Practical Tools to Reduce Burnout
Burnout rates have reached all-time highs and seem to show no signs of slowing down. And at this point, most people are at least aware of the techniques and habits often recommended for burnout and stress management. Healthy diet? Yep, heard of it. Regular exercise? Heard of that one, too. Better sleep? Uh huh, sure.
The reality is knowing and doing are two totally different things. If you found this article, you likely already know that difference and it’s what brought you here.
Case in point —Busy moms. We know we should eat well-balanced meals, sleep 8 hours a night, drink lots of water, and move our body everyday for at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise. We know social connection, boundaries, and stress management habits are important to life balance and good mental health.
We tell our kids and loved ones to do those things and yet…do we do them? We certainly do try. We probably don’t hit the mark as well as we’d like to, and we’re reminded of that fact regularly by the media, social pressure and our own inner critic. It can feel really defeating at times, I know. I have been, and sometimes still am, right in the thick of it myself, sisters.
So how do we move forward? I’m a big advocate of using tools to help us build habits. They can provide a structure that helps us build routines and consistency around our habit changes. Having a support network can be equally important sometimes, but we’ll cover that in more depth in an upcoming post.
I tend to categorize the tools I recommend the most into three main types:
Practical Problem-solvers
Mindset Masters
Self-Care Solutions
Settle in, friends. We’ve create a list full of ideas. So grab a cozy cup of coffee or tea and let’s dig in!
Practical Problem-Solvers
One of the first hurdles in reducing our burnout is getting clear on what’s stressing us out and getting a concrete plan on how to address it. Simply put, I often find most people can’t work on their burnout or plan until they know what they’re dealing with.
It’s important to identify what areas of life are contributing to our burnout and make sure that picture is accurate, which is no easy feat when you’re already exhausted and have nothing left in the tank. There are some ways to go about this process, though.
To identify your main areas of burnout, I recommend starting by getting a notepad and a scheduling planner (or their digital counterparts like Google Docs and Calendar if you prefer).
First, figure out where you spend most of your time or where most of your commitments lie. Make two columns next to your list.
Now, with your list or Wheel, rate each area by your burnout level from 1-10. Try not to limit yourself here —remember that acknowledging your burnout (as a mom, employee etc) is not a judgement on you or the aspect/people involved.
Lastly, rate each area from 1-10 by how much control you have to change that situation. What options exist to you?
Some examples might help illustrate what we mean here.
Maybe you want to work on your physical health. Your body shape, composition, or overall size may not be in your control (maybe rated a 1 out of 10), but your level of activity and exercise might be more in your control (so, perhaps an 8 or 9).
Or, for your financial area, maybe your income and bills are fixed (rated maybe a 1) but you acknowledge your spending habits change based on how well you’re coping with your burnout and you’d like to rein it in a bit. You could perhaps say you can control it more and rate it a 9.
Working with a life balance coach, like GLEAM, can also help you assess your burnout and get started on this process. This information helps you understand how to create realistic, achievable goals to reduce your burnout.
Now that you rated the burnout, use your notepad and planner to create a plan. For the areas that have the most burnout and you have the most control, think of a goal that would help you reduce your burnout.
Some examples might be reducing your commitments or declining extra work, setting limits on your email apps so you can’t check (and respond to) work emails after the workday ends, or setting a bedtime and using your phone’s bedtime reminder to stick to it. Did any ideas come to mind as you read this list?
Additional Practical Problem-Solvers my clients have found helpful include:
habit trackers (either printed or as an app),
conducting a time audit, and
using time-blocking and other productivity methods.
These can be done in your preferred schedule/planner to help create more structure to their day.
While not all of these Practical Problem-solvers may be applicable or feasible for your situation, hopefully they have given you some ideas for finding practical, concrete solutions to get started.
Mindset Masters
Simply put, our mindset matters a lot. How we think about our life, our strengths, our struggles, and our capacity to change often matter more than any material detail about the situation itself.
I have always loved these quotes about mindset, which to me perfectly illustrate the importance of mindset.
“A pessimist sees obstacle in every opportunity; an optimist sees opportunity in every obstacle.” -Winston Churchill
“Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right.” -Henry Ford
The evidence on the importance and impact of mindset is vast, so I will leave it to you to decide how much you want to read before you try out some of these tools.
That said, if you’ve ever had a mentor, coach, or favorite teacher in school, you likely have already experienced firsthand the value of mindset shifts. Having someone change your mind to motivate you to see yourself or your situation can offer an inspiring new light.
Some of my favorite mindset masters are tools that help us get a new or fresh perspective on our life and circumstances. I’ll go over each briefly here.
Meditation can have a profound impact on how we perceive and respond to stress. You can meet with a coach like me, use a free meditation app, find a local meditation class, or just try following a meditation script you find online. The main goals are to observe your mindset and thoughts as you have them and to make subtle shifts or repetitions towards your desired mindset goals.
Gratitude Journaling often helps us gain new appreciation for the people, things and situations that we have in our life. Keeping a gratitude journal* can also help us see a silver lining about these situations and think about them in a new way, if not in whole at least in part.
Life Coaching can help you pull back the layers on your behavior to reflect and notice patterns in how you think and behave so you can start to make meaningful changes to both your mindset and your habits.
Self-Care Solutions
Self-care has (finally!) become a commonplace word. Unfortunately, most people tend to think of massages, manicures and naps as the standard in self-care practices. While I certainly don’t look down my nose at any of these things, I think it’s more helpful if we encourage everyone to think deeply about what helps them feel their best, most-filled-up self.
As I tell my clients, self care is taking good care of yourself. That changes from day to day, and sometimes minute to minute.
Try to avoid letting what others do dictate what you are willing to give yourself. As they say, comparison is the thief of joy. In this case, it can literally rob you of feeling confident to take care of yourself.
As you consider what you uniquely need as a person, I often refer clients to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs pyramid for ideas. Abraham Maslow presented his model in 1943 with his theory on human motivation (1), which depicts our fundamental physiological needs as the base and largest group of needs. Our social, intellectual and spiritual needs are depicted as you move up the pyramid.
This image is from Amazon as the cover of Maslow’s hardcover publication of his paper.
(If Maslow’s pyramid and theory doesn’t resonate for you, you can also try the burnout list or GLEAM’s HERSS Wheel of Life worksheet referenced in the Practical Problem-solvers portion of this article.)
Once you identify an area of life that needs some self-care, you can match it to a self-care practice to meet it. Just as you would drink when you are thirsty, you may need something that is a very clearly, obvious solution. However, it’s possible that your unmet need doesn’t have an obvious self-care answer and you will need to try out some different options (or even have a full list to cycle through as needed).
Some helpful tools I like and recommend for Self-Care Solutions* include:
Self-Care Card Decks: There are decks that are more instructional decks with step-by-step guides to the suggested self-care activity. Some are more artistic and offer inspirational self-care thoughts and questions to help you connect with your self-care needs. They are fairly affordable and allow you to flip through the cards for self-care ideas at your fingertips!
Self-Care Journals: There are guided self-care journals you can purchase that offer self-care ideas and spots to reflect on how that practice worked out for you. These can be helpful if you’d like to track or look back at your self-care journey as you go.
Phone Apps: Self-care apps can offer you lots of ideas, trackers, and sometimes even a community of support to build a regular self-care practice. I won’t recommend any specifically, because I don’t have a lot of personal experience with them but plenty of reviews and blogs offer insight from others who have. Take some time to try a few out and see what works best for you!
GLEAM’s Library Free Downloadables: Did you know that we have a totally free resource library here at Gleam Life Coaching?! All you have to do is sign up for our newsletter and you get access to all of our downloadables. We even have one that offers 100 ideas for self-care activities based on type! If those first hundred don’t resonate with you, they are sure to inspire you with an activity that does! We add to our library regularly so keep checking back!
What category resonated with you most? We’d love to hear which solutions are inspiring you to less stressed and more balanced habits.
No matter what form your burnout reduction plan takes, we hope this list has inspired you to find some real-world tools. We know it’s so hard to do. But we believe that you are capable of great things—and deserve even better. We would love to hear from you if you try, or have tried, some of these tools before.
As always, we’re here if you want some coaching support to add to your burnout arsenal. Be kind to yourself!
