5 Signs of Burnout (and What To Do About It)

Can you remember why you started your business—and what you loved about it?

A lot of our Cohort members have some really great stories. Some fell into it by accident, a side hustle that ended up costing them their day job (with no regrets). Some chipped away at it little by little, until they found a rhythm that worked. Others burned the boats from the beginning and never looked back.

I have yet to find a small business owner who says, “I started my own business so I could slowly but surely bury myself in work, overwhelm, and stress.”

If you’re like most entrepreneurs, the work—even, and especially, if it’s work you love—can take over your life in short order.

Success is a bit of the Catch-22 when you start out. The better you are at what you do, the busier you become, and the harder it gets to get it all done.

So you hire more people to help. Before you know it, you’re training others to do what you love, and you’re doing less of it, focusing instead on keeping the furnaces of your business going instead of stoking the passion that lit the fire in the first place.

You wake up one morning to the stunning realization that you don’t own your business anymore. It owns you.

And your boss is a bit of an ass.

But you can no more quit your job than you can quit your life. Because, at least according to the IRS at the moment, you’re one and the same.

Still, the common warning signs of burnout affect you as an entrepreneur just as much (if not more) than those who were employed by someone a tad more reasonable.  

• Overwhelming job demands. No, 120 hours a week isn’t “normal.” Neither is booking every minute of your calendar with meetings.

• Conflicting job roles. If you are simultaneously working in and on the business, this is you. 

• Lack of resources and support. Are you tapping into other business owners like you? Do you talk about work with someone other than your spouse?

• Lack of honest, constructive, been-there-done-that feedback. See above. 

• Loss of a positive connection with others who don’t owe you money—or expect you to pay them for their time. See above. 

This is in addition to the tell-tale signs of weight gain, indigestion, sleep deprivation, caffeine dependency, marital strain...need I go on? 

Just like no manager or CEO wants to lose their best contributors to burnout, your business doesn’t want to lose you. But if you don’t take active steps to reclaim your time, your passion, and your sleep, the loss is all but inevitable.

Take my word for it.

There are tons of resources on the internet for acknowledging and preventing burnout (Gallup has a great one here). Here are five you can do TODAY to make sure you get the best of your business—and not the other way around.

1. Look at today’s task list. Commit to delegating or eliminating 30% (yes 30%!) of the tasks on it—and adding 30 minutes to every estimated time of completion.
   One of the biggest factors of burnout is balancing what you think you can get done with what you actually, physically can. Remove the stress of that false competition. No one wins that game.

2. Make time for what (and who) you love. Make room for joy today—spontaneous date night, a hobby that invigorates you, music that inspires you. You’ll find love in everything on your list if you look hard enough—and if you think that’s BS, you’ve made my point

3. Commit to a regular work schedule. You know what you can reasonably handle, so I’m not going to give you a hard number—but be honest with yourself here. How many hours do you really want to work each day? Do you like working on the weekends? Take a few minutes now and start blocking off time on your schedule—starting this week!—and stick with it. Reschedule meetings if you have to. It’s time others bend to your schedule instead of the other way around.

4. Focus on what your business does well. If you haven’t created or updated your One Page Business Plan yet, this is a perfect time. By identifying your key audience and the specific products or services you provide, it is MUCH easier to say no to the clients, projects, and tasks that take more than they give. 

5. Forge a connection with another business owner. I know how hard this can be to you, especially for you lone wolves. In fact, the Cohort is sometimes the first attempt our members have made to meet other high-performers like themselves. (And, Members, if you are reading this, this is your reminder to contribute to the Slack channel—you know who you are). I’m not saying we’re “it” because we’re not for everyone—but connections like these are critical. As our Members, and they’ll tell you the same.

I know peeling back and trying new things is like asking me to keep my emails short. Try it anyway. 

Don’t burn up before you can make an impact.

Keep that fire where it belongs.