Managing your own business can be exceedingly rewarding and extremely stressful at the same time. Between managing day-to-day tasks to ensuring that your startup generates a profit, founders tend to be under a lot of stress because there is just so much on their plate! While one would think that stress can be easily managed, research suggests that 8% of startup failures can be directly attributed to founder burnout.
Burnout tends to surface as inefficacy or feelings of incompetence and lack of achievement. Historically, burnout from work has been known, but since the pandemic, its seriousness and considerable impact have been extensively felt and accepted.
Here are 9 ways recommended by team Step2Growth to cope with burnout and focus on self-care!
1. Spend time with Nature
Taking time off from the hustle and bustle of your daily life can help you to manage burnout. In most ways, it might just make you a happier person and an even better employee when you return. Ideally, you should head to a place completely opposite from your work, out in nature with possibly zero cell reception! Spend time doing things that make you genuinely happy. Lay on a beach drinking cocktails, read books, play video games, do a dozen laps of the pool, climb mountains, play a sport, or do an adventure activity if you wish, but as Nike rightly says – Just do it!
2. Take time out for yourself
With the advent of technology and remote work culture, people have forgotten how important it is to just shut your mind off sometimes. It is especially important to recharge your batteries. Mindfulness techniques, Deep breathing exercises, and meditation increase your well-being even if you practice a few minutes per day. Listening to music and lighting candles also helps in relaxing and combating stress.
3. Workout/Physical Exercise
Studies have shown that exercise is a powerful antidote to stress and burnout. Even a 10-minute walk can improve your mental health. You can choose an activity of your choice, be it walking, running, weight training, swimming, martial arts, or even dancing. Rhythmic exercises, where you move both your arms and legs are considered the most effective way to lift your mood, increase energy, sharpen focus, and relax both the mind and body.
4. Eat healthy
It is a frequent practice to reach for comfort food when one is stressed. And while it might seem to elevate your mood for a fleeting moment, eventually, this practice can make you feel worse. Comfort foods or alcohol can sometimes be soothing in moderation, but if you are using them to cope with a significant amount of stress at work, you may become dependent upon them. Instead, create a plan to eat healthier food. After a few weeks or months of fueling your body with veggies, you will feel ready to take on the world!
5. Speak to the people closest to you
Research has shown repeatedly that people with elevated levels of social support are more resilient in the face of stressful situations. Social support for stress relief is nature’s antidote to stress and talking face-to-face with a good listener is one of the fastest ways to calm your nerves and manage burnout.
6. Sleep as if your life depends on it
Wellness primarily comprises diet, exercise, and sleep and we can’t stress enough the importance of a good night’s sleep. A restful 7 – 8 hours of sleep will not just recharge your body physically but also give you the required mental break you require to perform. Give top priority to sleep as nothing can be done if you are sick or exhausted.
7. Work Away from Your Desk
If taking a break from work is not what you want or cannot afford, you can always find ways to make your work more relaxing. With the pandemic opening doors for remote working, we now have the option to work from anywhere. If you are looking for inspiration, just step out of your home office and work from a place that is more appealing to you. Sit at the beach, a coffee shop, a park, or a library of your choice.
8. Make your work creative or fun
Burning the candle at both ends on projects that do not even inspire you can eventually cause burnout. It is seen that even if your work is hectic, but you enjoy doing it and have fun while accomplishing your tasks, you might not experience extreme stress or burnout. Mull over ways to make your project more appealing and creative. For example – copywriters and art directors take this creative approach to their work by challenging each other to get specific words or phrases into the ads. Regardless of the outcome, such fun challenges help them cope with burnout from work.
9. Ask for Help
The “hustle” culture might push you to believe that you need to figure out everything on your own, but the truth is – you can and should ask for help. Confronting burnout tends to provoke feelings of helplessness and it is especially difficult to ask for help when you are stressed. But this is the most crucial time to ask for help!
It is important to process your burnout and see if it is impacting the quality of your life. Try a few things we do and if you still feel like you are not able to handle it on your own, talk to a therapist or coach who can guide you to identify causes and teach you the right set of coping skills. Remember that burnout is an undeniable sign that something important in your life is not working. As exhausting as it is to experience burnout, it might just remind you to take time to think about your hopes, goals, and dreams. Ponder over what you are neglecting that is profoundly important to you. Treat burnout as an opportunity to rediscover what truly makes you happy, take time to heal, and transform your struggles into strengths.
