This is what burnout feels like, plus 6 ways to avoid it
Let’s talk burnout. There’s no denying the lines between work and life for freelancers get blurred. Most of us who are working for ourselves (and therefore by ourselves, often at home) for the first time struggle to preserve healthy boundaries between professional and personal lives. Especially when we work from home. Soon afternoons blend into evenings, weekdays blend into weekends and little sense of time and workdays will remain. If you think you’ll be immune, think again.
Let’s talk about hustle culture for a second. We live in a culture where burnout is increasingly becoming the norm. You know the urge to work harder, stronger, faster. To grind and exert ourselves to the point of overwhelm – day in, day out. It’s almost like as a signal to our devotion to starting a business, we feel the need to be ‘on’, to be working all the time, putting in the hours to make something for ourselves. And it doesn’t help when those little rectangular devices in our pockets are beeping with countless notifications quite literally 24/7.
When I made the decision to freelance late last year there was only one thing on my mind: getting clients in the door. Well, that and how many episodes of Schitt’s Creek I could feasibly squeeze into one lunch break. I quickly put the word out to friends, family, coworkers, past clients, my half-cousin twice removed – really anyone who would listen.
The first few weeks were great. The emails were flowing in, the bank account was looking good and I saw my sipping-cocktails-by-the-pool freelance life laid out in front of me. I didn’t mind the extra hours. In fact, I lived for them. I was buzzing, filled with some sort of euphoric state that made the late nights and occasionally Sunday worth it. I’d be consuming coffee at an alarming rate, yet wearing it like a badge of honour. I think you can all guess what happened next.
Enter stage left: burnout.
With burnout, motivation, inspiration and creativity well and truly leaves the building. Hard work is one thing, but working yourself to the bone with unsustainable habits isn’t going to help anyone. If you feel like you’re heading for burnout or already there, here’s your ultimate guard to fight against it (from someone who is *finally* coming out from the other side).
1 Start your day right
Despite our world slowly returning to pre-apocalyptic times, there’s no denying that we haven’t all gotten a little too comfortable with WFH life. Welcome to the future: Zoom meetings and kitchen-tables-turned-home-offices. Now, I’m not saying I missed being packed like sardines on a crowded bus BUT I definitely found that I’m not listening to as many podcasts, reading books or aimlessly scrolling through Instagram… okay fine, you caught me, I still find myself doing that last one on occasion. But my commute used to be filled with genuine (forced) downtime which I now don’t optimise. Think about how you could work your morning routine to create a distinction between home time and work mode – a ‘fake commute’. It could be as simple as taking a walk around the block or dedicating a set amount of time to read that book that’s been waiting on your bedside table. These small activities will force you to set yourself boundaries and ultimately set you up for a productive day.
2 Write yourself a to-do list
You’re probably looking at your computer like, duh. But think about it. When we feel burnout, we become so overwhelmed, and the result? We end up doing nothing. Sound familiar? Thought so. We often feel compelled to project the appearance of productivity, but this can lead us to work on tasks that are small and immediate rather than important – a tendency that research suggests is counterproductive in the long run. Needing something tangible to hold me accountable, I’ve managed to turn one tiny piece of paper into a major productivity tool. Personally, I start with a master list of tasks (braindump) and then break them into smaller, more digestible lists. My smaller lists will consist of tasks from the master list for a specific time period. Sometimes that’s the whole day, other times it could just be for the immediate hour that lies in front of me. Trust me, you won’t regret it.
3 Take a step back and look at your processes
I’m not going to point any fingers, but business owners, at one point or another on their journey often find themselves stuck on a hamster wheel. You know answering emails, onboarding clients, working on countless projects, paying taxes, all why trying to find the perfect gift for your best mate's birthday, phew it sure is a busy life we’ve chosen. It’s time you started working smarter, not harder. If you find yourself spending countless hours on tasks that don’t fill your cup, this is officially your sign! Take a moment to assess the big picture and identify where your productivity holes are.
From here, you’ve essentially got two options. Number uno, you can bring on a staff member to help alleviate some of this burden – remember we’re living in the future, where virtual assistants have a utility belt of skills and could possibly help you with a range of varied tasks. The second thing, which I’d personally still consider if you are lacking in the time department, is increasing your prices in order to be able to drop into work flow. These might feel like big moves but you’ll feel a lot lighter for them.
4 Recognise the power of the word NO.
It’s about time we say sayonara to people-pleasing. In the early stages of business, gosh we are constantly saying ‘yes’, aren’t we? Texts that are sent after hours, we automatically reply to. Meetings that are requested the morning of, we schedule. Additional client requests that are so deliriously out of scope, we meet. Without thinking, we say yes to these tasks (some of them may be small, sure), but each one takes up our valuable time and not to mention, energy. Obviously, when starting out, you don’t want to provide hard no’s to clients. So try approaching them with some solutions that will ensure you are getting your time back. When you receive an ‘urgent’ message outside of work hours why not try the following: ‘I’m offline at the moment but will have a look at this tomorrow afternoon.’ You can thank me later.
5 Get back into the world
Look, we may have mentioned this one last month. But, honestly, it’s been a game-changer for me, so we are going to talk about this again and again (and again) until you have that little chunk of time booked into your calendar. Schedule yourself NONWORK time on the regular to ensure you’re being the best and most productive version of you – if it’s in the calendar you can’t go back. Take yourself on what is known as an artist date, one whole hour once a week, and do something that allows you to be completely immersed in something other than your craft. We rarely give ourselves time to get sit with our thoughts and when we are forced to do so, we usually come up with some great ideas.
6 Invest in yourself.
As a freelancer, your business is only as good as the lil’ old human sitting at their desktop. So make sure you are prioritising self-care. It’s virtually impossible to allocate sufficient self-care time when you feel like you can barely survive to the end of the day but until you realise that your mental health and happiness directly reflect your business’s bottom line, you sadly won’t see much growth. So if you were waiting for a sign, this is it. Check out an event, take a course, join a club, see a musical, watch a film, attend a conference, meet with your mentor. Take time out for yourself to immerse yourself in things that will inspire and refresh you! If it’s a holiday you need, then flipping book one! Make sure you’re positioning yourself in the exact right place you need to be in order to do your best work. Back yourself – cause you’ve got this.
Written by Emma Nolan
A highly curious person by nature. Hates wearing shoes. Sometimes pens words on topics that spark passion, including the environment, self-development, and creative living. May or may not have an emotional attachment to her browser tabs. Connect @creativ.em.