own business is the very best way in which you can get that freedom, flexibility and fulfilment, but also that it doesn’t come automatically. There is a lot of work that needs to be done to make sure your business gives you what you want. Over all of this hangs the sword of Damocles that is the risk of working too hard, pushing yourself too far, and ending up experiencing burnout.

The last thing you want to do is to end up working harder than you did in your corporate job, which you probably left at least partly for the very reason of wanting to avoid burnout. If you’re stressed and unwell, you won’t be enjoying either the work you’re doing OR your time off (such as it is). And, when you are your business, taking care of yourself is taking care of your business.

The 5 pillars of building a life outside of the 9 to 5

Get started with this free resource, a scorecard that looks at 5 key areas that will ensure that your business is profitable and gives you the freedom, flexibility and fulfilment that you’re after.

So what about managing burnout as an entrepreneur?

How to avoid burnout as an entrepreneur

The first thing to do is to set yourself up for success to begin with. This means all the things we’ve been talking about these past weeks: deciding on the right business model, creating systems and tools, outsourcing routine tasks, getting your financials right, working on your mindset

On top of these strategies, here are five things to consider to help you avoid burnout…

1.   Get clear on your priorities

My first piece of advice will always be: define what ‘success’ means to you. This means getting clear on the big-picture vision of what you want from your business, and your life; it means identifying the practical criteria for what you want your lifestyle to look like; and it means getting super clear on your specific priorities on a day-to-day basis.

A few concrete strategies here:

  • Use Pareto’s 80-20 principle to identify the 20% of your work (your clients, your projects, and so on) that is generating 80% of your results
  • Review where you’re actually spending your time each day, each week, and see if this aligns with the priorities that you’ve identified
  • Examine your to-do list, identify what really is a ‘must-do’, and then translate those tasks into calendar appointments – what’s on the calendar gets done!
  • Follow Brian Tracy’s advice to ‘eat that frog’, tackling your most challenging (but also your most impactful) task the first thing you do in the morning
  • Set boundaries and learn to say ‘no’ when things crop up that just aren’t a priority for you and your business (or your family)

If you don’t do this work, then you’ll easily get overwhelmed with the endless things that you could or ‘should’ do – with no end in sight.

2.   Run your own race

Once you’re clear on what ‘success’ means to you, and you know what you’re working on and why, you will be able to focus on those goals and priorities that you’ve identified. And it’s important that you do just that: focus on your own vision, your own plans.

It’s so easy to get distracted by what other people are doing. You’re bombarded on a daily basis with images and messages on social media, and the pressure is on:

  • Glamorous Instagrammers are doing gravity-defying yoga poses on the beach
  • ‘Boss babes’ on Facebook are making seven figures every month
  • Not to mention all of your friends who are getting a promotion / getting engaged / getting married / having children / staying in some luxury resort, and so on.

If you add all these things up, together they create an impossible amalgamation of every possible goal and achievement.

Stop comparing yourself to what other people are doing, or to where you think you “should” be. You have your vision, you have your goals, and you have your plan: now, keep your head down, stick to the plan, and do what you know you have to do.

3.   Learn to switch off

I’m a big fan of work-life integration, however, this doesn’t mean that you should be working all the time. It’s easy to tell yourself (as I did the in the early days), “I work all the time, but I don’t mind, I just love what I do so much…” Yes, it’s amazing that you’re working on creating something that you’re passionate about, but that doesn’t mean it’s the only thing that matters. It’s no good for anyone – you, your business, or your friends and family – if you blur those boundaries so much that you’re ‘always on’.

You need to learn to switch off. This means, for example…

  • Literally and physically switch off your computer, turn off the notifications on your phone, and close the door to your home office
  • Take breaks throughout the day, at least every 1-1.5 hours, having a proper lunch away from your computer, going outside to get some fresh air…
  • Create a routine to help you wind down in the evening – a bath, a book, a cup of chamomile tea – and make sure you’re aiming for a solid 7+ hours of sleep

Take a look at your day, your week, your month, your year – and then work out how you can set some boundaries and carve out ‘me time’, family time, rest time. All the research now says that you need to work less, not more, to be more productive – so even from a purely mercenary business perspective, it’s important to learn to switch off!

4.   Notice the red flags

The risk is that you just keep pushing through, thinking, “I can do this!” (and you probably can – until you can’t…). Instead, you need to be vigilant and respond to early signs rather than wait until it’s too late.

I found the 12-stage model of burnout, developed by psychologists Freudenberger and North, very interesting. It starts with ‘milder’ signs that I think a lot of us may identify with and yet find to be ‘normal’ and not associated with burnout:

  • The compulsion to prove yourself, relying on external validation and taking on ever bigger responsibilities
  • Working harder and not being able to switch off
  • Sleeping less, eating poorly
  • Neglecting friends, family and hobbies
  • Denying that any problems exist
  • Feeling cynical and getting frustrated with colleagues

Sound familiar? It’s important to pick up on these signs BEFORE you get to the more serious stages…

  • Withdrawal from social life and reliance on drinking or drugs to deal with stress
  • Strange changes in your behaviour
  • Feeling empty inside
  • Depression
  • Medical burnout

If you’re feeling exhausted, lacking motivation, and struggling to focus, then act NOW. You may tell yourself you don’t have time to take a break – but if you don’t slow down now, sooner or later, you’ll be forced to stop altogether.

5.   Get support

I’m always talking about the importance of asking for help and surrounding yourself with a supportive community to help you through the ups and downs in your business. This is even more important in the specific context of avoiding burnout.

There are a few different types of support that you need:

  • A ‘tribe’ of peers who will encourage you and cheer you on, empathise with your struggles, and help you avoid feelings of loneliness and isolation
  • A coach or mentor who will guide you on the business side, helping you identify the right priorities to focus on so that you don’t get overwhelmed with working on anything and everything without seeing results
  • Friends and family who aren’t involved in your business and can help distract you from the problems and stress you may be experiencing

If you are already experiencing signs of burnout, then the real support you need may well be from a medical professional.

If you’d like to explore how you can extract yourself from the ‘hustle’ and set up your business in a way that is sustainable and enjoyable for you, then get in touch to book a free consultation with me. We’ll look at where you are today in your business, where you might be able to make some tweaks, and how I can support you in creating more freedom and flexibility in your routine.

Apply for your session here >>

SHARE THIS ARTICLE
Facebook
Pinterest
Twitter
LinkedIn
Email

2 Responses

  1. I can certainly relate to this, especially the point about becoming cynical and frustrated with others. I think it’s so easy to ignore the signs, believing it to be a normal part of being in business – when, in fact, the alarm bells should be ringing.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

You might also be interested in these articles

“Everything you’ve ever
wanted is one step outside
your comfort zone.”

Book a free consultation

Get on the phone with Anna to discuss your unique goals and situation to determine the best programme for you, so you can start taking action towards creating the business and lifestyle you desire.

Explore a broader definition of success

Download this free assessment to consider what ‘success’ means to you across different areas of your life, evaluate where you are today, and prioritise the right goals to get you to where you want to be.

We will use and protect your data in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

Explore a broader definition of success

Download this free assessment to consider what ‘success’ means to you across different areas of your life, evaluate where you are today, and prioritise the right goals to get you to where you want to be.

We will use and protect your data in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

Outside of the 9 to 5

Anna continues the journey in her new book, where she details what’s needed to sustain your initial escape from the 9 to 5 in a guide to designing and building a profitable business that gives you more freedom, flexibility and fulfilment.

We will use and protect your data in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

Privacy Policy

This privacy policy sets out how One Step Outside uses and protects any information that you give One Step Outside when you use this website (https://onestepoutside.com/).

One Step Outside is committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. Should we ask you to provide certain information by which you can be identified when using this website, then you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this privacy statement.

One Step Outside may change this policy from time to time by updating this page. You should check this page from time to time to ensure that you are happy with any changes.

What information we collect and why

We only ever collect the information that we need in order to serve you.

Generally, this just means collecting your first name and email address that you enter, for example, when you request a resource, register for a webinar, or submit a message via a contact form.

If you are a paying customer, we also collect your billing information including your last name and your postal address.

Comments

When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

An anonymised string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

Contact forms

We use Gravity Forms to allow you to contact us via the website. We will use the information you submit for the sole purpose of that specific form and will explicitly ask you to provide your consent to allow us to do so.

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Advertising and Analytics

Google

We use Google Analytics to track and optimise performance on this site as well as embedding video content from YouTube, and this means that your web browser automatically sends certain information to Google. This includes the URL of the page that you’re visiting and your IP address. Google may also set cookies on your browser or read cookies that are already there. Apps that use Google advertising services also share information with Google, such as the name of the app and a unique identifier for advertising.

Google uses the information shared by sites and apps to deliver our services, maintain and improve them, develop new services, measure the effectiveness of advertising, protect against fraud and abuse and personalise content and ads that you see on Google and on our partners’ sites and apps. See their Privacy Policy to learn more about how they process data for each of these purposes, and their Advertising page for more about Google ads, how your information is used in the context of advertising and how long Google stores this information.

Facebook

We use the conversion tracking and custom audiences via the Facebook pixel on our website. This allows user behaviour to be tracked after they have been redirected to our website by clicking on a Facebook ad and enables us to measure the effectiveness of our Facebook ads. The data collected in this way is anonymous to us, i.e. we do not see the personal data of individual users. However, this data is stored and processed by Facebook, who may link this information to your Facebook account and also use it for its own promotional purposes, in accordance with Facebook’s Data Usage Policy https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/.

You can allow Facebook and its partners to place ads on and off Facebook. A cookie may also be stored on your computer for these purposes. You can revoke your permission directly on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/ads/preferences/?entry_product=ad_settings_screen. For more guidance on opting out you can also consult http://www.aboutads.info/choices.

Who we share your data with

We use a number of third parties to provide us with services which are necessary to run our business or to assist us with running our business and who process your information for us on our behalf. These include a hosting and email provider (Siteground), mailing list provider (GetResponse), and a payment provider (Stripe).

Your information will be shared with these service providers only where necessary to enable us to run our business.

How long we maintain your data

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognise and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

For users that register on our website, we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

The main reason for collecting this information is to be able to send you resources, updates and, sometimes, information and products and services, as well as for internal record keeping.

The rights you have over your data

If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

How we protect your data

We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure.

Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password that lets you access certain parts of our site, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential and we ask you not to share a password with anyone.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our site; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

Links to other websites

Our website contains links to other websites. This privacy policy only applies to this website so once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.

Changes to our privacy policy

We keep our privacy policy under regular review. Initially created on 18th November 2016, it was last updated on 23rd May 2018 to be compliant with GDPR.

Contact information

If you have any questions or concerns related to your privacy, you can get in touch here >>