Why we need more women leaders

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As a course creator, I’ve dealt with a lot of burnout. Not only do I deal with other people experiencing burnout, but I’ve also had to work through a lot of my own burnout. There’s a lot that goes into working from home and I get it. But, I’ve found some amazing tips that will help you avoid burnout when working from home.

Project Management

Running your own business is going to involve a lot of tasks. From marketing to creating deliverables, you’ll have so many things on your plate. Add in freelance work or service-based tasks and you’re bound to forget something or double book yourself. When you’re only handling a few things at one time, a simple spreadsheet can work great, but you’re going to outgrow it eventually. You need a project management tool and having one right out of the gate will allow your business to grow. 

One of my favorites is Asana. The tool makes it easy to itemize tasks, create timelines, and assign each of the tasks out. It provides a great visualization of everything that you have going on and what work that’ll require in real-time. Whether you use a tool like Asana, Trello, or any other project manager, seeing the breakdown of tasks can make it easier to avoid burnout when working from home.

Estimate Time Committed

From email management to social media management and even creating content for your website, you need to estimate the amount of time that you need to commit. This will give you a realistic way to plan each day that you’re working from home and give you a goal to work toward while completing the tasks. If you’re repeating tasks over and over again, you must understand how long it’s going to take to complete it. Once you know how long it takes you to complete each task, you’ll be able to determine if it’s worth it to keep doing yourself or if you should delegate the task.

Using a tool like Clockify allows you to not only track projects but also track tasks associated with that project. It will allow you to see how long it’s taking you to do individual projects and how long it’s taking you to do tasks associated with entire larger projects. You’ll also want to do this if you are working on larger projects for clients because it can have a big impact on retainers and fees.

Hire A Great Team

Hiring and training an executive team, especially when working remote, is a great way to make your business run smoother and focus on the things that you need to focus on. If you have a team of people who you can trust and who perform good work for your business, you can avoid burnout when working from home. This will also help make it easier to focus on the things that require your attention instead of doing tasks that can actually be delegated. 

Many new entrepreneurs struggle with the idea of hiring a team especially because they like to put their time into the inside workings of their business and want to make sure that things are done right. To ensure that your team is right for your business, you should start building up a great network of people you know personally. If this is not possible, get referrals from other business owners who you trust. Hiring tools like LinkedIn can also be helpful if you don’t have other options.

Once you’ve found a good team, it’s important to make them understand the value of working with you. This includes investing in them professionally with things like tools, courses, and more.

Take Breaks

In a traditional position, your boss will tell you when to take your breaks and will often enforce that you need to take them at certain times, but if you don’t have a boss, it can be difficult to know when and if you need a break. It can be incredibly hard to force yourself to take breaks, but it is crucial to avoid burnout when working from home. Even though I struggle with this, I find that I am more productive and I am able to work from home better when I make myself take a break. 

It is important to work hard and be persistent, but working longer hours also means that you need to take a break. The quality of your work can be impacted by burnout so make sure that you’re taking breaks to keep that from happening. Take a walk with your pet, play with your kids, or just step away from the screen for a few minutes and you’ll come back feeling refreshed and ready to tackle more work.

Start Your Day Strong

Even if you’re not a morning person, starting your day strong will impact your work and allow you to feel more accomplished throughout the day. Reading a scripture, meditating, or doing yoga are all excellent ways to start your day out strong. You can also practice mindfulness, go for a peaceful walk, or even do a challenging workout if that’s what gets your blood pumping. 

Join a Support Group

If you choose to start with just one tip from this list, this is the one. The rest of the tips will fall into place easier once you’ve found your support group. People need their tribes and as a business owner, you need yours to help avoid burnout when working from home. In traditional positions, you have coworkers to commiserate with, but you don’t get that built-in support when you’re working from home. Find entrepreneurs who are similar to you (YES, even ones you might be inclined to think of as competitors) and built your support group. This will give you a place to vent about your struggles, celebrate your wins, and even do a little bit of collaborating. If you have a strong support group, you’ll be able to draw inspiration and a place to leave your frustration. You’ll be surprised how many others out there are hustling and grinding just like you. You’ll also be surprised that many of these people have gone through the same things as you and even have tips for fixing issues you might be experiencing.

Your support group doesn’t even have to be huge especially in the beginning. Start out with a friend or two then build that up. Don’t just look local, either. There are people just like you all around the country and even around the world. Look for people to be your support team in social media groups, at conventions, and more! 

Now that you’ve got the tools to avoid burnout when working from home, it’s time to take the next steps in improving your business. Start streamlining your process so you can get back to running your business. Check out my Canva pack that’s now available. You can use it as a first step toward project management and itemize your tasks into bite-sized chunks!