10 Best Keys to Avoiding Burnout

Check this post often for keys to avoiding burnout that you can practice daily. The signs of burnout are sometimes apparent, but other times there are few outward symptoms of burnout. Everything from our personal life, life balance, and even emotional exhaustion can contribute to burnout, but it doesn’t have to be that way. We can lower our risk of burnout with good habits and self-care strategies that are helpful to our personal wellness strategies. 

After reading this post, I hope you experience the happy ending of having at least a few practices to avoid burnout when you feel it coming.

The challenge with stress (especially when it comes to wedding planning) is that we are all dealing with multiple life issues at one time. It’s often difficult to find a block of time to take care of our needs. The quality of care that we expend on ourselves is typically eclipsed by the work we do or the things we do for others. 

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Getting Your Plan Ready

You want to be prepared to reduce your stress and to make a plan for avoiding burnout. By taking time to disconnect and truly relax, you will have a clear mind to create a plan for yourself to avoid burnout. Find a place known to help you relax or a new place that you know has not been a stressor for you. Begin your plan by simply giving yourself the space to care for yourself, which will reduce and help you prevent stress and avoid burnout.

Have a Plan Ready

Getting your plan ready is different from having your plan ready. This is important, especially when considering avoiding burnout. The last thing you want to do when you are stressed is to look for your plan. For that reason, having a plan and making that plan accessible to you is key. If possible, have your plan visible in your home, whether hanging in your office or your action center or propped up somewhere on a desk in your bedroom.

When our plans are not somewhat visible, they tend to get left behind to the things we can see daily, like our loved ones, our television, caring for our homes, space, work, and on and on. But a visible plan gets revisited more often than a closed journal or planner.

Have a Daily Routine

Once you are ready to address avoiding burnout in your daily routine, keep a sustainable pace. Things like getting aerobic exercise on a daily basis have been proven to help a person stay healthy. Regular exercise is a low-cost way to reduce stress. It has also been known to help reduce heart disease.

Few things can replace getting physical activity on a regular, but especially a daily basis. But this is just one of the things that you can do daily to maintain your physical health. Keeping a healthy balance of physical and mental health will help to keep your quality of life at an optimal level. 

If you have a heavy workload and work long hours, that is even more reason to pay attention to your routine. Stress management techniques such as taking a deep breath throughout your day will help to reduce your stress cycle. Practicing these techniques daily is the best way to keep your pattern consistent, ensure that you do them on a regular basis, and maintain a positive outlook. 

Ask Someone to Look at Your Plan

Accountability is just a tool that helps us to reach our goals. When you are comfortable with someone looking at your plan to reduce stress and avoid burnout, you will know that you are ready to succeed. Also, if you are willing to allow someone to look at your plan, remember a few things. Make sure that the person you choose is someone you are used to receiving critique from.

Be sure to have a follow-up conversation about implementing some of their ideas. And reward yourself. It’s not always easy to ask someone to give you feedback. Be sure to treat yourself to something good if you are willing to have another set of eyes look at your plan for avoiding burnout.

Make Sure You Enjoy What You’re Doing

The key is that you don’t just want to avoid burnout. This might sound cliché but what you are doing is finding joy in your life. This is what will be the best strategy for avoiding burnout.

If you have experienced any kind of burnout, then you know the importance of a stress management plan. I feel that the older we get, the more important it is to have this type of plan in place. There have been several points in my life where I felt like I was at or close to burnout because of life circumstances. Some of these circumstances were because of my actions, and some were out of my control. Either way, having a plan in place makes us feel supported.

We hope you find value in having a resource to revisit with real-life action steps.

Avoiding Burnout Action Steps

Follow these action steps to be sure that your plan works for you. I recommend following through with these steps first and then returning to any of them individually as you find it helpful.

Pay Attention to Your Feelings

There are a couple of ways to check on your feelings. One is to set a reminder or timer when you will actively pay attention to your feelings at a certain time of day. You could also set this timer multiple times during the day for those times of the day that might be tougher, such as mid-morning or that mid-afternoon slump. This check-in is when you can check on behavioral signs, physical signs, or any warning signs that you may not feel as well as you should. 

Have Someone Check on You

Having a friend check on you is an even better option than setting a timer. There’s nothing like having someone not only care enough to check on your well-being but also be able and willing to follow through. Be sure to choose someone who knows how to support you with your stress points and triggers in mind. This will be helpful to know that you don’t have to worry about choosing someone to talk to when you are at your peak stress level.

When you are avoiding burnout, you want someone who understands your personality and has your best interest in mind. This person might even notice burnout symptoms before you do. This will help you to start taking action sooner, even earlier in one of the stages of burnout, to help you be well. 

Set Up Your Outlets

You can do an outlet to engage a different part of your brain or emotional state. It helps you not avoid issues but brings your healthy feelings from a different direction. These activities make you feel good and put a new perspective on your current problems. Getting familiar with your outlets and having a list ready will be helpful when it’s time to unwind.

Be Ready for Change

One of the most important keys to avoiding burnout is to be flexible and ready for change. We never really know what our days, let alone our lives, will be like. We must be willing to adapt so that we are not overly committed to plans that don’t work for us or schedules and routines that are more draining than we realize.

Also, check this blog post for similar suggestions for avoiding burnout:

Hopefully, you are happy with your steps. Remember, this is just a guide, and you may find better steps that fit your situation.

The next step is asking a friend to look at your plan.

The best thing to do is keep up to date with your plan for avoiding burnout, including steps in this blog post or those you create yourself.