How to manage burn out and set boundaries

For those who know me or don’t, it might be apparent from my blog but, I’m a workaholic. I’m really ambitious and have big dreams. I will round the clock if it means I can reach my goals sooner. It also means I’m don’t always know how to take a break or how to manage burning out.

I work as a Senior Account Manager at an SEO agency full time, I blog, I offer SEO services for bloggers and I talk about SEO. I also build sites for small businesses on a freelance basis. I am always juggling a lot of plates and I love it 90% of the time. 

A few days ago I felt on top of the world. I’d just been promoted during my day job, brought on two new freelance clients and had a big launch coming up. I had so much momentum and I could do anything. 

Then on the 16th of March, I broke. I worked so hard, I stayed up late and couldn’t switch off. It felt like I was breaking or going mad. I wasn’t being a nice person to those closest to me. I wasn’t sleeping, I felt consumed by my mind. Instead of thinking about normal things, I was getting worked up about spreadsheets and automating content. Like what kind of person, stays up all night working on rules for automated content? 

Any who… Instead of letting it consume me. I asked for help. 

I reached out of Twitter and asked for help. 

So here it is, the best advice for managing burn out and set boundaries.

Nele from The Navigito advised: 

“Never say YES to something straight away – always say “thanks for the opportunity, I’ll take this away and let you know!” or something along those lines. Gives you some time to see if you can plan it in or not”.

The Counsellor in Progress advised: 

“Practise, practise, practise saying no ….until you can say it without guilt or feeling the need to justify it”.

Maddy Shine recommended: 

“Time blocking every. single. thing. Give yourself 1-hour lunch breaks, time for afternoon walks, prepping dinner and some downtime. That way you don’t feel like you are forgetting anything, and you’re taking regular breaks”.

Verena Hallam gave this gem:

“Say ‘sorry but I don’t have the capacity for that/I’m at capacity right now’ and it’s a completely valid thing to say. It covers you for everything from not having the time, to not having the energy”.

Becky gave me lots of advice which I’ve tried to summarise: 

“If you find yourself looking at projects whilst “off work”, email yourself your thoughts/ideas (or write them down) but don’t act in your personal time!

Try time tracking or use a Pomodoro timer to make sure you take breaks but don’t lose momentum. 

And finally, be strict with your boundaries”.

Tasmin also suggested: 

“Yes to writing down ideas – I use the back of my notebook for this! 

I also write tomorrow’s to-do list before finishing and then don’t let myself touch my laptop until the next day”.

And my favourite human ever, Anneli gave me lots of advice:

“Make a rule for yourself that for every 1 thing you say yes to, you say no to at least 1. If you said yes to the last thing, you don’t get to say yes to the next, however exciting. It’ll help you assess just which opportunities are worth your time and energy if you can’t do all

Have a list of awesome women to recommend when you are turning opportunities down.

Charge for your time.

Pick up a new hobby that has nothing to do with work

Write a list of all your projects in order from most fulfilling to least. Then write a list of the projects in order from most money you will earn to least. Anything that hasn’t been in the top half of either list goes. Things from the top of both lists are your priority projects. Everything in the middle you only work on with spare energy.

When you kick something off the list (or complete it) you can take on something new

Also, as someone who knows you and your kind heart personally, start saying no without using the word sorry. Saying no isn’t doing something wrong”.

So there you have it all over the advice I was given to help me manage my burn out and set boundaries. 

There was a fair bit more advice I was given but these are the quotes that helped me the most.

If your burn out if affecting your mental health or you need further help please check out these resources: 
– Improving mental wellbeing from the NHS
– 5 things you should know about stress from NIMH
– Monitoring your own mood from Overcome Depression
– You can find an extensive list of mental health resources here.