Project Managers: How to Deal With Burnout at Work
Being a project manager means taking on a wide variety of projects and ensuring that all of them are carried out properly. This can be really stressful and consuming to the point of burning out. Instead of getting here and having to deal with productivity drops and stressful situations, take a break now and check out these next tips. They’ll teach you how to prevent burnout at work and eventually deal with it, if necessary.
What Are the Signs of Burning Out at Work?
Before getting into the details, let’s see what some of the symptoms of burnout are, and how you can tell whether it’s time to make a change in your work style.
- Intense fatigue. You are no longer able to do things because you lack energy, cannot get enough sleep and get sick often. Your memory is not good either and it’s quickly going down.
- You feel alienated from everything around you. You’ve started to feel isolated and neglect yourself. You’ve got an overall negative perspective on life and are easily annoyed. You just feel like you want out.
- You cannot perform as well as before. You’ve started to miss important project deadlines and become less engaged at work. You often procrastinate and cannot focus on one thing at a time. You’re all over the place and feel like you’ve got to slow down.
How Can You Deal with Burnout at Work?
Dealing with burnout takes time and determination, so be patient and develop strong will. Start taking care of yourself one day at a time. Check out these next tips to learn how to do it.
1. Remember why you’re important
The first thing to do is develop love towards yourself. This might sound cheesy but hear me out. Developing self-compassion means letting go of useless, judgy thoughts about yourself and leaving more room for optimism and relaxation.
Everything starts in the mind – so if your mind doesn’t approve of making this life change (creating new routines to get out of the burnout zone), you might fall back into this trap in the near future. To avoid this, try:
- Making a list of your qualities. “Write down what you love about yourself and why you think that is important,” recommends Dan, CEO.
- Answer this question, ‘why is my health important?’ and then this one, ‘why should my health come first?’ I know this might look silly, but it works. Then remind yourself why you are important. What makes you stand out? Use your list of qualities.
- Start a mindfulness practice each day.
- Allow yourself to make mistakes and accept them as they are. Then, correct them – but not with judgment, with love.
2. Take back control of your time
Now that you know why you need to make a life change, it’s time to start making progress.
- Schedule meetings only when time allows you to. Don’t sacrifice personal time for them, stick to your schedule.
- Take frequent breaks. After 50 minutes of working, take a 10-minute break.
- Make sure you’re not interrupted while working. If you’re bothered every half an hour, how do you expect to get anything done quickly?
3. Create boundaries that stick
Some of you might be working from home – if that is the case, burnout is even more probable. Work/home boundaries don’t usually work when you’re working at home, so you’ve got to set stricter rules for yourself.
- When you work, work. When you take a break, stop thinking about work (or talking about it), and relax.
- Take days off. So what if you lose 3 days of work? You’ll lose a lot more if you burn out.
- Travel. Take time to travel to a new place each year. Don’t take your work phone with you! Leave your worries behind and focus on your vacation.
4. Make time for yourself
You’ve got to add this to your to-do list for each week. Taking time for yourself is extremely important – it will improve your productivity and boost your workflow. Start by taking care of your health. Go to bed early, drink plenty of water, and make good life decisions.
Take some time each day to relax and enjoy what you’re doing. If dancing relaxes you, then dance! If eating relaxes you, cook yourself something tasty. Surround yourself with self-compassion and stay connected to people who love you. Make time to visit friends and try a new activity each day. Be more curious, more open, and more loving!
Wrapping Up
Taking good care of yourself starts with self-love and develops into real-life action one step at a time. Start by writing down why your time is important and then continue recovering by making the right life changes. You’ve got this, good luck!
About the Author: Justin is a marketing specialist and essay writer from Leicester, UK. When not working and rooting for Leicester FC, he likes to discuss new trends in digital marketing and share his own ideas with readers on different blogs and forums. Currently, he is working as a content marketer at Best Essays.
Photo by Nataliya Vaitkevich from Pexels
