Own Your Mistakes with Apologies.

Apologies, I’m about to do what every expert blogger warns you against. I’m going to talk about myself, however please trust me this is for you if you’ve:


Ever had burnout, 
Feel like you’re on the verge of burnout,
Feel stressed,
Feel overwhelmed, 
Finding life pretty unmanageable, these days.
Just want to be slightly more organised.

Accomplishments

I did it I achieved my 2023 Q1 albeit in Q2 and I didn’t start until Q3 but that’s a different story. 


Achieving that goal caused me to go through a major life event (MLE). That goal was a new job, which I started last September and since then work has gone from being my escapism / safe haven. To being absolutely crazy in-fact my personal life is now an escapism from work (oh how the tables have turned). 


Major Life Events and Burnout


Last year I went through a fair few major life events (MLE) not all of them were brought on by me, in-fact only the new job was. For a non exhaustive list on what constitutes an MLE please see last weeks blog entry here.


First, I want to give you a brief definition for burnout:


Its a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by prolonged periods of being stressed, overworked, or feeling overwhelmed by responsibilities. 
Burnout is characterised by feelings of cynicism, detachment, and inefficacy, as well as decreased motivation and productivity, and can lead to a range of symptoms including fatigue, insomnia, irritability, and a weakened immune system.


Additionally, I have been on the doorstep of burnout for the last month. Doing my upmost best not to be sucked in by it. 


However a mixture of mum guilt for having less time to spend with my child due to a multitude of reasons including; 
the fact my role can’t be done in the designated timeframe, 
the increased journeys to London, 
Along with my child is now being old enough to tell me he doesn’t want me to go to London. 


I am struggling to find the balance between earning a sustainable income to allow my child to have a better upbringing than I had. Accomplishing the goals I have set for myself but still having an adequate amount of me that still plays the traditional ‘mum role’ is leading to mental and physical exhaustion. 


So I’ve decided to try catch to myself mid spiral and to share the 3 hacks that i’m currently using in an attempt to stop burnout in its tracks.


3 hacks for burnout

1. Prioritise 

Now I don’t mean this in the sense of, ‘here’s my daily list of actions and tasks and I am going to prioritise the ones I deem most important!’ Although of course that helps!
I mean to prioritise your life. List the most important things to you and prioritise them, in reality it shouldn’t really be that hard. Usually family comes first but seeing it down on paper reminds you of what and how you should make your top priority. You might want to detail why you’ve ranked each priority in your life like you have.


Heres an example list of priorities
Family
Career 
Finances
Chores 
Personal 
Fun
Now there’s definitely more that could be on that list but there’s enough there to demonstrate how yours may look. 


The example shared above are my current priorities stands and I obviously have my reasons for this hierarchy. 


A few of my rankings are linked, my Career is linked to my Finances which is of course linked to my number 1 priority Family.


Unfortunately for me Fun right now isn’t important because am currently trying to focus on other areas of my life. I mean my personal (self-care/wellbeing/hair/nails) has dropped a couple of spots. As it stands I can’t prioritise personal 😓it really has taken a back seat in 2024 Q1 however this is subject to negotiation for Q2. Upon reflection this might be part of what’s leading me to burn out (believe it or not.)


Upon ranking your list, detailing why you have ranked your priorities in this order, and why they matter to you… it should now allow you to 


2. Time manage your priorities 

Heads up you might need your phone calendar for this one and you may want to block out your working hours detailing what number priority that is for you. 
Unfortunately for me as it stands ‘career’ priority number 3 takes up most of my week Monday – Friday.


Most of us don’t have the luxury of reducing our working hours to allow us to prioritise what we deem as our number 1 priority but you can start blocking time out for your number 1 next. 


How much time do you want to spend with your number 1 priority and be intentional what do you want to do and achieve in that time. 
Make it crystal clear to yourself that this is your priority for the allocated timeframe this might mean no screen time and 100% focus on that one priority.


You want to continue to map out your calendar allocating time for your priorities until you have given each priority a dedicated portion of your time, even if it’s just a smidge. Your calendar should be pretty full. 


Next what do we do when we cant do something or just don’t have the time we find … 


3. Assistance and Support 


Now support can come in many forms it could be someone cooking for you once a week, somebody collecting your child from school to give you some additional time to focus on a different priority, it could be hiring a cleaner to ease the amount of time you have to focus on chores, it could be seeking a mentor to get help with your career or finances. I mean you name it there’s support that exists for it you just need to find the time to do some research to find it. Then you need to make the ultimate decision on whether the costs (and there’s always some form of a cost albeit monetary, time, or guilt) is worth losing time on a different priority for, is worth it?


Conclusions

To conclude i haven’t always noticed when am heading towards burn out and often it isn’t noticeable because you’re going so fast 💨 charging without taking a break and catching a breathe to allow for reflection. This is my plea to you to just slow it down, ever so slightly because by doing just that you might catch yourself just before you crash. Additionally, even if you currently aren’t travelling over 120mph implementing the above habits may prove useful regardless, as it might be what stops you from ever hitting burnout.