How to Cope With Job Burnout?

What comes to your mind when you`re thinking about entrepreneurship? Probably, glory, money, or freedom? Indeed, successful entrepreneurs gain all these benefits. But at the same time this job is highly exposed to professional burnout. Working in a constant hurry and experiencing a lot of stress daily can quickly lead founders to mental and physical exhaustion.

To keep the passion for what you do, it`s necessary to stick to certain requirements. Today we`ll share preventive recommendations to avoid burnout and tell you how to overcome it in case you`ve faced this problem.

What Is Job Burnout?

This is the depletion of emotional, mental, and energy resources, which results from severe chronic stress at work. Most often, burnout is manifested by a complete loss of interest in profession, sense of the meaninglessness of all further actions and lack of motivation.

Emotional burnout happens from stressful, challenging, and unstructured work. When a person experiences more stress than satisfaction from activity, their balance of working capacity gets disrupted. At this point, even the job that used to bring joy turns into an endless tiresome routine, difficult tasks cause fear while achievements don`t make you happy.

Burnout Symptoms

The main danger of emotional burnout syndrome is that it develops gradually and for many imperceptibly. If you miss its first signs, the work satisfaction will progressively decrease. As a result, some can`t beat burnout by themselves and need urgent medical care. To prevent yourself from this, we advice to pay attention to the following signs:

Poor Performance

Previously, you could work for 10 hours in a row and switch between different tasks, and now all the cases require more time and extra effort while unplanned tasks cause stress and aggression? Most likely, you`re getting professionally burnt out. See if your productivity is getting lower without any external causes like illnesses or there is some particular reason for this. If nothing changes, this is a red flag.

Isolation

Emotional burnout makes people shun communication with others. Because of experiencing a lot of stress and dissatisfaction, they`re getting more aloof and tend to lock themselves in. If you`re suffering from burnout syndrome, you tend to refuse acquiring new and even promising acquaintances.

Irritability

Do you often find yourself annoyed at things you`re used not to worry about? Increased irritability is one of the key characteristics of burnout. Sometimes this even develops into outbursts of anger and uncontrolled aggression.

Depression

If you are no longer enthusiastic about the tasks that used to spart your interest, this is a symptom of depression and result of severe burnout. This can also manifest itself as a permanent fatigue and low spirits. Depression is a critical phase of job burnout so as soon as you notice it, you will need doctor assistance.

3. Regular physical malaise. For example, headaches, body aches, exacerbation of chronic diseases or a cold.

Lack of Concentration

Making more errors than before and missing important things is the result of job burnout as well. This happens due to a loss of concentration, an increase in distraction and inattention. If a person is suffering from burnout syndrome, their mental abilities slow down.

Anxiety

Emotional burnout makes even the greatest adventurers start fearing change. Innovative solutions no longer arouse them, but frighten and cause anxiety. Plus, to introduce something new into processes, you need energy, and a burned-out person does not have it. Therefore, they are getting more anxious even about daily problems and feeling stressed thinking about the future.

Difficulty Sleeping

The human body is often smarter than us: when the level of tension goes through the roof, the disease serves as a signal that it's time to stop. As a result, insomnia and stomach disorders may emerge. People can also lose their appetite or, oppositely, overeat.

Burnout Causes

There is no single clue to the question "What is the cause of burnout?" Normally, this is a combination of factors that can make you emotionally exhausted. Here are some of the most common ones:

Inability to Get Rid of Stress

Everyone experiences stress but not everyone can shake it off. By keeping a lot of stress inside, you`re likely to feel burnt out soon. Therefore, learn to let off steam by doing sports and speaking up your mind.

Monotony

If nothing changes in your work, you`re likely to lose interest in it. Particularly, when it comes to entrepreneurship — people choose this job because they are craving change. And if they don`t see any result for a long time, burnout is nearly inevitable.

To avoid this, you can complicate the tasks for yourself and set new challenges. This will help you regain the enthusiasm and desire to develop further. Regularly study and implement new approaches and techniques in your field. Add unusual tools to perform your routine tasks.

Work overtime

Strict work hours are not about startups. Most entrepreneurs have to overwork and hence quickly lose their passion feeling burnt out. However, it`s crucial to maintain your work-life balance whatever urgencies pop up. Try to clearly distinguish between professional and personal life, avoid working at odd hours, and exclude reflection on work matters on weekends or holidays.

Tough Environment

This is a typical characteristic for the venture world where you have to handle a fierce competition on the market. If everything around you is changing rapidly, it`s important to notice even the smallest achievements and praise yourself for them. This tactics will help you maintain a healthy self-esteem, boost self-confidence, and make you more burnout-resistant.

No Hobby

Your life shouldn`t be limited to solely your business. Otherwise, if the startup goes wrong, it feels like your whole life has no meaning any longer. Those founders who are focused exclusively on their job are particularly exposed to burnout. Therefore, take up some activities beyond entrepreneurship to make your life more diverse.

How to Avoid Burnout?

Although there is no one-size-fits-all recipe to prevent yourself from job burnout, you can stick to the following prescriptions to minimize the risks.

Take Breaks

Pauses in the work process make us more productive and resilient to stress. If you distance yourself from work tasks from time to time, it helps you recover faster and boost your overall performance. Take advantage of physical exercises, walks, and hobbies that are not related to the main activity.

Minimize the Amount of Stress

First, it is important to identify the source of stress. If the problem is work, you should seek support within your team or go on vacation to rest, regain emotional and physical stability. In case you feel really stressed by particular aspects of entrepreneurship, it`s better to delegate it. Don`t hesitate to ask for support from family and friends.

Give up Stimulators

Caffeine helps us wake up in the morning, but increases the level of the stress hormone cortisol. When you take coffee during the day, you are constantly agitating the nervous system, becoming twitchy and anxious.

Sugar, chocolate, fast food and alcohol also stimulate the nervous system, disrupting the natural cycle and not giving a full rest. All this contributes to emotional burnout. Try to reduce the amount of coffee, sugar, and other stimulants. Instead, include sports and outdoor walks in your regime.

Talk to colleagues

Relationships in the team, built on mutual assistance, support, respect and honesty, increase the efficiency of work. Try to keep in touch with colleagues and maintain warm and trusting relationships with them.

Research suggest that empathy alone can withstand emotional burnout and fatigue. Be sure to celebrate personal holidays and collective successes. The pleasure of informal communication is short-lived, but it creates a sense of unity and involvement in a common cause.

Look for Positive Aspects

At the end of the working day, try not to focus on negative stuff, but to look for positive moments. Remember that your job is aimed at helping people by solving their problems. Understanding your contribution and social importance is an excellent protection against burnout.

How to Beat Burnout?

In case you`re already experiencing job burnout, there are several steps to recover from it.

Recognize the Problem

The first step to solving a problem is to recognize it. By pretending like everything is alright, you only make matter worse. So you have to admit you don`t enjoy your job any longer to take actions towards mental well-being.

Learn to Say No

By saying no to overtime, you say yes to your recovery. When you`re suffering from job burnout, it is necessary to spend less time working and more time doing what you enjoy. Have some time for yourself to regain energy and motivation.

Many people can refuse to do extra things at work, but they drive themselves with endless household issues at home. Learn to delegate, assign responsibilities, and ask for help.

Work with Your Emotions

To better understand and control your emotions, you need to learn how to detect and distinguish them in time. A diary of emotions is a simple tool that helps you identify patterns in your behavior, emotional reactions, and situations that strongly affect you. With regular work with the diary, you can achieve a quick and accurate recognition of your emotions in order to influence them and come to a more stable state.

Reconsider Your Habits

Get acquainted with different time management systems. Consistently change the types of tasks throughout the day to load different parts of the brain. But don't do different tasks at the same time: changing the context is a very expensive operation for the brain, and multitasking requires more concentration and gives more tension.

For example, if you have to read documents, turn off your phone and ask your colleagues not to disturb you. And after a few hours, if possible, switch to another activity that does not require such concentration.

Take a Vacation

It is better to plan several weeks of continuous rest every year. A study by Finnish scientists says that if the vacation lasts continuously for at least three weeks a year, the risk of heart disease is significantly reduced. And according to research by British scientists, it is worth resting at least four days every 62 days.

Let Yourself Be Imperfect

Many entrepreneurs are striving for some perfection when doing business. In this chase they quickly burn out and lose motivation to keep going. It`s crucial to let you just be you without sticking to some ideal image. After all, is the perfection of your startup worth your unhappiness?

Conclusion

Job burnout is a hard thing to handle. However, if you follow our preventive recommendations and caring about your well-being first, this problem is likely to pass you by. Maintain a life-work balance and remember your happiness is the key to success in any field. Don`t burn out, but burn with love for what you`re doing!