5 Ways To Fend Off The Deadly Burnout Monster

Hannah and I work a lot. Our schedule is filled with photo shoots, client meetings, mentor sessions, and more. Few days pass without us having something. We closed out 2016 busier than ever before, not taking a day off for nearly two months. The blistering pace we run often has our calendar busting at the seams, leaving just enough room for friends, family and community group have to be fit in where room is left on the slate.

Working too much is a trap you can quickly fall into when you’re self-employed. Since you don’t have a boss screaming down your neck and passing out deadlines like pezz, you fulfill that role by rarely give yourself enough slack—you know how every ounce of your time is spent after all. When you love what you do, this is especially true. When work is something you enjoy, it doesn’t feel like work. You lose yourself in it, forget the time, and look up only to realize it’s 9:30pm and you haven’t had anything to eat since lunch. Do this too often however, and it can lead to burnout.

Burnout appears to be an American problem. As American’s we glorify work. The 20 something launching a startup who works 90 hours a week, is a hero. The same goes for the normal bloke with a job, and mouths to feed. Ask anyone how they are, and you’ll no doubt receive a list of all that they are doing—completely ignoring that you asked how not what. Busy, busy, busy. It’s a badge of honor. I haven’t traveled abroad nearly enough but, I don’t read of workers in Spain, Italy or Nicaragua struggling with burnout. There is something unique to the American experience going on here.

Our obsession with work has led to amazing achievements and ushered in wave after wave of breakthrough and progress, but it also has an ugly side. Parents regularly work so much their children never see them. Many do so until they end up sick or worse. Robin Williams’ character in Hook is the perfect example. He worked and worked and worked, missing Jack’s baseball games and leaving a dad shaped hole in the lives of his wife and two children. His situation was so off the rails he had to become Peter Pan in order to figure things out and put his life back in order.

Sacrificing family at the altar of success isn’t worth it. Neither is working so feverishly that you end up wearing a paper gown that splits down the back. Your family and your health are important to you. I don’t see you arguing with me on that point. But what about your mental health. Isn’t that just as valuable?

You wouldn’t drink poison—at  least I hope not—but many of you will run and run and run until you hit a wall. You’ll run until you ‘just can’t take it anymore.’ You’ll lose control, swerve and hit the guardrail going 110. Bits of glass, and plastic will go flying through the air and come to rest among the gravel and blood on the roadside. At least that’s how I picture it in my mind. All momentum, and forward progress will stop as you throw up your hands and want to quit. That’s what we call burnout.

Burnout isn’t a pretty sight to behold, but unless you do something to fend it off, you’ll most likely experience it in the not too distant future.

Hannah and I have reached that point far too many times. We used to reach the point of burnout at least once a year early on, in fact. It was debilitating. We wouldn’t want to think about work, much less actually go in the office. We were letting work take over our lives. It was what we talked about on date nights, and what we thought about around the clock, no wonder it was crushing at times.

Since then we’ve decided to do something about it by coming up with a strategy to keep burnout at bay. Like any good game plan it’s two fold—offense and defense. We’ve implemented both solid defensive measures to slow burnouts roll, as well as positive forward moving steps to beat it to the punch.  

1.) Schedule your day, setting time limits for each task on your to-do list. You can write this out on paper, log it on your calendar or use a task manager, but the important thing is that you sit down and think through your day ahead of time. If you don’t plan your day, someone will plan it for you. When you’re making your plan, schedule what you’re best at, for when you’re at your best. Then set a window of time for each project. Maybe two hours here, 30 minutes there, so that you move throughout your day in control of it not the other way around.

2.) Do more than one thing. Bounce from one project to another throughout the day. If what you’re currently working on gets boring or starts to grate on you, drop it for a while and do something else. When you get tired of that, switch back to your first project. You’ll still be getting stuff done, but without feeling like you’re beating your head against the wall.

3.) Take a day off, maybe two. Your mind and your imagination have to recharge. They can’t keep going forever without a reset. Schedule time off into your regular routine. Go for a walk, spend time with your family, and enjoy a bit of time away from your work.

4.) Begin each day in God’s Word. People still call this a quiet time every now and then, but it can be as noisy as you’d like. Plug in your headphones, crank up some Shane & Shane and start your day reading the Bible. No discipline is more important than reading God’s Word. It is the most transforming practice available to us. We face trouble, temptation and pressure every day. God’s Word provides just the encouragement, guidance and instruction we need to face the day.      

5.) Have other irons in the fire. Have creative outlets and hobbies that recharge you. Whether it’s painting, reading a book, or writing a story, find another creative endeavor that fills your warms your soul and breathes life into your lungs. You’ll find, the side projects often lead to new and exciting opportunities for your “real work.”

“All advice,” Austin Kleon said, “is autobiographical.” It peels back the layers and gives you the path previously walked by its giver. Hopefully this foray into our world and how we fight burnout will help and inspire you to turn and face the challenge head on, before it forces you off the road.

One Sure Fire Way to Accomplish More in 2016

As we bring 2015 to a close and stand ready to welcome 2016 with open arms, I want to share one small tip that can help you achieve more next year. 

Don't wait until the calendar changes to start working on your goals.

Get a head start on them now.

The momentum you build these next few days before we turn the page on a new year can propel you into achieving more than you ever thought you could.

We often over estimate what we can accomplish in the short term, but rarely do we realize fully what we can achieve over the long term. 

Go into the new year energized and excited to tackle all you hope to accomplish. And while your at it give yourself a head start while you can.

I started attacking my 2016 reading list this past weekend and have been over joyed to have already completed my first book on the list.

What are your big goals for 2016 and who said you had to wait until then to start working on them? 

The Pareto Principle

You have so much going on that it can be quite overwhelming at times. To make it worse, a lot of what you spend your time doing doesn't add to your bottom line or help you accomplish your goals. With your attention pulled in so many directions it can be hard to keep focused on what truly matters. But how do you break this cycle and cut through the waste so you can focus on the truly important? 

 Vilefredo Pareto just might hold the key to unlocking the magic code to increasing productivity and regaining your sanity.

Never heard of Vilefredo Pareto? You're not alone.  

Vilefredo Pareto was an economist of little note who lived and died Switzerland almost 100 years ago. Not much of his work or life garners our attention. However, at some point in his 75 years of life Pareto stumbled upon a mathematical truth that could truly transform your life.

The Pareto Principle first popped up on my radar while reading The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss a little over a year ago. At it's most simple The Pareto Principle simply states that 80% of outputs come from 20% of inputs. This has been found to be true across all manner of disciplines including time management, customers, and economics.

A few alternative ways to look at the principle include:

• 20% of your customers generate 80% of your income

• 20% of your customers create 80% of you problems

• 80% of your results come from 20% of your effort and time

It drives home the concept of prioritization. What you focus on matters immensely. If you are focusing all of your efforts on the wrong things you won't get the results your working so hard to achieve. You will run yourself ragged with nothing to show. Thankfully, you can learn and apply the 80/20 principle to your life and alter the outcomes you are working so hard to reach.

Pareto and the 80/20 principle will be of most help to you if you leverage them to assess your current efforts. Here are three ways you can apply it:

1. Take stock of current efforts. Write down everything you are doing and outcomes it is producing. Be unattached from the outcomes here, simply list out your activity and how it has impacted your work, life, etc.

2. Reprioritize what's producing. Perhaps you find that phone calls are driving your business and resulting huge returns for you, despite the fact that you make very few. In that case, pick up the phone and start making more calls. The key here is to determine your areas of strength and multiply them.

3. Eliminate waste. Consider cutting those things that are wasting your time and energy. It might be something you think would be generating results but its just sucking up resources. Cut it ruthlessly. Find your inefficiencies and eliminate them. This will free you up to focus on what's actually generating for you.   

These three steps show where to double down and where to eliminate. Apply this principle to your life, get a hold of the few things that truly matter, and see how drastically it transforms things for you. 


Bonus tip:

Develop a "Stop Doing" List

A few weeks back I wrote a series of questions to help you evaluate the items on your "to do" list that pairs well with the Pareto Principle that will be helpful to you. Here is an expert from that post:

"The solution to your crazy schedule and consequently a crazy task list isn't just another list but the process of evaluating exactly what you are doing each day. A "stop doing" list helps you take a cold hard look at what you are doing and literally stop doing those things that are not the most fruitful for you and your team."

Bonus Resource:

For more on the Pareto Principle and other awesome tips that are sure to shatter your world, in a good way, check out The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss

3 Tips That Help Me Get More Done

In this crazy, mixed up and hurried world we find ourselves, we have endless "to do" lists and dozens of other things going on with family and friends. There is little time to spare and the quick pace has us pulling our hair out because we simply can't get it all done.

There are a million different tips to getting more done. Over the last several years, three tips have made an impact on my life and I want to share them with you.

1. Start tomorrow today. Ever arrive at the office or start your day in the fog of indecision? You know you have a ton of things to do, but aren't really sure where to begin? This kind of indecision can be paralyzing. You end up wandering from task to task with no real sense of direction or plan to your day. You spend your day in a passive posture, allowing your day to lead you instead of you leading it. 

Actively engage your day by planning it out the night before. Sit down with pen and paper or your favorite "to do" list app and write down everything you need to accomplish in order to make tomorrow a win. Not only will you find that you sleep more soundly, you'll wake up with purpose. When your feet hit the ground you'll know exactly what to do.      

2. Use email templates. As Barnabas Piper recently stated on the 5 Leadership Questions Podcast, "Email begets email. You send an email it will come back three-fold." Answering email feels like a productive task, but in reality it keeps you from spending your time on what truly matters. The more email you send, the more you receive. Its a never ending cycle. 

One way to decrease the amount of time you spend on email is to create templates for common emails and use them. Better to spend time constructing a good and effective communication once than to repeatedly create ineffective email on the same topic. More on how to take back control of your inbox.  

3. Make fewer decisions. You can't make decision after decision without paying a cost. Many times this cost will be poor decisions at the end of the day. It could be something as small as wrecking your diet by making poor food choices or as major as an emotional decision with big consequences. In either case, you make the poor decision in large part because you have depleated your will power on unimportant things. The road to effectiveness lies in making the minimal number of decisions possible. The objective is not to do as much as possible but to save your decision making for the decisions that truly matter. 

The solution is to automate as much as possible. Much like using templates for email, you can make the seemingly mundane decisions you make each day, such as what to wear and what to eat, ahead of time. Script as many of these decisions as possible. Just as an offensive coordinator scripts the first several plays of the game, you can script the first hour of your day. This will help you begin the day on the right foot and a clean slate for the decisions you will have to make later in the day.  


Bonus tip:

The Sticky Note Trick

If you are overwhelmed by everything on your "to do" list, pick three items and write them on a single sticky note. Next, focus on nothing else but those three tasks until they're done. Then wad up the sticky and throw it away. Repeat until you've conquered your list. 

Bonus Resources: 

How To Get Things Done via Tim Challies

Choice Minimal Lifestyle via Timothy Ferriss 

 

 

Developing a "Stop Doing" List

Most lead lives full of activity and lacking discipline. "To do" lists are overwhelming and ever growing. They are filled with wasteful activities, "we just have to do", that drain us of energy, steal our time and keep us from chasing truly great opportunities. 

Enter the idea of the "Stop Doing" list. 

A "stop doing" list in its most basic form is a list of the things that you and / or your team are going to stop doing.  

The solution to your crazy schedule and consequently a crazy task list isn't just another list but the process of evaluating exactly what you are doing each day. A "stop doing" list helps you take a cold hard look at what you are doing and literally stop doing those things that are not the most fruitful for you and your team.  

Like much of life, the power is in the process. 

How do you determine which activities are worth doing? Putting together a "stop doing" list begins by taking a hard look at your task list and asking yourself a series of questions.

1. What is the purpose of this task? It is always helpful to begin with the end in mind. To ask yourself the five year old's favorite question, why? Why is this item even on your "to do" list? What was it's origional purpose? Why are you doing each particular task? Purpose matters especially when it comes to the tasks that cosume your time. If the ultimate purpose of a task isn't worth the time, energy and resources it consumes ditch it. 

2. What outcomes does this task produce? Every task you perform produces an outcome. What is the result of doing each item on your list? What fuit does it produce? Make note of the outcomes your work produces. If what you are doing isn't producing good results that are helping you achieve your goals, it is probably something wasting your time.    

3. If I did not already do this, would I do it? Thinking about starting over often helps provide clarity. There are any number of things you do each day that were once great and needed items but whose time has passed. Honestly evaluate each and every item as if it were a new idea even if you've been doing it for years. Just because its the way things have always been done isn't a good enough reason to keep something on your to do list. You have too much going on for wasteful tasks born of tradition.  

4. Does it fall in my area of strength? Focus on what you do best. A stop doing list allows you to focus on your strengths. Stop doing things you're not best equipped to do. Chances are that even if the task is worth doing, someone else around you might be better suited to perform it.