When we asked for advice about avoiding burnout, our inbox just about blew up. We received more tips on this topic than any other we’ve written about so far, and the emails are still coming. Read on for the best of the bunch, from entrepreneurs who have never lost their way to those who have succumbed but managed to reignite their passion. Then drop us a line and let us know how you stay resilient.
“As a serial entrepreneur and someone who’s managing multiple businesses simultaneously, I have firsthand experience with burnout—and how to avoid it. My top pointers: (1) Pare down to square up. List each month’s top 10 absolute must-do tasks. Whittle them down to three. Accomplish these first. (2) Don’t prioritize your schedule. Schedule your priorities. Ignore the rest. (3) Do something dissimilar. Cultivate an enjoyable discipline or hobby, which will refresh and reinvigorate.”
—Chetan Rao, co-founder, Wodehouse Tea
“As an entrepreneur who ended up in the hospital from adrenal failure, I have definitely been there. Business owners have to work long, hard hours, especially in the beginning. You would think I would have slowed down, but I still work 12–14 hours a day. The difference is the level of stress. If I’m working long hours without too much stress, and if I make the work fun, I can handle it. But you have to know your own body and when you need to slow down or stop. That’s a hard thing for a business owner to do. If you can’t figure it out, take frequent breaks. Do something mindless. It makes a big difference.”
—Julie Austin, CEO, Creative Innovation Group
“You may be tempted to cancel plans with friends, take business calls while out and about, or even spend family dinners on the computer—all to prioritize your business. But far too often entrepreneurs hit a wall and burn out by working this way. Having a work-life balance will increase your overall satisfaction and will likely lead to more productive time spent on work. The trick is to set a schedule for yourself and make sure you stick to it. Over time, you’ll start to focus on the most important work because you will treat your time off more seriously and will have to prioritize accordingly.”
—Siavash Ghazvinian, entrepreneur and owner, EthicalTree
“The advice I would give a founder on the edge of burning out is to immediately step away from work. It is much better to take a holistic attitude about trying to accomplish tasks over the long run than trying to cram too much work into a short period of time. Immersing oneself in work when in burnout mode is counterproductive.”
—David Reischer, Esq., CEO, LegalAdvice.com
“I’ve burned out twice, and am now more productive on a 40-hour work week. I work less but am substantially more productive. Silicon Valley has built an unhealthy culture of ‘hustling’ that looks good on the surface to investors and the market, but ultimately the quality and pace of output isn’t where it should be. Working smarter, shorter hours has led me to the most productive years in my career. I now operate two businesses and am at peak productivity.”
—Adrian Del Balso, CEO, Little Universe
“You have to learn to take a step back and ruthlessly prioritize. Here are two things I found particularly helpful: (1) Stop doing unnecessary work. Not everything you are doing is adding value. Have you heard of the 80:20 principle? It shows that with 20 percent of the work you can deliver 80 percent of the value. Take a look at everything you’re doing, automate what you can, and stop doing the stuff that isn’t adding value. (2) Be generous and give to others. I know it seems counterintuitive to add something to your already full plate, but trust me, it’s worth it. From my own experience, I have found volunteering to be hugely beneficial to my mental health and stress levels.”
—Claire Whittaker, product manager, Amazon UK; writer, Artificially Intelligent Claire
“Burnout was a constant struggle until I made a simple behavioral change: taking one day per week off from working. I tend to burn the candle pretty hot through the work week and then often much of the day on Saturday as well, but I take Sunday completely off. No email, no calls, no work-based productivity of any kind. For me, this day of ‘not being allowed’ to work is incredibly restful because I don’t have to worry about whether I need to be working. The decision has already been made, and now I can just enjoy the rest.”
—Grant Hensel, CEO, Nonprofit Megaphone
“The key to avoiding burnout, especially as your company grows, is the ability to delegate. If you want to grow, you have to learn to let go! One of the things that has helped us enormously is creating playbooks for each of the positions in our office. This is a full how-to, complete with screenshots, so it’s very easy to onboard new employees and ensure that what you expect from them is 100 percent clear.”
—Serena Holmes, president and CEO, Tigris Events Inc.
“This is a really important topic that has a bit of stigma attached to it. Being an entrepreneur is no easy feat. Before I start to burn out, I look for a little pick-me-up. It’s never a substance—rather, it’s a social interaction. My team members know I’m their leader, but that doesn’t mean I have to be rock solid 100 percent of the time. I have identified several team members who I’m able to turn to, each for a different purpose: one I go to for advice, another for a funny story or quick joke, someone else when I just need to blow off a little steam, and yet another when I need someone who’s always game for a little physical activity to reenergize. This strategy might sound simple, and it is. It is okay for a leader to be human and to need social support.”
—Reuben Yonatan, founder and CEO, GetVOIP
“My company, Robin, launched as a B2C startup in 2016. A little more than a year later we recognized that regardless of how much effort and how many hours we invested in making the business work, we simply didn’t achieve sustainable growth. Thus, we decided to transform Robin into a B2B business. In the process of admitting defeat…and starting from scratch, I experienced enormous stress, insomnia and even panic attacks, especially before meetings with investors. To get back on my feet and avoid a complete burnout, I [engaged in] substantial self-reflection, which resulted in a complete change of my personal habits. I started maintaining a sustainable routine that included eight hours of sleep, less coffee, less alcohol and a healthy balance between time invested in [work] and my personal life.”
—Adam McIsaac, CEO, Robin Media Inc.
“An extremely valuable process to learn about and perfect is time management. By moving your mindset from a constant state of trying to find more time (which is a major contributing factor to burning out) to understanding how to best structure your time, your conception of success could look a little healthier.”
—Kate Brodock, CEO, Women 2.0
“Prior to founding my business, I was involved in several early-stage, venture-backed startups. To say that I’ve ‘been there’ is an understatement! For me, the thing hanging between staying sane and balanced versus being burned out is avoiding the temptation to try to do everything. That meant drawing clear distinctions between which activities I or my team would manage, and which activities we were knowingly putting on the back burner. In my current business, we are focused on three key marketing areas: research, strategy and operations. The know-how exists internally to do a whole host of other marketing activities, everything from content writing to social media to PR. But we’ve learned to say ‘no’ and stay focused. Trying to tackle everything means no activity gets the full, undivided attention it deserves.”
—Laura Troyani, founder and principal, PlanBeyond
“Human brains were not designed to multitask. Focusing your mental energy can help you get more things done without burning out. I recommend starting each Monday by planning out your must-do projects and blocking out non-negotiable work time (in segments of 1.5–2 hours) on your calendar. You’ll be able to sprinkle in smaller to-dos throughout the week while ensuring you’re accomplishing the biggest tasks that are most impactful to growing your business.”
—Kara Fasone, PhD, co-founder and chief wellness officer, Wise & Well Academy
“Having been an entrepreneur for 20-plus years with three different businesses, I have been through several burnout periods. Most entrepreneurs I know are excited by new challenges, and when you are in the weeds trying to address those challenges, it’s the most thrilling part of being an entrepreneur. You may be working crazy hours, but the adrenaline and drive to solve the problem keeps you motivated and moving forward (well, that and lots of coffee and bourbon). It’s only after the challenge has been addressed and the post-surge hangover sets in that burnout starts to rear its ugly head. There are two ways I have found that keep this roller-coaster ride from turning into burnout. One is to cap my workload at 55 hours. After 45 hours, I’m not very productive, and I have found that the law of diminishing returns applies once I hit 55 hours. The second way I keep myself motivated is by never finishing a project without having the next challenge already in mind. For example, we recently revamped our product offerings and overhauled our website for the first time in four years, which was a big undertaking. But before we finished that project, I already knew that my next project would be implementing a better lead-gen process. I am really enjoying it, and it’s opening up new ideas and strategies, which I find exciting.”
—Jeff Kear, owner, Planning Pod
“Go to sleep with a clean mind (and inbox). I’m a big believer in not letting your inbox pile up, causing you stress overnight. Finish your work for the day, and then turn the phone off for a solid couple hours before sleep. Celebrate small wins. It’s super important to recognize the ups, because you are for sure worrying about the downs.”
—Adam Tishman, co-founder and CEO, Helix Sleep
“Avoid shiny object syndrome. As entrepreneurs, it’s so easy to get overwhelmed by all the social media platforms and marketing strategies out there. Trying to master them all will just lead to burnout. Pick a few strategies that play to your strengths, and focus on those.”
—Taylor Mack, owner, SilverFire Books; social media marketing strategist, Small Biz Refined
“Find the ‘why’ behind your business. If you’re just in business for the money, then you might as well have a job. Why did you start your business? What would your customers lack if you didn’t do what you do? I can honestly say that I could die tomorrow and know my life mattered because every single day I am blessed to impact my clients’ lives and businesses. They say when you love what you do, you never work a day in your life. That’s true. It’s not the coaching that wears me out—that energizes me! It’s the networking and selling and billing and collecting and taxes, etc.—all the stuff that’s NOT coaching. But then I come back to why I do that stuff—to impact people’s lives and businesses—and it’s all worthwhile.”
—Elene Cafasso, MCC, Enerpace, Inc., Executive Coaching
“It’s incredibly important not to forget about self-care. When you’re starting a business, you really do put every bit of yourself in it, and days can get extremely long. When I got an angel investor and was able to hire full-time staff, it reduced stress dramatically. I hired good people I could trust and offloaded responsibilities to them, and now am able to work a 40-hour week. Another thing is, treat yourself like you treat your employees. Take that darn vacation. The company will not fall apart without you.”
—Michael Sunderland, managing director, Full Stack Talent
“I founded a business in my parents’ garage after leaving a lucrative job in finance. I worked on my businesses for several years without seeing any reward, and on many occasions experienced burnout. I poured everything I have into my businesses. I have plenty of experience with managing stress and finding an effective way to recharge my batteries: (1) Delegate smaller tasks. I hired a part-time executive assistant purely to manage my calendar, emails and appointments. (2) Mandatory Sundays off. It’s the only way to get a real breather each week. (3) Start work early. I noticed that I am incredibly inefficient when I work later at night, so I force myself to go to bed relatively early so that I can get up at 5 a.m. The early morning gives me a chance to work without interruption. (4) Do not listen to podcasts. I used to incessantly listen to podcasts throughout the day, during my commute and when I got home. I noticed that they were contributing to my stress since they kept my brain constantly firing. I’ve since switched to music.”
—Jeff Rizzo, CEO, RIZKNOWS and The Slumber Yard
“We don’t take on clients or jobs that aren’t the right fit for us. We know who our customer avatars are, and if an opportunity presents itself that isn’t a great fit, we won’t take it just because the money is there. We won’t let money be the force that drives us to burnout.”
—David Gafford, founder and CEO, Fusion Creative
“I take a break during the day to take a walk or do a workout. While I’m walking I’ll listen to a podcast about entrepreneurship. The physical activity helps my body relax, and when I’m listening to an inspirational story from an entrepreneur, I get back to work energized and ready to face any challenges that come my way.”
—Raya Khashab, co-founder, EzClocker
“Psychology is without a doubt the hardest part of being an entrepreneur. I’ve been able to keep up my fighting spirit despite often working long hours. There are a few things that have really made a difference: Being passionate about the business itself, not the end results; taking care of my physical fitness with challenging workouts, enough sleep and a healthy diet, and having great co-founders and colleagues. Since you’re going to be working a lot, it’s really important that you enjoy spending time with the people you work with.”
—Jesse Nieminen, co-founder and chairman, Viima