“What intuitive leadership mindset and productive practices can I use to avoid burnout and overwhelm?”
If you missed it, here’s part 1, head over there for tips 1-10 before diving into part 2 of how to go from burned out to turned on with a massive mindset shift. Why is taking proactive intentional action so needed in today’s world? I’m going to be bold and say that burnout, overwhelm, exhaustion and frustration, whatever your flavor is, is keeping you small. Keeping you from taking on that big goal and dream you have, even if that goal is to work less and have more white space in your day.
I’m sharing these data-driven mindset hacks to help you quickly get deep into what disempowering habits and thoughts are getting in your way and how to redirect your thinking and decision-making proactively.
Dealing with burnout and overwhelm involves facing hidden habits we may not even be aware we have, So let’s get ahead of those right now.
Go from burnt out to turned on: Part 2
11. Avoid overwhelm by resisting the urge to compare.
Don’t waste your time being envious of or crushed by others’ successes. Celebrate them! It’s hard, it’s hard for me to do sometimes. But listen, you have your own talents and specialties; your own unique style. You’ll be at that stage of the journey too, one day. Your time will come.
Particularly if you don’t waste it by beating yourself up because you’re not as “good” as X, Y or Z (ps. It’s because you are great).
12. Avoid burnout: Batch Your Tasks
Try doing similar tasks all in one go. In August I started batching my social media posts by theme, September is all about “going from burnt out to turned on.” I use Hootsuite for LinkedIn and Plann That for Instagram, it’s been both a time saver and helped relieve a lot of my self-imposed pressure to “be social” all the time.
You might be surprised to discover that doing similar tasks in one go gets them over with much more efficiently—and less stressfully.
13. Avoid overwhelm: Get To-Dos Out of Your Head
Write them down, keep a journal by your bed at night for those 3am-4am worry sessions. I use Notes on my Apple platforms, and I ask Siri to remind me to do things as simple as ‘Remind me to get cat food’ and ‘Remind me at 2pm to call USAA.’
14. Acknowledge what’s really important
Change your desk photographs regularly: Put photographs of people, places or pets on your desk—ones that remind you how lucky you are, or that you’re loved; or that remind you of a goal or dream.
Rotate them regularly—otherwise, you become “blind” and stop seeing the beautiful memories, pictures and dreams you’ve chosen for inspiration, and have the potential to fall back into the rabbit hole of overwhelm.
15. Avoid burnout–Acknowledge someone for who they are being
Get out of your head (your ego needs a break) and get into your heart by acknowledging someone for who they are. So often we thank people for something they did, but consider adding a second layer of depth by thanking them for who they are…compassionate, helpful, bold, caring, bright. It’s a mindset shift to force you out of doom and gloom and into gratitude and connection.
16. Avoid overwhelm by being proactive
Leave ten minutes early to allow for travel hitches. Pack serotonin and dopamine-boosting snacks like yogurt, apples or protein bars when you’re going to be traveling for more than a few hours. If you’re always forgetting to take necessary medication, get your pharmacist to package these in weekly bubble packs, so you can see exactly when you last took a dose.
Look for the “third alternative”. If you feel stuck between choice A and choice B, look around to figure out a different choice altogether.
If someone is driving you up the wall, respectfully let them know what’s bugging you—and see if the two of you can brainstorm a solution.
Get into the habit of “can do”—and say goodbye to avoidance and procrastination.
17. #RealTalk: work never ends and your job doesn’t love you.
The most counter-productive thing you can do is beat yourself up for not getting everything on your To-Do list done. Life happens. Things take longer than you think. You get interrupted. You run into computer problems.
Focus on your top 3 priorities for the day—and table what isn’t done at the end of the day for tomorrow (or farm it out!)
Finally, remember that burnout happens for a reason. It can be your friend, if you don’t ignore it. People who have dealt with stress and burnout have stopped wasting time in jobs or relationships that made them unhappy. Burnout can be a signal that it’s time … to take charge now and create the stress-free, happy life—and business—you’ve always wanted.
18. Think you are a good multitasker?
Research shows that we Lose 28% of our work day to multi-tasking, focusing on two things at once makes you less good at both.
Research shows that the average white-collared worker shuffles between 37 different windows on their computer or device in an hour.
19. Be The Cause
“I can’t do blank (insert your flavor of excuse like: workout, eat healthy, be on time, be in integrity) because X, Y, Z.”
Notice when you say you really want to leave work at work and not bring it home with you. Yet, here we are, complaining to your significant other the moment you walk in the door, checking email at 10:15pm when you know you should be winding down.
Here’s the shift: Be The Cause. Instead of saying why you can’t do something “because” Become The Cause, be the reason why you leave work at work, set expectations for yourself and keep them.
20. Avoid burnout: Participate in your mind-body connection.
#RealTalk your perceived outer success can never rise above the success you visualized internally. Getting stuck in the ever-so-easy slide into overwhelm and burnout is a default in our culture. What if you did things differently? What if you took control of the only thing you can control–your mind-body connection. Read up on visualization, meditation, breath work, these are tools that are easily accessible and generate massive evidence based results.
If you know somebody who has just maybe been in a rut, needs a little mindset shift, a mindset reframe, share this post with them, they’ll thank you for it.
READ TO SPARK CHANGE IN YOUR LIFE AND LEADERSHIP?
Your life experience and creative leadership potential are bigger than what you currently believe. This is your one-time invitation to transform your mindset of what’s possible for you. Book your introductory coaching session with Lisa today.