How to Avoid Business Burnout with Strategy

If you are new to the Crush the Rush community, you may not know that I have a strategy obsession. BUT the reason I have one is that it has 110% saved me from burnout. Now I won’t lie and say there are not weeks when life gets crazy, but having a clear picture of what I am working on and when I"m working on it has helped our entire family get off that hamster wheel and actually lead each day with intention. 

Before I tell you how to avoid business burnout, let's talk about the phases of burnout. As in there are ways you can tell it is coming and then ways to stop it!

First. Let’s call the first phase the honeymoon phase. This is where we start a new job or a new project and it feels amazing. The next phase (which is one that I am super familiar with) is when you just went through this huge creative phase but you kept it going too long. So stress creeps in. It starts to become more difficult to keep up the intensity and over a period of a few days you start to feel more drained and tired. 

 Then we move into chronic stress and burnout. After I come out of the fog, I am like YES, I need to do things differently but let's be honest, the cycle happens again. 

Can you recognize this?

This is going to happen again for you (and me), but now we know the signs. When you feel that creative energy growing and find yourself working on the most amazing project the ONE thing you need to do is create your strategy. 

Here is how I do it. 

1) Define the project you are working on. What are the boundaries? Does it have to be done right away? What are the deadlines? (Did you create realistic ones?) 

2) Once you have your projects defined, ask yourself these questions. 

• Can you increase your efficiency by doing anything different? Or outsourcing? 
• Do you need to move other priorities around to make it work? 
• What do you need to get started? 

3) Finally, and the most important part of the strategy is do you have the right amount of creative outlets? I.e. do you have white space? Time to be by yourself? The proper amount of motivation in your routine? 

4) The last step of the stop the burnout strategy is to find yourself an accountability partner. Review the plan with them. As an outsider, does it make sense? Are you doing too much? Or too little? How can they help you stay on track?  

This sounds really basic but so often we have this grand idea like building a new website, staying up all hours of the night building it with zero strategies or intention, and then when it comes to launching it we are burned out and exhausted. So instead create a plan. And then a launch plan. This will ensure that at the end you are rested and ready to share your greatness with the world with the energy to support it. 

 Looking for more details on this topic?! Check out the Strategy Lab in the Crush the Rush Club!