How to Avoid Burnout

Speaker 1 · 0:00

Welcome to The Leader Assistant Podcast, episode 10. Thank you for being a leader.

Speaker 2 · 0:07

Today's quote is from Tony Blair. The art of leadership is saying no, not saying yes. It is very easy to say yes. The Leader Assistant Podcast exists to encourage and challenge assistance to become irreplaceable, game-changing leader assistants.

Speaker 1 · 0:29

And here's your host, my dad.

Jeremy · 0:32

Hey everyone, welcome to episode 10 of The Leader Assistant Podcast. In episode 9, we talked about how to recognize burnout and four signs that you're approaching burnout. You can check that episode out at leaderassistant.com/nine. So the first way to avoid burnout is to set boundaries. And you'll kind of see a running theme in these where these are the things that I did not do when I burned out at my last job. So this is kind of, again, more hindsight is 2020, learning from my mistakes and hoping to share what I've learned with all of you so you don't make the same mistakes I did. Setting boundaries is the first way to avoid burnout. Many of us work evenings, weekends, and even on our days off. So if we don't have any boundaries, we're going to burn out. I wrote a blog post to executives urging them to leave their assistant alone during their off hours and to set boundaries. I'll share that link in the show notes at leaderassistant.com/10. I think setting boundaries like, hey, we're not going to email or text each other or call each other unless it's an absolute emergency after five o'clock or after eight o'clock on Monday through Thursday and after five o'clock on Friday, or hey, I'm not going to expect you to reply to any emails after seven p.m. each night. And until seven a.m. the next morning. Another way you could do it is Friday at five p.m. till Sunday at five p.m. is kind of your Sabbath, if you will. It's your time off from email and communication at work. Again, unless there's an absolute emergency. Now, just to talk about emergencies or things that can be urgent or seem urgent. Urgent is rarely urgent. So make sure that you are setting expectations with your boss and with your team that help you all be on the same page when it comes to these are the types of things that are urgent and these are the types of things that are not urgent. Otherwise, you're going to treat everything as urgent or many executives tend to treat every task or every issue as urgent, and that's not the reality. So the second way that I found that I should have done and what I've been able to do since my burnout to avoid burnout is to find a hobby. So do you regularly spend time doing something you enjoy other than work? If you don't have a hobby, you may end up working on your days off simply because you're bored. So find a hobby that encourages your mind to create and cultivate. And watching Netflix does not count as a hobby, just FYI. So for me, I realized thinking back, I was like, why did I always work on my days off? Why couldn't I rest and enjoy my days off? And why did I just hop right into work? Well, the problem was I didn't have a hobby. So I wanted to do something engaging and interesting and use my mind. So I ended up working because I just did not have a hobby. And so anyway, spending time on a hobby is one of the most practical and powerful things you can do to avoid burnout. And I'll include a list of hobbies. And, you know, if you're drawing a blank, you can Google it. There's tons of different hobbies out there. But I'll include a list that I wrote more on the on the topic of hobbies in the show notes at leaderassistant.com/10. But whether it's riding a bike, writing a book, reading, crafts, playing sports, yoga, whatever it is, you've got to find a hobby if you want to avoid burnout. So taking time off is the third way to avoid burnout. And we talked about this in episode seven of The Leader Assistant Podcast at leaderassistant.com/seven. If you want to refresh on that. But just to reiterate, when is the last time you took a real vacation? One where you did not check your email, one where you did not call a co-worker to see how things were going. There was an article in The New York Times that said Elon Musk hadn't taken more than a week off. Since 2001, and that was only because he was bedridden with malaria. So don't be like Elon Musk. Let's stop pretending the world revolves around us and let's take our vacations. So to recap, if you want to avoid burnout, the three things that I've done since my crash and burn that have really helped is to set boundaries, find a hobby and spend time doing that hobby and to take time off. I hope that was helpful. I'd love to hear what your hobby is. You can email me at podcast at leaderassistant.com to let me know what your hobby is. And here's to recognizing and avoiding burnout so we can accomplish our goals without sacrificing the enjoyment of our lives. And I will share another link in the show notes at leaderassistant.com/10 for a little bit more on burnout. And that's an article I wrote called Ten Driving Forces Behind Burnout. And that's something that my executive and I worked through as kind of what are the things that drive us to burnout. So you can check that out again at leaderassistant.com forward slash 10. So thanks for listening to episode 10. I'm really glad to have gotten to episode 10. It's been a fun, fun month or so. And I'm really looking forward to the next few episodes. I've got a couple of awesome guests coming up, including the former executive assistant to President Ronald Reagan. That's going to be an exciting interview. So again, subscribe at podcast.leaderassistant.com. Also, we have a Facebook community that we're growing slowly but surely. You can check it out at facebook.leaderassistant.com to join. And basically what we're doing is we're sharing tips and tricks. We're talking about the episodes. And I'm just trying to encourage people to meet each other and listeners to meet other assistants and help each other out and really encourage and challenge each other. And then also just going to do some bonus content and Facebook lives periodically in that Facebook group. So again, you can join the Leader Assistant Facebook community at facebook.leaderassistant.com.

Speaker 1 · 7:28

Thanks for listening. See you next time.

Jeremy · 7:30

Bye.

Speaker 1 · 7:41

My dad is ticklish. goburrows.com