Burned Out From COVID-19? 6 Tips To Turn Exhaustion Into Positive Energy

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Tired. Exhausted. Burned out? I'm not gonna lie. COVID-19 has exhausted me. Being stuck at home with a 3 year old, two dogs, and 9 month pregnant wife isn't easy! Blake (my wife) and I are also both entrepreneurs which means we also need to juggle running our own businesses. But whether you're an entrepreneur or a senior executive I think it's safe to say that many of us are...freakin' tired!

Burnout is a natural part of life, and it can zap your energy and halt any forward progress you have in building your business or advancing your career. But thankfully there are tips and strategies you can implement to make sure that burnout doesn't turn into a long-lasting downturn.

The key to success is to learn how to work through those feelings of exhaustion we all face.

Blake and I share more in the latest episode of the BYOB (Be Your Own Boss) Podcast. You can click to play below or can go here to listen on your favorite platform.

Here are 6 Tips To Turn Exhaustion Into Positive Energy

1) Signs

Start by building self-awareness. Before you can fix the problem, you have to understand why you feel burned out. There are numerous factors and activities that zap our energy. For Blake it includes fighting the need to be perfect. For me, meetings, calls, maintaining trying relationships, task and project management can all lead to serious burnout. But once we’ve established what zaps our energy, we can work to find a solution.

It’s also helpful to understand how exhaustion and low energy manifest themselves. Again, this is different for everyone. Some people might feel depressed or angry when they’re tired, and other people have a short fuse and are easily agitated. When you’re exhausted, don’t make big decisions. Don’t let your emotions get the best of you. Watch how you interact and speak with other people.

2) Rest

It's ok to rest! It doesn't make you weak, stupid, lame, or not a hard worker. When you have a hard workout at the gym what do you afterwards? You rest! Being burned out is no different, it's an emotional and mental rest so that you can heal and get to where you need to be. Go walk your dogs, meditate, sit on the couch and read, and get a full night of sleep. One of the worst mistakes people can make is to try to power through exhaustion. This is where mistakes and bad decisions happen.

3) Do "easy" work

We all have work which is easier and harder to do. For me the hard stuff includes creating content like courses, podcasts, and videos. The "easy" work includes things like approving image quotes that my team wants to post, reviewing article ideas, or doing some casual research on a particular topic. This is stuff I can do on auto-pilot with a movie on in the background. I still feel somewhat productive and honestly don't mind doing this since my brain isn't fully required to be "on."

4) Find an outlet

If we go back to the working out analogy then finding an outlet is the equivalent of physical therapy. This is actually my number one way of dealing with burnout and getting reenergized. Resting is great but it's a bit more of a reactive approach to burnout. Finding an outlet is really about being proactive. My outlet is chess (and exercise)! Whenever I'm burned out and need a break from work I focus on my chess game. It's totally not related the work I do, completely takes my mind off of work, is fun, and is something I can do for hours a day. Your outlet might be something creative like writing or reading, knitting or quilting, playing sports, etc. But having something you can do that takes you away from "work-mode" is a great way to rejuvenate yourself.

5) Delegate

Whenever possible I try to get someone else to help me with things that I'm not good at or don't want to do. I have a team of ten people I work with and over the years I've hired people who help with everything from bookkeeping and accounting to scheduling and managing meetings to project and task management. I'm terrible at these things and I'm not good at them. But the people I hired to do these things enjoy doing them and they're good at it! You can't always hire someone to do things for you but you can certainly ask people on your team for help. Remember, that teams should be structured where everyone has different strengths and where their strengths can be utilized!

6) Get support

Having a network of people you can talk go is extremely powerful. This could be your co-workers, friends, family members, or a networking group you're a part of. My biggest source of support is my wife Blake. Whenever I'm burned out she does two things. First, she tells me stop whining and complaining and then she tells me to go relax or to do something I enjoy doing. It's exactly what I need to hear. You need to have someone you can talk to and someone who can build you up and support you instead of tear you down.

Burnout is a natural part of life, and it doesn’t ever truly go away. The key to succeeding is to control your energy. Look for the triggers of things that cause you to feel burned out and exhausted. Set boundaries and proactively take care of yourself so that you can be in your best condition to succeed at work and life.

We go into depth on these topics and more about exhaustion and burnout on this week’s episode of the BYOB Podcast. Give it a listen!  

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If you enjoyed the article and want more content like this here’s what you can do:

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