Prevent Burnout: Easy Tips for Entrepreneurs 🔥

Welcome to the Overgivers Anonymous podcast. My name is Angela Mondor, also known as the Geeky Girl. In this podcast, we're going to be talking about some amazing things to help you get over overgiving. Hi and welcome to this episode of the Overgivers Anonymous podcast. My name is Angela Mondor, I'm also known as the Geeky Girl. Today we're going to talk about preventing burnout. We're going to talk a little bit about balancing business and personal life. I'm not talking about finding balance. I think there's Some misnomers, some conversations. Let's have a bit of a conversation. First and foremost, there is something truly special about us neurodivergent people with these wonderful brains, and we are very susceptible to burnout. So it's important more than, more than anything to me anyway. I know this is something really important to me. I know from other people as well. To be very mindful of What burnout looks like to us, because my level of burnout or my level of handling things until I burn out will be different than other people's levels as well. So thinking about that, managing that, number one, that's most important in my mind. What are the things that cause burnout? What are the things that contribute to a burnout? Even just a partial burnout, like it's coming and you can feel it. Now, I used to be not aware, and the inability to be aware caused the burnout to show up more often than it does nowadays. Now I pay more attention to things. I can see things coming, and it allows me to be able to prepare or to take action so that I'm less likely to end up in that burnout space. I will say that when I left corporate, the burnout that I sustained, the total meltdown that happened, thankfully I've never had another one like it, but it took me down for 5 days where I literally couldn't function. And then it took a while, even months, to, you know, recuperate after what went on. But I don't have that anymore, thankfully. I've never had one that big or that Hard to get over, but I've had little burnouts along the way. So I'm going to share information about what works for me, and hopefully some of this stuff can resonate with you. Certainly, if you have ideas that you want to share, please share them. If you're watching this on YouTube, just drop the comments below. If you're listening to the Overgivers Anonymous podcast, you can always send us an email at clientcare@geekygirl.ca. Let's get to it, shall we? Okay. First of all, the The things that cause burnout: overworking, inconsistent energy levels, forgetting to take breaks, forgetting to take our medicine sometimes. All of those things can lead to burnout or even pieces of burnout. It doesn't have to be a full burnout for you to be burnt out. Okay? Even little tiny burnouts, little tiny in your flow can really impact what you can accomplish in your business and your life. So when you're looking at the different pieces that contribute, think about all of the pieces, not just the things I just mentioned, but think about your sleep schedule, how much water you drink, you know, the actual medicine you're on. Is it working? Is it not working? Your mental health, from maybe you need a psychologist or somebody to speak to, a counselor of some kind that's gonna help you. What you eat, all of the pieces that contribute to Your overall looking after of this body that you have, the brain that you're working with. All of the pieces can filter in and be parts of what's going on. And each of us will be impacted differently based on that information. So think about the way that you're— the different pieces of your life are fitting together here. Okay? So when you're working and you're thinking about how you're feeling, I often attribute it to an energy level, and I have different energy for different things. So I may have an energy that is unable to do, let's say, this kind of work where I'm in front of a camera or I'm with a client, but I'm able to be more introspective and focus on creating maybe a make scenario or some other automation, those kinds of things. I mean, it's a different headspace, a different energy than it takes to do something like this. So what's really important is to be able to get to a point where you can start to recognize your warning signs. And the earlier you recognize them, the better it's going to be for you in terms of how you're able to mitigate those burnout pieces that are coming. So there's some actionable strategies that you can do And you can also build your business so that it supports both your success and your wellbeing when it comes to how things work for you. I told you about the big burnout, the time that corporate took me down, but I have had smaller pieces of burnout as well where I have been unable to get moving after. Most recently, so it's not that it never happens, they just happen differently than they used to. So most recently I had a mini little bit of a burnout at the end of our Neurodivergent Business Summit. I didn't anticipate what I would require to recover after that event properly. We had changed the way that we ran the program, the way that we ran the summit. And in that, I didn't understand, I didn't notice, I didn't think, I didn't anticipate. How's that? I didn't anticipate how that was going to impact my energy level post-summit. So after the summit occurred, there were a few things that I had to let go. There was a few things that I had to walk away from and say, I'm done. This just isn't going to happen right now. Unfortunately, I had to take a seat back and say, you know what, I need to look after me so that I'm able to come back and be the presence that I need to be. One of those things was creating these videos. Once I had taken that time to be in the summit, I thought I'd be able to catch up on my content after because I had so much that I needed to do before the summit. I thought, oh, I'll do it after the summit's over. No dice. It took me too long to recover to be able to do this. So we've made a plan moving forward. Now, when I record content before our next summit, which is happening in September, I will record 2 months' worth of content instead of 1 when I do it that time ahead of the summit, and that'll prepare me for looking after myself after the summit. So when you're looking at different pieces, it didn't take me all the way out. I was still able to function. I was still able to look after my clients, myself, my kids, my husband, my house. I was still able to do all those things, but there was a few bits and pieces pieces that I had to say, hmm, that piece needs to be taken out and this needs to be put aside, or I need to do this differently in order to fill my cup back up again. Okay? So when you are constantly on or when you don't decide, if you don't decide that I need to take some time for myself, guess what's gonna happen? Your body will eventually take the time for you. You'll get sick. It's very clear to me that this is what happens because I remember My younger self and working corporately and me working really hard and working really hard. And even in the back of my mind, there was this voice that says, if I was sick, I could just lay in bed today. And guess what? A couple days later, I was in bed sick. Now, that's never the reason why I want to take a day off. I would rather take a mental health day where I'm not sick, but I know that I'm going to get this burnout piece. And And really be present and fully present in that moment so that I could still enjoy it. I don't want to be sick and take the time. So those are some things to think about as to how you can restructure that. Instead of waiting till you're sick, take the time ahead, do what you have to do to look after yourself before it goes to the point where you're actually burnt out and now you're sick. So when I'm looking at recovering earlier this— it was last year, I guess— I had back-to-back events that were coming, and I didn't have control over some of them. We had the Hockey Alps Lomas tournament, of course we had just done Halloween for our big huge fundraiser that we had done there, my nephew was getting married, like there was a whole bunch of things that were happening back to back to back, and I didn't have control over a lot of those timelines, but I knew that that was going to be crazy, so I booked myself a spa day for that Sunday, which was the very last day of that entire thing. And then I was able to take an entire day for myself at the spa, and it helped to nourish me, to fill me back up again, and so that I could get back into doing what I wanted to do. The trick in that was that when I was away for that spa day, I had no phone, I had no computer, I was literally off-grid. Nothing. My family knew, no comunicado. It was, I'm gone, right? That was what I needed to recover at that time. You're gonna need what you're gonna need when you need it, and it's not always the same for me. Sometimes I need to go to the ocean. Sometimes I need to go to the forest. Sometimes I need to just lay in bed and read a book, depending on what it is I need to recover or to recoup from, right? Think about what it is that you need. So there are some things that might trigger this for you. So let's talk about them. So hyperfocus and overworking. Hyperfocus can be great because we get so much done and we're in such a zone that it just feels super, super awesome. The downsides of hyperfocus is that it does cause us to overwork sometimes. We forget to drink, we forget to eat, we forget to go to the bathroom. There's a bunch of things. So hyperfocus is great except for when it interferes with those things. Now, if it does interfere with those things, just know that It's important for you to build in something to look after yourself. Okay? Time blindness can cause some problems because we don't realize how long we've been working, which kind of goes with the hyperfocus a little bit. Sometimes you're not even hyperfocused, you're just simply not understanding how long you've been doing something. I remember one time I was cleaning my living room and I didn't— I wasn't paying attention to time. I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing, and I ended up going down rabbit hole after rabbit hole. It took me 5 hours? My living room's not that big, but I just kept going down this rabbit hole and then that rabbit hole, and it kept going. You know, one thing led to another. That's time blindness. I wasn't even hyperfocused, I don't think. I don't— I didn't feel like I was in hyperfocus for that. I was just— I was listening to a book and I was just doing my thing. But so time blindness, when we're working on things like that, we may not realize that how much time has passed as we're working on those things. And you don't realize that you hadn't stopped to eat or you haven't started to do all those other things, which is— Sort of like that hyperfocus portion again, right? Rejection sensitivity can be very, very poignant if we are working really, really hard and we are constantly worried that we're letting other people down. And that's why we're overworking. If we're overworking because we're worried about what other people are thinking, or we're worried about people feeling like we're not contributing the way we need to, that can cause problems. in terms of your overwhelm inside your business. Emotional and sensory overload, let's be honest. I mean, if you have emotional or sensory overload that's ever happened to you, you'll be able to understand this. If you've never had it, it'll be completely outside of your realm of understanding. My husband doesn't get emotional or sensory overwhelm, and he doesn't understand it when I do, and I have to explain it to him, 'cause he just, it just doesn't happen for him. But sometimes it's too noisy, or my shirt— there's some days when I have to change my shirt 3 or 4 times just because I don't like the way it feels. I liked it in the beginning, but I generally dress because of how it makes me feel. What kind of comfort or what kind of feeling do I want that day? There could be too much noise or too much stimulation from visuals or sounds, movement, noise, smells. There's all kinds of reasons. So if you are living in a situation or working in a situation where you have less control over or less the ability to change those situations, that can cause you to burn out too. I was managing a call center at the time, plus I had other roles and responsibilities with help desk and that kind of thing. And I remember people coming to my office and they're like, why are you wearing sunglasses? The lights are out. And I'm like, I have a migraine and I can't leave. I have to keep working. So in those situations, We have to find our way through them. Clearly, I wasn't looking after myself. There's no way I should have been— I should have been working in that situation. I should have gone home. Let's be honest. I even— I had one job where they actually had a quiet room where you could go to a quiet room when you were working. That was a cool— that was a cool job. Anyway, also inconsistent energy levels can lead to burnout. If you are really, really excited and you've got lots of energy and you can get a lot of things done, and then the next day you've put all of your energy into day 1 and day 2 you've got nothing. You might still push yourself to work on day 2 because you think, well, I got all that done, I should be able to get something done today. It can cause some burnout because there's not that balance there as well. So through those cycles of extreme productivity versus complete burnout, it's not really good for you as a human being anyway, right? So what's important here? How can you look at all the different pieces that are coming into your planet and how can you mitigate these situations for yourself? First and foremost, setting your boundaries and protecting your time. Your boundaries around who you work with, why you're working with them, when you're willing to work, all those kinds of things. When you have clear work hours and you understand the difference between this kind of work, that kind of work, and personal time. Okay, so the work that I do when I'm with clients versus the work I do when I'm not with clients, the work that I do for my clients versus the work I do for my own business. All of those pieces have different energy levels and they have different needs. And so it's important for me to make sure that those are blocked into my calendar in a way that is going to support my needs and my clients. So we use Google Calendars here, that Google Calendar is my boss. We use Acuity for all our bookings because then I can specify, here's the times when I'm going to let people book into my calendar and for why. Right? What's the reason they're booking and, and how does that fit into my calendar? That's really important for us. I have had times where I've said I will stop work at this time of day regardless of what's going on. I won't start till this time. And those things fluctuate. In the summertime, my husband's a teacher, so he's off all summer, but we take what we call Freedom Fridays. So every Friday in the summertime, I'm not here. I'm not working. My husband and I are probably on a beach somewhere. So that's why it fluctuates between— there's different times, different seasons, different things that are working in your life and your business. So make sure you work it for yourself, okay? And then always try to work with your energy rather than against it. So there's gonna be things that have deadlines and you're gonna need to get things done during those deadlines, and sometimes you gotta push the envelope. Fine. Sometimes, once in a while, not very often. What's really important to take away from this is that when you're looking at your energy cycle and the work that needs to be accomplished, try to make sure that your high-focus work happens during the times when you know you're more likely to have that kind of high-focused energy. When you are trying to balance that calendar, for example, I don't like to have client calls in the afternoon because I don't want to miss an appointment. And I have that appointment waiting thing that happens in my brain. So if I start work at 9 or 10 o'clock in the morning, but I don't have a call till 2 o'clock in the afternoon with a client, chances are pretty good that I'm not going to get anything really productive done between that time because I'm constantly going to be worried about that call that's happening at 2 o'clock. So I schedule those things earlier in the morning. I want those things to happen first. And then the afternoon, I don't have to worry so much. If I get into hyperfocus mode in the afternoon, I don't have to worry that I'm missing an appointment. Okay? I also make sure that my appointments are scheduled so that there is a notification, especially if it's an odd appointment like a doctor, dentist, eyeglass, something I'm doing for somebody else that— like tonight I have to drive my niece to work. And so like that's an odd thing. So I make sure that when I put that in my calendar that there's a notification that shows up to say, hey, guess what? You've got this thing coming. And then that way it'll alert me like an hour before or half hour before, depending on what it is, so that I'm like, oh, that's right, I don't want to forget about that thing. So you got to look at what are the tools that I can use to support myself and my brain and the way it works. You also need to prioritize your rest and recovery. Make it just as important to get to bed on time as you do to get to a meeting on time. Your rest is essential for your brain. And make sure that you are looking after yourself and supplying your body with the right nutrients. I don't know about you, but I have a hard time eating lunch. Mostly it's because if there's not something quick and easy, I go to the kitchen, I look around and go, ah, it's too much work. I gotta go back to work. So for me, meal prep is important, making sure I have something that I can easily eat midday. And it doesn't even have to be some— I generally don't like a meal midday. I'm more of a grazer. So I like to have a few things I can graze on. But it's never a big deal for me. Like, I just don't want to go get a whole big meal in the middle of the day. But I need something that's quick and easy to grab that is also nutritious. Because although I love to snack on sugary things, it's not good for me to do it all day. Just for my brain and my body. So movement, hobbies, creative outlets, all those things are really important when you're looking after yourself to make sure that you are supporting yourself and your body and not helping, not contributing to those burnout things. So you can say to yourself, you know what, I'm going to take one day off a week to do no business-related activities, which is like the Freedom Fridays in the summertime. For me, my Fridays are a lot, a lot less structured and organized all year long, so I don't take any client calls on Friday. It's typically time for me to work inside the Geeky Girl business as opposed to on other people's businesses, and so it's a more relaxed day generally, but in In the summertime, we go out. So you can choose to build your schedule any way that you want. Even if you've always had your clients completely able to use whatever date and time in the calendar that they've wanted, it's totally okay for you to change. And if it changes even further, it's totally okay to change again. So even if I decide that I don't like my layout of my calendar and it's not serving me well, I have the power to change that. My clients are gonna be totally okay with it. I promise you, I've done it a few times. My clients have never complained. And so you have the ability to move these things around and make sure that it works for you. So when we are looking at preventing burnout, it is important to find some rhythm, not balance, some rhythm between your business and your personal life. Make sure that you're taking time to look after yourself, not just look after your family, not just look after your pets, but looking after yourself as well. It is really important for me to get the amount of sleep that I require. And so I make it, I make it a huge point to go to bed when I go to bed. And I tell people, okay, I'm gone. And even though I'm going to bed to go read, I'm taking that time to decompress, to relax, to get into the place where I can go into sleep properly. So when you're looking at this, what does that rhythm look like for you? And it's going to change ages and stages depending on what's happening in your life. If you've got little kids or if you're looking after elder adults, Or if you have pets, there's lots of different things that can impact the way that your day/life works. But make sure that you're looking after yourself. And from there, you will be able to— you know what they say, fill your own cup first and then you can share. Make sure you're looking after yourself. Set your boundaries. Make sure that you're working with your energy. Make sure you're putting tasks in spaces that make sense to you and give yourself some room on projects. Sometimes that can be the hardest part. And always, always, always prioritize yourself and your recovery time and make sure that it is just as important to do that as it is to do the things that you have to do for your clients. I hope you have a fantastic day and that you were able to take a few bits and pieces out of this. Hopefully you won't experience massive burnouts. They suck. Little tiny ones we can get through. And hopefully you can find ways to see what's coming ahead so that you can say, oh, you know what, that's when I'm gonna have trouble. I know I need to work in some more rest and recovery. Okay, take care of yourself and we'll talk to you next time. Bye for now. Thank you so much for listening to the Overgivers Anonymous podcast. Your support means the world to me. You can find show notes for this episode and other goodies at overgiversanonymous.ca. And if you enjoyed this episode or you enjoyed the podcast in general, why not join us in the Overgivers Anonymous Facebook group where you can connect with overgivers from all over the world? Head on over to geekygirl.ca/group.