How do you manage your energy and avoid burnout or stress?

1 Know your priorities

One of the main causes of burnout and stress is having too many tasks and demands on your plate, without a clear sense of what is important and urgent. To avoid this, you need to know your priorities and align them with your goals, values, and expectations. A simple tool to help you do this is the Eisenhower matrix, which divides your tasks into four categories: do, decide, delegate, and delete. By using this matrix, you can focus on the tasks that are essential and meaningful for your work, and eliminate or delegate the ones that are not.

2 Set boundaries

Another way to manage your energy and avoid burnout or stress is to set boundaries between your work and your personal life. This means respecting your working hours, taking breaks, and disconnecting from your devices when you are not working. It also means saying no to requests or commitments that are not aligned with your priorities or that exceed your capacity. Setting boundaries can help you create a healthy balance between your work and your well-being, and prevent you from feeling overwhelmed or resentful.

3 Manage your emotions

Your emotions can have a significant impact on your energy and your performance. Negative emotions such as anger, frustration, anxiety, or fear can drain your energy and affect your motivation, concentration, and communication. Positive emotions such as joy, gratitude, curiosity, or pride can boost your energy and enhance your creativity, resilience, and collaboration. To manage your emotions effectively, you need to be aware of them, acknowledge them, and express them in constructive ways. You can also use techniques such as breathing exercises, meditation, or journaling to calm yourself and cope with stress.

4 Recharge your energy

Managing your energy is not only about avoiding burnout or stress, but also about replenishing it. To recharge your energy, you need to take care of your physical and mental health, and engage in activities that make you happy and fulfilled. This can include getting enough sleep, eating well, exercising regularly, spending time with friends and family, pursuing hobbies, or learning new skills. By recharging your energy, you can improve your mood, your confidence, and your performance.

5 Seek feedback and support

One of the benefits of having commercial awareness is that you can understand the perspectives and needs of others, and adapt your work accordingly. However, this also means that you need to seek feedback and support from others, and not isolate yourself or rely on your own assumptions. Feedback and support can help you improve your work, learn from your mistakes, celebrate your achievements, and cope with challenges. You can seek feedback and support from your colleagues, managers, mentors, coaches, or peers, depending on your situation and goals.

6 Review and reflect

Finally, managing your energy and avoiding burnout or stress requires that you review and reflect on your work regularly. This means that you evaluate your progress, your results, your strengths, and your areas for improvement. It also means that you acknowledge your achievements, your challenges, your learnings, and your emotions. By reviewing and reflecting on your work, you can identify what works and what doesn't, what energizes and what drains you, what motivates and what demotivates you. You can also use this information to adjust your priorities, your boundaries, your emotions, your energy, and your feedback and support.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?