It’s not uncommon for business owners to work excessively long hours, especially in the early years of their business, but even beyond that. Hence, burnout is a very real possibility. I’m often saying to my Business Coaching clients that business is a marathon, not a sprint and you need to pace yourself. I’ve broken burnout causes into seven categories:
- Workaholism
- People-Pleasing
- Micromanagement
- Overachieving
- Overthinking
- Perfectionism
- Inexperience.
In this article, I’m going to outline each of the categories and provide you with some wisdom on how to avoid burnout in that area.
How to Avoid Burnout
Workaholism
The workaholic is dedicated to working above and beyond. Certainly, in the first six months of business, we do often need to put in longer hours to start making some money and get things off the ground, but this should be very short-term. The workaholic often forgets to eat, loses track of time (to a point it’s 9pm and they are still at it), lives for work (rather than working to live) and has few passions outside work. With long hours, we don’t get breaks, don’t recharge as well as we should and our health suffers. Some things to help with this include:
- Set specific goals, with milestones and work towards them – so you can see you’ve achieved a level and can actually relax a little; see there is no need to panic work.
- Setting good habits; that is take a lunch break every day, eating well and exercise
- Set up holidays in advance; book it in your schedule and book the holiday
- Work to a schedule and be sure to look after yourself; time off, a massage or even something as simple as going out to lunch and connecting with friends.
People Pleasing
You are the person who just cannot say no to anyone. This could be a telemarketer that takes up 20 minutes (or more) of your time, through to taking on the client who needs something ‘yesterday’ despite you already having a huge workload. Remember the airlines practice that you put the air mask over yourself before anyone else – same goes for you. Look after yourself first, so you can look after your clients. Your strategies might include:
- Setting boundaries – everything from your workload, number of clients to when you stop answering the phone at the end of the day!
- Know and value your own value. You’re often the person who discounts too often, or doesn’t charge enough – so then needing to work harder for the same income
- For those who employ, treat yourself as well as you treat your team. You deserve breaks, a wage, holidays, time off for family etc … just as much as your team do.
- Say no! If you do nothing else, learn to say ‘no’ when you need to. It can be done very nicely.
Micromanagement
You are certainly a detailed person and you believe no-one else does it as well as you do – but if you give your team the chance, they could – and potentially even better than you. When you micromanage, you not only overload yourself, but often cause bottlenecks (you are the bottleneck) and you’re holding back your team. Here are your tips:
- Have great (documented) systems and processes and checklists
- Induct and train your team well
- Delegate and let them go! Give them the opportunity to shine
- Stop stepping in and taking over.
Overachieving
You are the person who doesn’t see that enough is enough and kudos to you, you do strive for excellence. However, you are also the person who is very likely going to burnout if you don’t find balance. There is excellent and then there is pushing yourself to the extreme. You are also what I often call a ‘stuffer’. If you’ve got a spare 5 minutes, you’ll try to stuff 10 minutes of work into that time, which may cause you to be late and then stress about your lateness too. Being a high achiever is fantastic, but don’t overdo it. Your strategies might be:
- Have your goals and objectives clearly outlined, but when you do a task list, limit the number of items. For me, no more than 3 extra (small) items in a normal day – on top of my normal workload. Be sure to set realistic expectations so you don’t force yourself to overachieve.
- Put in buffers of time and allow time blocks for the unexpected, rather than just making it fit.
- Look at some of the tips as per the workaholic; you’ll find these valuable too.
- Set your priorities and work on what is more important first, remembering you don’t have to conquer the world today – or even tomorrow.
Overthinking
For this person, they are often caught up in the finer details and overthinking everything. There is absolutely nothing wrong with planning, investigating and doing your due diligence, but don’t allow yourself to become someone who procrastinates because they re-think every decision and therefore don’t make a decision. For you:
- Have a decision-making process and limit the amount of time you spend making decisions, even setting a deadline for making that decision. In no way not saying do your due diligence, but be reasonable in the time and energy you put into this.
- If your ‘overthinking’ tends to boarder into daydreaming, then focus programs like ‘Forest’ might help
- Don’t see a challenge as a bad thing; it’s often an opportunity in disguise. Practice your problem-solving skills.
Perfectionism
Only perfectionists really expect perfect. When we make something 100-110% perfect, it usually takes us a tonne more time. Time is money, so you’re wasting profit. The other thing a perfectionist struggles with is delegation. When you delegate, then you’re essentially duplicating yourself and that means more can get done in the same period of time. Tips from a ‘recovering perfectionist’ are:
- Understand only 3% of the population expect perfect
- Appreciate that 97% right is absolutely fine; nothing has to be 100-110% perfect
- Change your mindset and practice imperfect (it’s hard, but you can do it)
- Delegate with acceptance the person may not be perfect, but accept 97% is fabulous.
Inexperience
This last category is for the person who really isn’t sure of what they are doing. You might be the ‘newbie’ to business, or have gaps in your skill levels, or just simply, don’t know where to start. Your inexperience may mean you do things the wrong way, or hard way, which causes you to delay in your success. There is nothing wrong with being inexperienced; we all started there at one time or another, and there is a lot you can do:
- Learn, do classes, read, listen to podcasts; basically, educate yourself
- Seek guidance from experts, whether that’s for your Google Ads or your accountant, or doing your social media correctly.
- Get organised; create/use systems to manage your workload well.
- Learn great time management skills
- Get a business coach. Yes, I know that’s a plug for me, but it’s true. One great way to improve your skills, improve your business and make a positive step forward is to have a business coach in your corner.
With all of the above, these are the sort of things I cover in coaching where signs of burnout are showing – and then we address that particular challenge in much more detail. Often too, I’m about problem solving before the problem even comes up – essentially anticipating what could become a problem – and then resolving it before it’s an issue. If you need any help with the above especially being burnout – please reach out. My passion is your potential!
If you are interested in Business Coaching, Leadership Mentoring or Life Coaching, book a sample coaching session here.
Read How to Be a Crummy Boss.
