How to Avoid Burning Out
By Alex Fayle

Today’s guest post comes from Melinda at WAHM Biz Builder.

In my last post, I mentioned that I’m one of those people who never seem to stop moving until they fall over and that I have to be careful so I avoid burnout, so that’s what we’re going to look at today – avoiding burnout. It’s the opposite of being bored. While boredom is an issue for many people, there are many others like myself – those of us who struggle to switch off and maintain a healthy balance.

When you work your physical body hard you expect to be tired, you expect muscle pain and generally you allow time for your muscles to recover. If you’re really worked your body hard, you may well plan to take a day or two to recover, to allow your muscles time to rebuild. When it comes to our brains though, we tend to forget that the brain is a muscle too.

Using your brain is the same as using physical muscles, and your brain becomes tired in the same way. You can feel mentally tired, foggy, vague, stressed, cranky. We seem to expect that we can over-tax our minds, stress them, expect them to work at a high level for long days without a break.

That’s when we burnout. We don’t allow sufficient time for our minds to regenerate and recover. We think that one night’s sleep will be enough to fully recharge our mental capacity and be capable of doing it all again the next day. Here’s the bad news - it won’t. We need to take care of our mental faculties a bit better than that.

So how do we do it? How do we get the best from our brains while not over-taxing them and wearing them out? Here’s some of the things I’ve found that work:

1. Regular breaks. Don’t try and work for hours at a time without getting up and moving around. Your back will thank you too. Studies have shown that our brains work best for around 40-50 minutes at a time, then there’s a drop in productivity. A quick break during this drop in productivity helps the mind come back refreshed and ready for another 40-50 minutes of concentrated effort.

2. Downtime, relaxing and sleeping. You can’t work seven days a week. Well, you can, but it’s not good for you. Take a complete break from your work. At least one day a week, two if you can. Close the office door if you work at home, stay away from the computer, don’t even check email. A total break from working. If even God had to rest on the seventh day, what makes you think you can keep going?

3. Scheduling. Write things down. To-do lists, appointment lists, calendars. The more you can get out of your brain and written down the better. Cluttering up your brain with a million and one things to remember reduces it’s ability to think. Your brain is like the memory on a computer, it can only hold so much information before it starts slowing down.

4. How much are you trying to do? Be aware of how much you are taking on and trying to do. There really is a limit to how much you can get done in one day or a week. While over scheduling happens to us all at times, if it’s a constant in your life then you’re going to burn out very quickly. Not to mention the frustration that results from not finishing anything.

5. Exercise. Get away from your desk, into the open air and exercise. Work up a sweat several times a week, preferably outdoors. Apart from the health benefits to your physical body, getting your blood pumping with exercise increases blood flow to your brain. Exercise makes you smarter.

6. Food and water. Your brain is a muscle remember? Muscles need food and hydration to function at their best capacity. Eating junk food reduces your mental capacity and intelligence. Eating healthy food literally feeds the synapses and dendrites in your brain and boosts the neurotransmitters and nerve impulses.

7. Love what you do. Stress tires you out both physically and mentally. When you’re interesting in something and want to do it then you’re motivated and excited. Disliking what you do uses up energy faster than almost anything else.

8. Mix up your tasks. Alternate logical, analytical tasks with creative work. Been writing a post? Go and draw out a mind map. Bookkeeping for a few hours? Swap it out and do your filing. This uses the different sides of your brain, you’re changing from using the left hemisphere of your brain, the logical, linear, analytic side to using the right hemisphere, the creative, free-flowing side.

Preventing burnout isn’t a case of simply stopping work and becoming a couch potato, totally switching off your brain and becoming a vegetable. For many of us, switching off our thinking isn’t an option. We’re simply not built that way. Preventing burnout becomes a balancing act. Balancing the demands that we put on our minds with its capabilities. Incorporating ‘rest periods’ not by switching off, but by changing tasks and focus.

The first and best thing you can do is be aware of what you’re doing and how you’re feeling. Your body will tell you when you start tiring mentally. Listen to it. Pay attention. Ignore the warning signs at your own peril.

About Melinda

Melinda is a Business Coach who specialises in working with at-home mums. Her areas of expertise include developing business plans that really work, finding clarity and direction amongst the chaos of working at home, streamlining systems and processes for greater efficiency and effectiveness and developing profits. You can find her at WAHM Biz Builder

Comments