Are you feeling a little overwhelmed and burnt out? Does it feel like a never ending roller coaster of things to get done, family needing your attention and missing your friends? Entrepreneurs often have a hard time balancing their work hours especially when they are working from home. This can often create business burnout and mental overwhelm. You work when you can. Doing everything you can to build your business. Whatever it takes right? After six months, a year or more, always thinking business… it can run you right into business burnout. Let’s talk about a few things you can do to prevent burnout and overwhelm in your business!
Be serious without having to be perfect.
Perfection is an illusion! We all have perfectionistic tendencies but when we are driving ourselves into the ground trying to make everything perfect, we lose the purpose of the journey. Making mistakes is normal. We were taught as children in school that it was bad, or you were wrong to make errors on your assignments. That was school! This is life and business, and you are now an adult that gets to make decisions based on the knowledge you currently have which is a lot more than you did as a child. The only real teacher now is life. Life will let you know if what you are doing is not working. And it will let you know what is working and then there is the space in between. Stop waiting until everything is perfect before you act or take a chance. You will learn so much in the journey and you are an intelligent being who will be able to recover if something doesn’t work out perfectly!
Schedule non-business into your calendar.
Teach yourself to put the most important things into your schedule and plan it out ahead of time. Put in time for you, your family, and friends into your calendar so you can be human and not a working robot. Check in to how you are feeling. If you need a break, then schedule it. Don’t leave clients and customers waiting without hearing from you. Let them know what you will do by when and reschedule with them if necessary. But when you put the time in your calendar for non-business time then you don’t over schedule when you need time off. You plan and let spontaneity show up without it having a negative impact on your life, your family, or your business.
On a weekly basis schedule, yourself one to two “stop early nights”.
These are evenings when you finish up working earlier than regular and go spend time with a friend, with your family or do something for yourself. Plan a girl’s night out, special dinner with your family, take a bath, go to a movie, read a non-business-related book or go to bed early. Walk away from the need to do business every waking moment in your day. Stop trying to be an overnight millionaire!
When our kids were young, we had Family Night every Tuesday. We went out to dinner, played board games, cards and talked to each other. When people wanted to schedule things with me and wanted me to work with them on a Tuesday I would decline and tell them that it was Family Night, and they would have to pick another time with me. Be consistent with yourself and do not let other people cross your boundaries.
Every three months (quarterly) take two to three days and get away from business and unplug.
Have a family outing, go somewhere on your own, lay in bed all weekend and watch old movies. Whatever you do, let go of business for a couple days and enjoy life on your terms. This helps your brain rejuvenate and reset which allows you to be open to what comes next in your business. That problem you have been trying to solve might have an easy solution after you take a good break. If something creative pops into your head write it down or put it into a notes app in your phone to come back to when you are back to work. (When you are relaxed your mind will find you answers so jot them down because they are only a protein in your brain until you do something with it. Or it will dissolve, and you will try hard to remember it but it won’t be there. Write it down and come back to it when you are back to work.)
Get help in your business.
There are many ways to get help in your business that supports you in preventing business burnout. One of the reasons I share about delegating is to help clients see how valuable it is to have others do the things in business that hold you back from doing what you love and the reason you started your business in the first place. There are so many things that happen in business and too often business owners are bogged down by all the things that have to be done to make a business successful and that keeps them from having fun and truly doing what they started their business to do. Burnout comes when you try to do it all on your own. There are many ways to get help without it having to cost a lot of money so don’t use that as an excuse to not get the help you deserve to prevent business burnout!
By allowing yourself to take time out from your growing business you set yourself up to win and not burnout from the overwhelm of growing and making the money you want for long term success. It also sets the boundaries in place that support strong long term relationships with your clients, friends and family and gives you the space to truly give your business the best of you. Getting help also allows you to create the necessary time away and trust your business will still be blossoming when you step back in.
Bonus:
What are the important things to add to your calendar? Consider these questions to fill your calendar with the important things first and then fill in the rest as you continue throughout the process of this year.
1. What you want to do with your family and friends for the year? Vacations, Trips, Events and Personal Time for You. (Decide early and put in your calendar)
2. What do you need to schedule for business. Business events, planning sessions, conferences you want to attend, client sessions, social mixers, one to ones. Anything that helps you make $!
3. What will keep you healthy? List all the events to keep you healthy. Dr. check-ups, Dentist, workout times, fasting and anything that keeps you healthy.
4. Where do you want to give this year? What philanthropic events do you wish to give support in? Will you give money or your time? Where do you wish to put some time in to help others? How much time?
5. When are your bills due? How are you paying them? Late payments cost you money that is eating away at your budget. Do everything you can to get your bills paid on time and save yourself some lost money on fees.