It’s Saturday afternoon and you’re relaxing at home. Have you checked your work email today? If so, you’re probably contributing to your own burnout.
As business site Entrepreneur points out, staying connected to your job is easier than ever. While it might help you feel more productive, it drains you over the long run. To stave off the inevitable burnout, you need to take some time to completely disconnect every once in a while.
Disconnecting is the most important burnout strategy on this list, because if you can’t find time to remove yourself electronically from your work, then you’ve never really left work. Making yourself available to your work 24/7 exposes you to a constant barrage of stressors that prevent you from refocusing and recharging. If taking the entire evening or weekend off from handling work e-mails and calls isn’t realistic, try designating specific times to check in on emails and respond to voicemails. For example, on weekday evenings, you may check emails after dinner, and on the weekend you may check your messages on Saturday afternoon while your kids are playing sports. Scheduling such short blocks of time alleviates stress without sacrificing your availability.
Of course, if you only disconnect when it’s convenient, you’ll never do it. Instead, put those blocks of time in your schedule. If you know that you’re going to cut off your internet connection or turn off your email notifications by 5PM Friday, you have more motivation to make sure everything’s done before then.
10 Signs You’re Burning Out (And How To Stop It) | Entrepreneur
Photo by Ben Sutherland.