9 Tips to Prevent Burnout

You have more things to do than hours in the day to do them. Sometimes, you wish that the day contained about 36 hours rather than a mere 24 hours. There’s so much to do with so little time in which to accomplish them. 

Weekends are just as cramped with activity…grocery shopping, cleaning, cooking, socializing, volunteerism, events and church activities. When someone asks you how you’re doing, you willingly divulge all the things that currently occupy your time. You want them to know that you’re a productive woman.

My life was brimming with activity. More work opportunities came knocking on my door because I got things done. I loved being busy because it made me feel significant. But it came at a price.

Then one day, I got very ill with a virus. My resistance became extremely low. My body couldn’t shake the virus and I would suffer a relapse once I began working again. I was burnt out and I didn’t even see it coming. Consequently, I had to take a prolonged leave of absence to give my body a much-needed rest. In order to prevent a second burnout, I had to make several lifestyle changes.

Ladies, here are nine tips to prevent burnout in your life:

1) Devalue busyness.

I once heard the phrase, “Jesus was never in a hurry.” Incidentally, that never crossed my mind before. For the most part, I was always in a hurry impacting lives for Jesus. The compliments and praises were like drugs propelling me to do more. Plus, I love the thrill of accomplishing every task. 

If someone had told me that my real significance was in my work, I would have denied it. I sincerely thought it was in Christ. But the strange thing is that I was so busy achieving that I neglected my relationship with Jesus.

Signs that you’re always in a hurry:

• You usually eat and “run” with little time to sit and enjoy a meal.
• Spending extended quality time with God is rare. 
• Your mind is always racing and preoccupied with all that needs to be done.
• When people are talking with you, you zone out. You believe that you’re paying attention, but everyone knows that you haven’t heard much of what they have said.
• It takes a while for your mind to settle down before you fall asleep. As a result, your sleep is not restful. 
• You wake up feeling tired.
• You walk quickly all the time.

Ladies, you need to slow down and enjoy the simple pleasures of life. If you don’t, you’ll miss out on the real joy of living. Besides, you may end up with some serious health issues; lose your desire to know and follow Jesus; and damage other key relationships in your life.

2) Establish margins.

Have you ever noticed that a ruled page has margins at the top, bottom and both sides? If your writing extends to all the margins, your notes tend to look cluttered, unattractive and confusing. Also, if someone handed you an article where every inch of space is occupied with writing, graphics and pictures, you probably would not be drawn to read it. It needs white space to be inviting. 

The same is true for every area of your life. You also need margins and white spaces for an orderly sane life. If your schedule is too packed, you need time margins. This means that you should not have an activity for every waking moment of your day.

When your expenditure is more than your income, you need financial margins if you don’t intend to be stressed. If a marginless life goes unchecked, burnout will be knocking at your door. Check out the book “Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives” by Richard Swenson.

3) Set aside one day of rest weekly.

In the Old Testament, it is written that God rested on the seventh day. 

By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. Genesis 2:2-3 

If God is all powerful and doesn’t need any physical rest, then why did He do it? Besides the theological implications concerning Christ, I believe He wanted to establish a principle of rest and dependence on Him. When we decide to set aside one day weekly to rest, we are saying that:

• We are limited humans;
• We need to depend on God to accomplish all that we are unable to do for ourselves; and
• We recognise our need to be refreshed and re-energized by Him.

Suggestions:

• Choose a day of the week to rest.
• Don’t do any errands or chores on that day.
• Make all the necessary preparations on the days leading up to it.
• Select activities that would revive you – spiritually, emotionally, intellectually and physically.

For instance, I cook on Saturdays to ensure that I have absolutely no cooking to do on Sundays. When I return from church on Sundays at midday, I eat; relax; take a nap; and do some reading. I also try to refrain from using the cell phone and internet until 6pm. 

Try it and let me know if you feel better prepared to face the week in front of you. When you wake up on Monday morning, you should feel rested and equipped to tackle the week ahead. Give yourself a weekly rest of an entire day and you will be able to prevent burnout.

4) Sleep more.

I was watching the evening news some years ago. During the health watch segment, I heard that if a person sleeps for eight hours regularly, she will be less susceptible to contracting viruses. At that time, I would catch nearly every virus that was circulating. So I decided to try it. Would you believe that years passed before I caught another virus? That advice worked wonders!

Other benefits of restful sleep:

• Helps reduce stress.
• Enhances your ability to remember.
• Increases your brain capacity to be more effective and productive.
• Strengthens your body against diseases.
• Prevents heart attacks.
• Improves your mood.

Tips:

Train yourself to go to bed at a decent hour so that your body will get up naturally without an alarm clock.

Bonus: If you have a regular sleep routine, it places less stress on your body and keeps you looking younger longer. Which woman wouldn’t want that benefit?:). Sleep more hours and you’ll be more equipped to prevent burnout.

5) Simplify your life.

The more you have, the more time and money it requires to maintain. When I was living in my parents’ house, my main responsibility was my room although I also had house chores. Now that I live in my own home, the work is never done! That’s just the reality of owning more.

But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. 1 Timothy 6:6-10 

I wonder why a message of “godliness with contentment” has lost its significance these days. We, as Christians, have become unhealthily preoccupied with acquiring and accumulating that we are no longer content with a simple life.

In our focus on getting rich, we lose our health, our families, our values and our faith. In essence, we have “pierced ourselves with many griefs” for things and accolades that will be buried with us in our graves.

It is very tempting to live a life in competition with your neighbors, colleagues, friends and relatives, but it is worth it at the end of the day? In your acquisition of wealth, what price are you willing to pay? When you lay on your dying bed, would you be happy or filled with regret?

I visited one of my friends some years ago and her parents owned a huge property with a beautiful home. In their old age, they were going to move into a small cottage about a quarter the size of their home. Interestingly, we all will have to downsize eventually …into a coffin or an urn.

Questions to consider:

• Do you need to downsize?
• Is your house cluttered?
• Do you have clothes that you’ve bought months or years ago that you have not worn at all or worn only once?
• Are you heading to “ruin and destruction?

Ladies, simplify your life so that you can have more time for others and not things. You’ll have more time and energy to spend time with Jesus and invest in key relationships in your life. 

Have you noticed the new trend of “tiny homes”. These homeowners have realized that a simpler life affords them more freedom, more adventure and less stress. Also, you’ll prevent burnout when you live in simplicity.

6) Say “no” to good things.

“Good is the enemy of the best.” You can fill your life with lots of good things to the detriment of what is best. You need to sit quietly before God and prayerfully determine what are the best investments of your time. Which season are you currently in? How should you be using your time?

You only have twenty-hours in a day and you cannot afford to waste it on “good” things. Many of us have a problem saying “no”, but having your own plan beforehand will help you to say “no” when you should. I once heard, “if you don’t have a plan for your life, someone else will.” So please have a plan for your own life. 

By saying “no” to good but unnecessary opportunities, you will be able to protect yourself from being overburdened by too much activity that will only zap you of all your energy and your purpose. It will help prevent burnout.

7) Focus on your most important relationships.

We have an enemy of our souls and he doesn’t care about you. He will deceive you into believing that your real worth is in your career advancement, your popularity, your ministry, your beauty, your talents, your wealth, and the like. Prosperity (even in ministry) can often cause us to lose focus on our relationship with God.

Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. Deuteronomy 8:11-14

You need to always take time to periodically stop and evaluate who and what has your heart. Time is man’s greatest treasure because it is the rarest. Once time is lost, it is lost forever. You can lose money and earn it again, but that will never happen with time. 

Questions to consider:

• If God is your greatest treasure, can you go for long periods of time without connecting with Him?
• Do you carve out time to spend with your loved ones?
• Is it a chore and an unwelcome inconvenience to spend time with God?
• Do you miss spending time with God?

God Himself fuels our lives. In the absence of consistently connecting with Him, we run the risk of slowly but surely damaging our lives.

As a result, we will lose focus; make poor choices; lose our excitement about following Jesus; become deceived and so much more. As a result, a full and meaningless life will escape us. To prevent burnout, we need an ongoing real connection with Jesus and make time for our family and close friends.

8) Enjoy your hobbies.

“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” God is not a killjoy, but He’s the one who has made us with the capacity to laugh, smile, compete, and seek adventure. 

Set aside time weekly to do something that breathes life into you. I get excited just thinking about having an extended time to sit and read. If it’s outdoors, that’s like icing on a cake for me! 

What hobby refreshes you? Do you need to visit a lake, the mountains or the beach more frequently?

Regularly carve out time for at least one hobby every week and it’ll help to prevent burnout. 

9) Set aside time to think.

“Think” time is not a waste of time! I heard an interview with Nelson Mandela about his time in prison. I never would have expected him to say that in prison, he got time to think and that changed his life. 

One of my favorite things to do is to just sit and think in absolute silence. This sort of disconnection from all distractions is very therapeutic. It will help to calm you; solve problems; improve your creativity; be in tune to your emotions; and discern what God is saying to you.

Tips:

• Place your phone and other devices far away from you…preferably in another room.
• Turn off all notifications on your devices so that you will not feel tempted to look.
• Try to be in a place where you can be physically alone.
• Sit in silence, enjoy your solitude and think. 
• Start with a short amount of time if it’s uncomfortable for you at first.

Think time will refresh you and help prevent burnout.

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10 Life-Changing Reasons to Begin Journaling NOW

Doing This Changed My Life

The One Thing That All Successful People Have in Common 

Summary 

Everybody seems to be in a “rat race” today. If a person is busy, she is considered to be productive. However, busyness and productivity are not one and the same. Before you reach the point of burnout, you can make decisions and take precautions that would prevent burnout. 

These nine precautionary measures will help you to prevent burnout- devalue busyness; set aside one day weekly for rest; establish margins; get sufficient sleep; simplify your life; say “no” to good things; focus on your most important relationships; enjoy your hobbies; and finally, set aside ‘think’ time.

When I experienced burnout, my co-worker recommended the book “The Overload Syndrome: Learning to Live Within Your Limits” by Richard Swenson. It was so enlightening that I bought and read his other book called “Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives.”

Have you ever experienced burnout? What are you currently doing to prevent burnout in your life? Please comment below.

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With love,

Kimberly 

Recommended Books:

“The Overload Syndrome: Learning to Live Within Your Limits” by Richard Swenson

“Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives” by Richard Swenson

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