How to avoid burnout for entrepreneurs

We have all heard this buzz word called “burnout” the reason it has become a buzz word is because burnout is a real thing that a lot of small business owners deal with. It something that is easy to slip into and even harder to get out of.

As entrepreneurs one of the greatest gifts is being able to manage our own schedules right? Becoming our own boss is the dream behind becoming a small business owner. Then reality starts to hit that are paychecks are not guaranteed every two weeks; which causes us to be constantly answering emails, taking orders, working on social, planning another event, recording a podcast… whatever it takes to continue to make our business grow in an ever-changing system. Unfortunately that causes us to spiral into a constant work hustle mode which eventually turns into burnout.

One of the biggest cues or burnout is when you start to not enjoy your work. We understand that work and hustle is a must or else everyone would be doing services for free. However as entrepreneurs this is the DREAM LIFE so when we are sitting and hustling we tend to make a lot of money but are not taking time for the reward.

Balance is something we tend to stray away from because the balance scales are always shifting and tipping…. Which is why we tend to focus on aligning your work with your values. Here is a quick exercise that if you stick with will become beneficial in avoiding burnout.

1. List out a set of your priorities for the month that have to get done to make your business run. (work wise)
2. Set time limits to each of those tasks (be realistic when it comes to how long each task takes)
3. Write out a list of things that bring you joy! (these can be something simple as reading a book)
4. Take those list of priorities and schedule them throughout your calendar for the entire month (be aware of spacing things out)
5. This is the golden nugget!!! SCHEDULE IN YOUR JOY!!!!

It might sound crazy to schedule in a coffee date with your and your honey, or reading a book but when you put it on paper you will follow through with it! When scheduling your joy look at the overall month and make sure you are “aligning” with your work flow. If you have 5 work tasks one day, only schedule in 1 the next day and make sure that day is filled with JOY! For more details we talk about this on our podcast, “Rethinking scheduling and the why behind our values”