For most people, entrepreneurship is about freedom. Freedom to choose one’s work hours, remuneration, and other benefits, oneself. Well, if you are an entrepreneur, you know that, more often than not, this isn’t usually what it entails. In most cases, entrepreneurs have to dedicate even more hours than they would as an employee, while also restricting their remuneration to align with the often-harsh reality of running a business.
As an entrepreneur, you have to juggle relationships with suppliers, distributors, clients, and staff, while maintaining your obligations to relationships in your personal life with your friends and family. Also, there is the ever-present concern of finances. All of these could quickly cause entrepreneur burnout, which could present in various forms, including, but not limited to, fatigue and sudden loss of motivation.
In this article, I will be outlining methods you can apply to avoid burnout as an entrepreneur.
Set Clear Goals for Each Day
The quickest way to lose track is to take tasks “as they come”. That will quickly leave you feeling overwhelmed. To avoid burnout, you have to develop a clear daily routine that allows you to attain some form of consistency. Make your routine up with items that are simple to achieve, it could start with making your bed every morning after you get up. Completing these little milestones will help you to feel confident.
For your work goals, certainly, you can’t always have the same tasks every day. Notwithstanding, you can outline your daily tasks first thing in the morning, and work through them in order. I understand that, as an entrepreneur, there will be urgent issues that may require you to deviate. But, regardless, sticking as much as possible to your list of tasks for the day will help you attain a sense of accomplishment.
Seek Help/Delegate
Every entrepreneur feels they need to have answers to every question and to micromanage their staff. Well, that is another factor that hastens burnout. You have to learn to trust your staff to do the jobs you employed them to do. And not only that, regularly analyze your workload to figure out which tasks you can afford to pass on to your staff. This is how you incrementally give yourself the freedom to work fewer hours.
Also, when necessary, seek help from people in your network or consult seasoned professionals. No entrepreneur has all the answers, which is why building, maintaining, and seeking help from professional networks is very important.
Make Effort to Maintain Relationships Outside Work
It is not uncommon for entrepreneurs to build their entire lives around work. You might find yourself taking work home from your office every day, impacting the time you spend with your family and friends. You might even find yourself using social outings as opportunities to network and lobby instead of unwinding and having fun.
This will quickly leave you feeling fatigued and burned out. To avoid this, you have to take deliberate steps to wall off work from your personal time. Make time to nurture your relationships with your family members and friends. This will allow you to recharge your batteries, leaving you refreshed for work.
Take Time Off
Finally, learn to take time off. There is never a perfect time for a vacation. You have to work time-offs into your routine. They don’t have to be full-blown vacations. You may just take one or two days to meditate and exercise, or sunbathe at the beach. It helps you to stay refreshed.
Conclusion
Burnout does not suddenly happen, it creeps on and as such, many entrepreneurs fail to immediately recognize it. The first step to avoiding burnout is staying aware of its causes and effects. Earlier in this article, I briefly outlined that burnout could present as fatigue and loss of motivation. If you are experiencing any of these, apply these methods religiously, and you will recover. And if you are not, you can apply them as well, to prevent burnout from even happening at all.
