10 Tips to Avoid Burn Out For The Self-Employed Super-Woman by @AnnaMadeItMe

by Anna Jorgensen

1. Set boundaries.
• With Clients. The best way to reduce redundant contact is to come out of the gate with The Expectation Plan. Letting clients know up front what to expect and how we work not only wins professional accolades, it reduces a cache of unnecessary communication.
• With Family/Friends. Women in business need to know it’s okay to separate career and child/spouse care. We must be available for emergencies, while acting like the CEO of our own personal corporation, whether we’re in charge of thousands or we’re a one mighty woman show.
• With Ourselves. Women love to do it all. But to avoid burning out or even fading away, we need to cut ties with endeavours that drag us down. Sometimes this means cutting crappy clients. It’s okay to do this ladies!

2. Set a schedule.
• Make a plan and stick to it. Set out the appropriate hours/days/weeks we need to work to make our business work for us. It’s easy to get off track with “I’m the boss of me” thinking. But we’ll get further ahead with “What would I expect of the CEO of this company?” commitment.

3. Time block.
• Time blocking builds efficiency. This takes us one step beyond the schedule. This takes us to the hours in a day. While there will be interruptions, we must ask ourselves: “What’s the most valuable use of my time right now?” or we can time block and simply follow our self-structured path to time off and success. Hint! The most valuable use of time is servicing existing clients and looking for new ones. In. That. Order.

4. Time out!
• Take your pick: Holidays! Or… Holy, I’m dazed. Enough said. Put it in the schedule! The CEO demands it.

5. Drink (healthy!)
• Stay hydrated. Yes, to be a mega star mogul, we must keep our wits about us and a quick way to brain fog is failing to fuel our bodies. Drink plenty of water, avoid too much vino, eat right for us, get our ticker ticking—not from pressing deadlines—and do something meditative. Hint! Gardening, laundry, dishes, yoga and yes, even meditating work wonders.

6. Support group. (Please help me, I’ve fallen and I can’t pick up the phone!)
• Gather a group of similarly minded professional women, hear us roar! Once in awhile, a pity party with fellow professionals who “get it” is a good idea. This is where we might break out the wine, and whine. Every professional woman needs a wallow once in awhile.

7. Hug it out!
• Remember compa$$ion? When we’re feeling ourselves fading out, it’s time for a FUNd raiser. Giving back recharges batteries! How do you think Oprah has all that energy? If there’s simply no time for a full out event, pay it forward with small gestures. Get in the moment, get personal and give back.

8. Give it up! (Fire the nasty ones.)
• Whether we need to lose our albatross clients or we need a shake up on staffing, when we’re water-logged with unnecessary weight it wears us down. Cut the buoy, and make sure to reward the real team lifesavers!

9. Dole it out.
• Delegate, delegate, delegate! If someone else can do it better at a lower cost and more efficiently – they’re hired! And avoid micro-managing! Can’t afford an extra person on payroll? Find a trade incentive or offer a bonus based on production.

10. Enough’s enough. (Being greedy keeps us needy.)
• Not all of us need to be as successful as Oprah—there is only one O after all! But we do need to give ourselves permission to pick our own status quo. What do we really need? What do we really want? Both answers are valid. Hint! There’s no need to keep up with the Oprah. Whatever is good for us is enough!

————————————————————————-

Anna Jorgensen is a Featured Author for Elephant Journal Magazine, writes a personal blog and has published a book, Me: A Rewrite. Anna is a logging truck driver’s daughter and an ex-realtor-turned-redneck-roots-love-is-the-answer woman. Her writing is unfiltered, uncut, sometimes politically incorrect, sardonic, occasionally swear-containing, often off-side, funny as hell and always real. She’s making a new career out of a not-mid life crisis.

Anna’s purpose: Entertain! Inspire! Be happy, damn it… Free hugs!

Find more of her writing at www.annajorgensen.com or www.elephantjournal.com/author/anna-jorgensen/

Guest Post

She Owns It accepts guest post submissions at https://sheownsit.com/guest-post-submissions/. If you have an article that would be of value to our community, please submit for approval.

All posts will be screened, links checked (limited to 3 and must be relevant), and author must be verifiable through a website and social media accounts.