5 Effective Burn-Out Strategies For Business Owners During The Holidays
Why does it feel like the happiest time of the year is also always the time when we take on extra stress, which leads us to the dreaded B-word... Burnout.
The end of the year can put a lot of extra pressure on our plates.
We have annual deadlines, extra pressure at work to get things done before holiday time off, spending money on gifts if that's what your family does and so on.
The holidays, if you want them to be, can be such a beautiful time. All the lights, the activities, the coziness, the extra time with family and friends but for business owners, the pressure of this time of year can be entirely too overwhelming.
It almost feels like, as a small business owner, the pressure is even higher! It might have something to do with the business being something you own.
Once we reach November, I always start to implement stress reduction strategies even before I'm stressed. I experience stress and burnout more easily and more intensely than most people, I discovered after a doctor's appointment one time. So I know that I have to keep that in check.
If you're in the same boat where this time of year drives your stress level up and you reach the critical burnout point, here are 5 effective tips to help reduce your stress and burnout and allow you to enjoy the end of the year.
1. Take slow mornings
Slow living was the best strategy I discovered in 2021. Now I'm not perfect with it, but once I started making more of a conscious effort, things really did change.
Slow living is all about being intentional and mindful in your daily processes. It's taking an extra minute with your breakfast to let your senses activate, it's doing a 5-minute meditation after lunch to improve your focus, it's getting up and looking out the window for a minute to clear your mind, it's tuning into the sounds of nature and being present on a walk through the park, it's taking the time to notice the beauty around you, it's reflecting on gratitude each day before you go to bed.
Start implementing slow living in some of the simple moments of your life. You don't have to do everything slowly, but simply taking a minute to breathe deeply while looking out the window can help your heart rate slow and decrease the stress building up in your body.
For more information on slow living check out a blog I did earlier this year.
2. Movement breaks
Movement breaks are exactly as they sound. You can take as little as 2 minutes or up to 10 minutes (or more if you want) and just get up and move. If you can try to do this every half an hour or every hour, if you can.
And mix up the movements. Sometimes you can do something as simple as shaking it out. I'm in a membership called Movement Genius, and one of their videos is a guided shake-out. It's exactly how it sounds. You shake out parts of your body until you're shaking your whole body. It's so great for getting the blood flowing, getting out of your head and decreasing your stress
You can also do some bodyweight exercises for 2-5 minutes, like squats, lunges, sit-ups, push-ups, etc. If you have time, even a short walk is great.
3. Set a time each day for relaxation
In your planner or calendar, add in the time each day that you're going to be done working, and you can relax. And relaxing can look different for a lot of people. Some people find exercise to be a great stress reducer, while others prefer to let their body rest and journal or read.
What you choose to do is up to you but commit to setting that time and ensuring you're done working by that time.
I know a lot of self-help books, and the bigwigs often tell you that you need to allocate all of your time to your development and your business in order to be successful. They suggest early mornings and late nights and to replace "useless" behaviours with ones that can help you reach your dreams. I was reading a book once where the author told a story of a woman he saw frequently who was always reaching a fiction book, and he bashed her by saying if she spent that time reading a personal development book instead, she could be doing something more than shoe shining at the airport. First, maybe she wants to be a shoe shiner. Second, I don't believe that engaging in activities you love (like reading fiction) is bad for you.
Rest is essential to success just as much as productivity and action. It's a circle. Don't ditch all of the activities you love for the sake of reaching your goals.
4. Laughing!
I kid you not on this. There is actually some good research that suggests that laughing regularly actually reduces your stress and burnout levels. In the short term, laughter can improve your organ function by allowing more oxygen into your body; it can increase and decrease your heart rate and blood pressure to leave you feeling relaxed and improve your mood.
In the long term, it can actually improve your immune system and your mood (lasting mood changes), increase your satisfaction with life and even reduce the physical pain you feel.
Make sure you surround yourself with people you love and find ways to bring joy and laughter into your day. Do activities you like with people you like (that naturally brings laughter in), watch funny shows/movies/videos, if you have kids or a spouse, spend some time being silly with them, etc.. Invite joy in.
5. Do something creative
Creativity helps your brain relax. Even if you don't think you're a creative person engaging in a creative activity can give your brain some space to decompress and slow down. We force our brains to work a million miles an hour and then wonder why they start to smoke and eventually stop working (it's always just when we have that big deadline looming, isn't it?).
So try something like playing a musical instrument, art (painting, drawing, etc.), building something like lego, dancing, writing, doing a puzzle, knitting, photography, baking, etc. Doing these not only helps relieve your stress and increases your relaxation but it also stimulates a part of the brain that you don't often when you engage in your business work. This can improve your training functioning and longevity (you'll experience cognitive decline in old age slower!).
These are just a few of many examples of activities you could do to relieve your stress. As you work on these strategies you'll naturally realize others that work for you. Do those.
Everyone is different, but everyone experiences stress, including business owners, more than most.
Stress can wreak havoc on your body and, when left unchecked, can negatively impact your business's success and growth.
Tackle it early to ensure you make it through this season and you're able to enjoy it!
