Working From Home: How I Prevent Burnout
Hi guys!
I thought this would be a really great time to talk about burnout since it’s the beginning of a brand new year, which means a great opportunity to put some new habits in motion to help build a solid routine that will (hopefully) keep you SANE all year long. :p
Note that this isn’t about how to overcome burnout. That’s the thing.. it’s about prevention. I have worked from home for 4 years now and I have made all of the mistakes and felt all the things. I’ve felt burnt out, I’ve felt that I was just work-work-work and neglected my friends and my health, and at times I resented myself and my work for spending every waking minute on my business when I could have balanced my life out a little better. But that was then, and this is now, and although I still spend a lot (A LOT) of time on my business (because I genuinely love it to pieces), I’ve made a new list of priorities and put a few things ahead of my work: my relationship and my health. My business used to come before everything else, and I think that was okay for a short period of time because I was trying to transition to full-time, however these 2 things are at the top of my list and work does not come before them. One of my biggest issues used to be that I would see everything as a distraction from work. Meal time was time I could be working. Time spent going out was taking time away from my work. I had a really hard time pulling away from my business and incorporating other things into my day and not seeing them as wasted time. Obviously, this was problematic.
I have felt some strong burn out before, but in 2019 I put some things in motion to prevent this from happening again and it has worked like a charm. It’s not about taking action when you are starting to feel crappy, it’s about making your workspace a calm place that doesn’t drain you or stress you out but makes you feel energized.
Here’s some of my tips – not because I’m any type of expert – but just because I’ve gone through this year after year and finally made some changes that helped me. Hopefully some of these things can help you too or at least help you realize there are things you can do to help de-stress.
Take what you like, leave what you don’t.
Morning Routines
Not to sound dramatic but… having a solid morning routine has changed my life. I think what you do in the morning is so important because it sets the tone for the day.
Here’s what my mornings look like: Matt leaves for work at 7:20 and gives me a kiss goodbye, which is how I wake up (lucky me) and I take the dogs outside (ugh – apartment life amirite?) and feed them. I tongue scrape (if you don’t do this, you need this tongue scraper, it’s under $10 for a 2-pack and I promise you will be obsessed and want to give one to everyone you know), brush my teeth, floss, wash my face, apply SPF moisturizer and some oils and mist to my face and neck. I fill my water bottle and drink it with mint + half a lemon squeezed in. I brew the coffee and water my plants. I turn on my SAD light (this is the same brand I have – I got it from Costco) and I use it a couple times during the day for 20 min increments. My mood is very affected by my environment and during the winter we get hardly any sunlight so I consider this necessary. I also take Vitamin D pills during the winter. I point my SAD light at my plants thoughout the day too and this acts as a grow light! I turn on my essential oil diffuser (I have this one and I use these oils) which helps a lot with my skin since it humidifies the air. Make sure you get 100% pure essential oils because you don’t want to be breathing in any nasty fillers. A couple of reputable brands are: Plant Therapy, Young Living, Rocky Mountain Oils. This has made a really big difference for me during the day and helps me breathe better, makes my skin feel better and less dry, and makes me feel better overall. Then I get dressed, tidy up the kitchen/living room, which is where I work, and I do a quick vacuum before starting my day (husky life is no joke). I read a page from The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday. All of this helps me feel calm and prepared, like I have control over my day. I also like to follow the Ivy Lee Method which is basically a 6-task to-do list that you prepare at the end of your day and refer to at the beginning of the next day. You can read more about this comically-simple method here if you’re interested! I take a look at my list to see what I have to do that day, and once I have a clean workspace and I’m awake and ready to start the day, then I get to work.
I have spent a huge chunk of 2019 listening to high performers on what their non-negotiables are for a successful work day. I find it really interesting to hear what high performing athletes, CEOs, actors, etc. do in the mornings to set up their day. I have picked up some of the habits that I thought would work for me and it has been extremely beneficial for me to start out my morning the same way each and every day. Something else I do a few times a week is dry brushing. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s basically taking a stiff brush that you would use in the shower, kind of like those brushes you buy to scrub your back, and brush your whole body. You are supposed to brush towards your heart, and in circular motions on your stomach. It’s supposed to be a great way to exfoliate, it feels incredible on your skin and it’s supposed to be good for your blood flow. I love doing this and it really makes me feel more awake.
If you don’t have a morning routine, I challenge you to find ways to set up your day that make you feel energized and peaceful to offset the chaos and stress that work can bring.
Take Breaks Throughout the Day
One of the benefits of working from home is that you can set your own schedule. If you’re starting to feel bored of one task, go do something else. Work on another project or go out and do the grocery shopping or go to the gym. I used to have a really hard time taking breaks. I felt like I was being lazy by stopping my work to do something “for me”. But I think it’s necessary to give your mind a break in order to be productive. I used to knit hats for 16 hours a day and my only breaks were bathroom breaks and quick breaks to get food which I would shovel into my face while I was working and I would feel guilty about the time I lost during my meal times!! Isn’t that ridiculous? I didn’t get any mental breaks or time to clear my head or think about other things. This isn’t healthy and you will definitely not be able to continue this for any long period of time. This way of working isn’t sustainable and will lead to burnout or resentment of your work.
Now, I will work for a couple hours and if I’m getting frustrated or bored of what I’m doing, I’ll go to the gym or go look at our shopping list that we have by the door and go run errands. And this time around, I don’t feel bad about it. I don’t think of 8-4 as strictly work time. I think of my life as a 16-hour day, in which a lot of things need to happen and the order in which they happen is irrelevant. I don’t have a strict 8-hour work day. It seems silly to me that in order to be considered a work-day that it needs to be 8 hours long. I finish what I wanted to finish that day, and if I finish early and don’t feel like doing more work, then I don’t. If I want to work a bit in the evening, then I do. Life is short and there’s no rule that you have to work a solid arbitrary 8 hours from 9-5. You can do whatever you want and whatever feels right to you.
Schedule in Time for Your Social Life
When I was living back at home, sometimes I just NEEDED a chance to get out and talk to my friends over a bottle of wine after weeks of working at home by myself. I think it’s important to schedule your friends and family into your life because it is so easy to just go on without making the effort and before you know it, months pass by. Do you ever make plans with your friends and then at the end of your lunch you say, “this was so fun, why the hell don’t we do this more often?” I always feel 100x better after seeing my friends and it’s so important not to let your relationships fall to the wayside while you put all your time and energy into your work. I try to never forget that people and relationships are the most valuable things in life and they deserve my effort and attention! If you make the effort to make plans, I think you will feel recharged and won’t feel “cooped up” in your house while you work because you were able to have that social time.
Gone are the days when I would see my friends every single day. We’re all busy now and it’s especially challenging now that I moved away. We are living in a new city and will be moving to another new city in a couple months, so I don’t feel any need to go meet people here and have surface level conversations just for the sake of socializing. I’m not about that. However, I have felt like I just needed to talk to my friends face-to-face. I’m not into Skype of Facetime.. I need to feel the other person’s energy. When we visited for Christmas, I saw all my friends who have also moved away but were visiting for Christmas, and I felt soooo energized and recharged after that!
Atmosphere
I touched on this in my Morning Routine, but the atmosphere in which I’m working is crucial to me. I need it to be conducive to creativity and I need to both relaxed and inspired by my surroundings. A few ways I build the atmosphere:
- Candles
- SAD Light
- Plants
- Essential Oil Diffuser + Oils
- Keep workspace Clean and Organized
- Personalize your space in a way that you love and feel inspired – I keep some of my favourite yarn, upcoming projects, WIPS, some of my favourite books, my plants, my furniture I picked out, artwork on the walls.
All of these things make me feel ready and inspired to do my best work.
Take Care of Your Body
I have always been really into health and fitness, and actually studied Human Nutrition for 3 years in university. Since I started knitting, I’ve developed really bad lower back pain and I know that it’s because I didn’t take proper care of my body while I was working. I was always hunched over or sitting on the floor in uncomfortable positions and was so focused on my work that I didn’t even realize how long I was in those positions.
Now I am really careful with how long I sit and knit or crochet for, and I make sure to eat healthy. I work from home so one of the benefits is that I can actually prepare meals whenever I want because I have an entire kitchen at my disposal. This year, I’ve been really in tune with my body and paying close attention to what foods cause me to feel bloated and which foods make me feel great. I’ve cut out white sugar and made some dietary changes that have made me feel really incredible and pretty much eliminated the stomach issues that I used to have all the time, which is pretty much the greatest blessing I could ask for. It’s all about listening to your body. Pain or inflammation means your body is telling you to stop whatever you’re doing. Anyway, putting effort into meal time has made a big difference in the way I feel and I actually enjoy my meal time instead of rushing through it to get back to work. It’s important to enjoy your day and enjoy little things like this (which also helps you have a healthy relationship with food) instead of seeing it as a distraction from your work. This was a big lesson for me to learn.
I also make a point to go to the gym regularly, although I tweaked my back in November and haven’t gone since! I’m basically going crazy here at home, feeling like a big lump and I really just need to move my body so we are going to start going again more regularly now that my back is feeling better! My gym also has hydro massage chairs which feel so incredible. Going to the gym or exercising in general is one of those things that you don’t really want to do.. but once you’re done, you feel amazing.
I’m only 25 and already feel my body getting older. I have made a commitment to myself that my body comes first and I think this is something everybody should do. Otherwise, if you’re like me, you will begin to resent yourself for neglecting your health and resent the time you have to spend being sedentary while you work.
Those are some of my tips for avoiding burnout. Basically, structure your day in a way that suits your life best and doesn’t make you feel overwhelmed or overworked. Realize that there are other aspects to life besides work, and indulging in these are not wasting time. Life is meant to be enjoyed, and a by-product of taking the time to be happy is that your work will also benefit.
I sincerely wish you the best work-year yet, and hope you take the time to care for yourself. xx
Janine xx
