Here's how you can establish boundaries to avoid burnout in your career.

Introduce scheduled downtime into your weekly calendar, explicitly blocked out for rest or activities unrelated to work. This reinforces the importance of rest in maintaining productivity and mental health.

For myself burn out showed up as fatigue, mental fog, anxiety, depression, insomnia, going blind, and celiac disease. I had lack of motivation and DREADED going to work every single morning. Everything was stress related and being in a toxic work environment. Recognize what your signs are, and take the appropriate time to yourself. Mental health is important!

Consider efficiency tools and techniques, such as Pomodoro timers or Kanban boards. These tools help leaders manage their tasks more effectively, ensuring that energy is spent on impactful activities.

Incorporate role-play into training sessions to practice setting boundaries in various workplace scenarios. This practical approach helps individuals feel more comfortable and prepared to handle real-life situations.

We often get scared of communicating and setting boundaries because we're afraid of what others will think of us. It's a very common fear - the fear of judgment, rejection, or embarrassment from others. We worry that if we express our thoughts and feelings, others may disagree, criticize, or look down on us. This fear can lead us to hold back, avoiding communication and not setting boundaries.

Saying "no" and setting boundaries is crucial, but it can be difficult because to the fear of what others might think. We often worry that saying no or stating our needs will make us appear rude, lazy, or incompetent in the eyes of others. This fear of judgment can prevent us from communicating our needs openly. It's important to remember that setting boundaries is a sign of self-respect and emotional maturity, not selfishness or laziness.

Your no's give integrity and meaning to your yes'es - without them, your yes'es can be dirty, weak and false. Learning how to say no and to master the conversation of dissent is a skill - a quick way to get started is to start with the no, add a why and give the other person options beyond yourself.

Travel Hack: Schedule Rest & Recharge! ?? I felt burnout three times in the last two years because of hectic travel as a global speaker. (25 cities in a year takes its toll) To combat exhaustion, I've learned to build R&R right into my schedule. Here's how it works: Pre-Trip Pampering: I arrive a day or two early to beat jetlag and explore the local scene. Connecting with the culture helps me engage the audience. Post-Event Escape: When possible, I add an extra day or two for a mini-vacation (sometimes with my travel buddy!). Showing up well-rested and energized benefits everyone! I deliver a better presentation, the client gets a more impactful speaker, and I actually get to enjoy the amazing places I visit.

There is a distinction between being in the process of approaching burn out and actually being burned out. Once a person reaches actual burn out, it is hard to perform any of the task previously outlined because the body and the brain's executive functions have begun to shut down, due to being disregulated. This is why being preventative is very important (the other step given in the article). Once an employee hits burn out, they will most likely need to take a break just so that their body and their systems can healed and regulated again. This is why you see many people who hit burn out either choose to leave their role, go out on leave or in worst case scenarios, they end up having a medical crisis that forces them to rest.