How to Recover From Burnout in 5 Steps

Self-Care

Jul 27

Earlier this year, I was feeling exhausted, overwhelmed, and completely drained.

I was trying to do too much and I was sacrificing my health and happiness in return.

I was burned out.

But burnout doesn't have to last forever, and if you're feeling this way now, I'm going to show you how to recover from burnout.

If you follow these steps, you'll be able to prevent yourself from burning out in the future, too!

How to Recover From Burnout:

What is burnout?

Psychology Today describes burnout as the following:

"Burnout is a state of chronic stress that leads to: physical and emotional exhaustion, cynicism and detachment, [and] feelings of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment."

Lets read that again:

Chronic stress,
physical and emotional exhaustion,
cynicism and detachment, and
feelings of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment.

No one wants to feel that way!

But that is exactly how I found myself feeling earlier this year.

I burned out because I was trying to do too much all at once.

I was juggling a weekly YouTube show, a full load of client work, managing a six-figure product launch, creating my own products, and trying to maintain a social life.

It wasn't sustainable.

So in March, I found myself feeling:

Stressed out
Sick
Tired
Overwhelmed
Depressed
Anxious
Out of control
Like a failure to everyone (clients, friends, family, myself)

It was awful.

I finally had to acknowledge the truth:

I was burned out, and I knew needed to break the never ending cycle of burnout-recovery-burnout if I was going to have to make a real change.

The 5 steps I took to recover from burnout:

Step #1: Stop what you're doing.

As soon as you realize you're burned out (or on the path to burnout), you have to stop what you're doing.

Seriously, stop whatever you're doing:

Stop posting on social media.

Stop writing that blog post.

Stop working on that rebrand.

This can feel impossible at first because, chances are, you're burned out because you have a lot to do.

But it's vital that you stop what you're doing and put a "pause" on your to do list for right now.

Step #2: Take a break.

Now that you've stopped what you're doing, you need to take a break.

Ideally this would be at least one full day (or even a full week), but if you can only manage to take a break for the rest of the day, that's alright.

During your break, you're going to go through the rest of these steps so that you can break the burnout cycle once and for all!

Step #3: Say no.

Start putting up boundaries and saying "no" to new opportunities and invitations that come your way.

When I was burned out, I told my virtual assistant that all opportunities would get the response of either "no" or "not right now."

This meant no podcast interviews, no joint ventures, no events, and no collaborations.

It wasn't easy, but I knew that if I said "yes" to anything else right now, that I would stay burned out and wouldn't be able to give my best.

Decide what your boundaries are and what you can start saying "no" to right now.

You don't have to say "no" forever, but commit to doing this until you're fully recovered.

Step #4: Prioritize self-care.

When I'm on the path to burning out, I completely neglect myself. I stop showering, I eat junk food, I skip workouts, and I stay up too late.

You are your best asset and in order to recover from burnout, you have to take care of yourself.

That means you need to prioritize and schedule in time to shower, workout, eat better, get a massage, get your hair done, or anything else that makes you feel like your best self.

Step #5: Re-evaluate.

This is the most important step in the process of recovering from burnout.

And if you're on the path to burnout right now, going through this exercise will stop you in your tracks before getting there.

There are 2 parts to re-evaluating:

Part 1: Write it all down.

Set a timer for a few minutes and write down every single thing that you do in your business.

Big or small, write it all down.

And don't worry about perfection here. This is meant to be a brain dump.

Part 2: Assign each task to a category.

Now that you've gotten a list of everything that you're doing right now, you need to assign each task to one of the five categories below.

These categories are going to help you prioritize and plan how to move forward and make changes.

The 5 Categories of what do I need to:

Stop doing?
Work on later?
Systemize or automate?
Delegate?
Keep doing?

Part 3: Make the changes!

Now that you've learned what you need to stop doing, work on later, systemize, delegate, or keep doing, you know what you need to change to recover from burnout and prevent the burnout cycle from continuing.

I've actually created a free Burnout Re-Evaluation Worksheet that will help guide you through this re-evaluation process! You can download it below: