3 Simple Burnout Solutions (Part Three)

It’s become the American corporate way to work ourselves into a burnout situation and then have to recover. The harm in this repetitive process is it starts to affect our physical, emotional and mental health in the long term. Part One focused on knowing the difference between being excellent and being perfect and part two highlighted maintaining your perspective on what matters the most to you in life.

Three Solutions:

1. Know the difference between being excellent and being perfect.
2. Maintain your perspective on what matters the most to you in life.
3. To thine own self be true!

To thine own self be true (Shakespeare). Most of us know our strengths and our…well, those other areas we don’t like to talk about. Spending a majority of your time on the things you are best at and that add the most value will drastically improve your personal and professional satisfaction. Never pay yourself to do a task that you could pay someone else less to accomplish and especially if they can do it better. If you’re not an accountant, you should NOT be doing your own bookkeeping. If you are not creative, you should have very little involvement in advertising and branding. Outsourcing and/or delegation is critical to avoiding the debilitating stress of burnout. Insert shameless plug for accounting and marketing services through Legal Back Office! Burnout also comes from an inefficient use of time and a need to enhance productivity. Rather than recreate the wheel on productivity and time management, check out the many resources by Darren Hardy linked here! Follow my advice adapted from Shakespeare and “know yourself well enough to focus and get out of your own way!” Post that and tag @legalbackofficeus. Action Challenge, should you choose to accept it:

1. Create a list of the top 3 things that add the most value to your business. Create a list of the top 3 personal areas that are most important to you. Example: Professional-bringing in new clients, strategic planning, and nurturing existing client relationships. Personal- spending time with my significant other and kids, training for cycling and volunteering locally.
2. Starting Sunday, start tracking your time in a spreadsheet or on paper by general categories of how you spend your day and do this for two weeks through Saturday including your personal time and professional activities.
3. After two weeks, add the total time in each category to see how much of your effort is going towards professional top 3 areas and personal top 3 areas of value.
4. Repeat this practice until you are spending the majority of your personal and professional time on the Top 3! For professional coaching in this area.