How to beat burnout.
As an entrepreneur, there are countless obstacles and challenges you will face along the path to profitability.
You have to keep an eye on the competition to avoid surprises, monitor your sales and growth to keep your business in strong operating condition, and actively manage your team to keep everyone on the same page, among others.
But there’s one major problem that most entrepreneurs don’t see coming, because they’re so busy worrying about everyone and everything else: they forget to care about themselves.
Burnout is a major concern for entrepreneurs, and it could destroy everything they’ve created.
4 effects of exhaustion
Most entrepreneurs have a natural tenacity that compels them to work through tough times. On the one hand it is beneficial, because it allows them to keep moving forward despite the many obstacles that come their way, but it also forces them to underestimate their own resilience.
Dealing with stressful issues for too long can drain your motivation and energy, culminating in the following effects:
- Decreased Energy: You will come to work with less energy, which means that you will not work effectively and will decrease the morale of your team. This has an aggravating and worsening effect; Because you’re less productive, you’ll spend more hours working, making the effects of burnout more profound.
- Poor decision making: Partly because you will disassociate yourself from your business and partly because you will be thinking less clearly, you will tend to make worse decisions for your project. That means less long-term potential and more immediate problems to solve when your solutions don’t work as you envisioned.
- Enjoy less: Don’t forget that part of the reason you became an entrepreneur was so you could enjoy the benefits of controlling your own schedule. If you stress yourself out too much, you’ll stop enjoying the experience altogether, negating one of your biggest initial motivations.
- Physical symptoms: Don’t underestimate the physical effects that excess stress can have on your body. Your immune system will weaken, leaving you more susceptible to disease, you’ll feel sore and tired more easily, and you may even develop stress-related conditions such as high blood pressure or ulcers.
5 early symptoms of burnout
There’s no easy way to prevent burnout completely, but you can recognize it when it starts to develop and try to avoid it. Here are some of the first warning signs of burnout you’ll notice:
- You dread going to the office: You don’t have to be excited to jump out of bed every morning, but if you wake up dreading the idea of going to the office or starting work, it’s a sign that something is wrong. Once in a while it’s not a big problem, but if the fear is constant, something has to change.
- You get tired and stressed much more easily: Think about how irritable you are or how much it takes to make you stressed. The faster your body (and mind) escalates through these scenarios, the closer you are to exhaustion. Over time, you become much more sensitive to stressful events.
- You’re not setting aside much time for yourself: Think about the last time you took a “real” day off work or the last vacation. You may feel like you don’t need time for yourself, but vacations are important for your productivity and mental health.
- Your habits are changing in a negative way: Take a look at some of your habits. Are you eating more unhealthy foods? Have you stopped exercising? Have you taken up an abusive habit, such as excessive drinking or smoking? These are signs of exhaustion.
- Your friends or family have expressed concern: Your friends and family are there to support you and if they are expressing honest concern, you need to listen to them. Because you’re immersed in your venture, they’re likely to spot the signs of burnout before you do.
How to beat burnout.
If you notice burnout before it starts to compromise your work performance, there is still time to take action:
- Take time off: Take a personal day, or even a personal week, to regain your mental condition. Don’t fool yourself by taking a “personal day” where you’re going to check your email all day. The job will be there when you get back.
- Delegate more responsibilities: If your workload is excessive, start delegating tasks to your team members. You hired them because you trust them, so let them help you when you need them most.
- Say “no”: You are in charge here. Just say “no” to tasks that are too big and you won’t be able to handle them. Creating a space to work better is seeking to be more efficient. Look for opportunities that take you closer to your goal, closer to those big goals; don’t work just to be busier.
- De-stress: Take time to exercise, meditate and clear your mind.
No matter how big your dreams and your venture are, your health should always come first.
If you are really interested in creating your own business and want to find more information on this subject, buy our book “How to create a company while working: Discover how to manage your time, manage your money and motivate yourself while creating a company and working for another” , where you will find all the information you need to found your own company, without having to leave your job.
