Building your own buisiness can be super overwhelming and exhausting. As it is important to care for yourself I am sharing what helped me to prevent myself from overworking in 7 tips against a burnout.
Once I set my eyes on a goal I tend to keep pushing forwards till I reach it. While this is definitely better than tending to procrastinate, It can also push you towards a burnout. After my decision was made to start an art buissiness I created a to-do-list of everything I needed to get started. But even so, it felt like I didn’t made any fast progress. So I kept working even harder. Creating my website and blog took about 2-3 days, because I worked on it with a single minded focus and with the help of my boyfriend Alex. Still, neither of us had worked with wordpress before and thus we encountered a lot of problems.
I don’t know if every wordpress newbie struggles as much as I did but I can tell you that it really wasn’t fun at times. I’ll share my insight for absolute beginners like myself in another post – setting up a blog and a webshop with wordpress and everything that’s connected to that.
Considering I had worked non-stop for a while already, was stressed out about marketing and still had my worries and doubts if my business will succeed, it was no surprise that after the website was done I felt shaky, emotional and exhausted. That evening I broke down and Alex had to deal with an overly emotional crying and depressed wreck. It took me a few days to recover from my first small burnout. Which was more time than if I had taken small and proper breaks.
You might assume that I learnt my lesson from it. In theory I did. But in reality I came very close to running straight ahead into my second burnout. After eight days without a break I noticed that I felt like crying over super small issues again and pulled the emergency brake. I am telling you this to remind you that it is super important to take breaks and work in a feasible manner. Be kind to yourself, your body and your mind. To make it easier, here are some tips and tricks I used to prevent my 3rd burnout.
7 practical tips and tricks against a burnout
- Do not skip your lazy sunday. Take a whole day off per week where you don’t work and do something instead that you enjoy and makes you relax. Remember that the fallout of a burnout might be way bigger than taking a break.
- Go somewhere else. Get out of your working environment which reminds you of your ongoing project. Depending on your circumstances a room switch might be enough. Or even better a daytrip to leave everything completely behind.
- Make a list with goals of what you want to achieve and pay attention if its realistic and healthy. After you reach your goal, check in with yourself and enjoy your free time. Readjust the plan if you notice its too much or not enough at the end of the day.
- Get moving and be active. Your favorite workout, a sports hobby, yoga or whatever you enjoy. Even going for a walk can reduce stress. For me yoga, walks and dancing helped a lot.
- It all starts in the mind. Observe your mindset to be able to reduce stress. Register how you are feeling. But don’t judge and accept everything you find. Be kind to yourself. If you are worrying too much, try to trust and believe in yourself. Think about what you can be grateful for. Be in the present moment and look for the small and big things that can bring you joy – The presence of a beloved person, how the sun shines into your room, the help you are receiving, etc. Use your to-do-list to remind yourself that you got everything under control as far as possible. If you need support in your project, accept or ask for it. It can lessen the stress you put on yourself.
- Make sure to give your mind and body the care it needs to continue to be so wonderful. Treat yourself and meditate or drink tea for example. Do what you love. Sleep enough.
- Use a good and productive day structure. What worked well for me was following the adapted day structure from Andrew Huberman, a neuroscientist. Use 90min work cycles with a timer. Take a break afterwards where you eat, do a workout or go for a walk. It is amazing how much you can achieve in 3 working cycles only. And afterwards you feel so good about everything you achieved and you can relax. (You can find his podcast episode on optimized productivity here for more details) Don’t be scared to accept or ask for help. Getting support can lift the weight a bit you put on yourself.
I’m sure there’s more one can do. But these 7 tips against a burnout did it for me. And maybe they can help you too 🙂 And in case you are still unsure if you should start your new project, maybe check out my other blog article about the magic of new beginnings! I’d love to hear from you in the comments. Otherwise I wish you a wonderful day and that you achieve your own goal. Don’t worry – we got this!
