Your risk for Startup Burnout at the moment is quite low.
Based on your answers, it looks like you are dealing with a little startup stress, but you are not overwhelmed. A warning might at place, though.
Startup Burnout Stage 2
Startup Burnout comes in different stages. You are currently in the so called second stage of burnout.
In this stage, you are experiencing the onset of stress, which influences your productivity and in turn might cause more stress.
You might be experiencing a loss of focus, and your sleep might also be affected. In this phase, many founders choose to focus on their startup instead of their personal life. For instance, you might decline invitations from friends to meet.
And chances are that you are also making some sacrifices to your physical and mental health. The might seem small now, but they do matter.
What to do to prevent developing burnout?
First of all, make sure you take good care of yourself, so you can optimize your productivity. Working out and relaxing are not a waste of time, but a good investment. They will increase your productivity.
Secondly, take time to decrease your stress levels in a practical sense. Develop systems that will help you to keep track of what you need to do. A simple to-do list already helps, as long as you maintain it daily.
Better Coping Strategies
This burnout stage is probably the most important when it comes to preventing full burnout. The first step to do that is to become aware of your responses, the second is to alter them and adopt better coping strategies. Here are some examples:
Step 1: Reflect
You could start a personal log and reflect on the things mentioned here. Did you skip a workout, decline an invitation, or ignore the need for a walk outside? Write it down and figure out a better response. I’m pretty sure you already know what to do.
Step 2: Organize
Better coping strategies involve all those things that help you take better care of yourself. But the way you prioritize your tasks and deal with your emails and other messages might even be more important.
Having an overview will help you create some headspace and stay focused instead of losing track of what you’re supposed to do. When that happens, you will feel the restlessness grow 24/7.
Stay Focused with Curbn
In the following months, I will be developing a new product ’50 x Smarter’, that will teach startup founders and entrepreneurs how to work smarter instead of harder using their own tools.
The key objective of ‘50 x Smarter‘ is to reduce the stress your heavy workload causes you. It would not be realistic to say ‘reduce the workload’, but learning a smarter way to prioritize and deal with the endless e-mails and tasks on your to-do list will help you to get back on top.
I hope to publish the first part in January 25, so bear with me. In the meantime, here’s already some advice:
Clear up the loose ends in your head.
Write them down and free up space in your mind.
With ‘50 x Smarter‘, I hope to teach you exactly how to do that. With simple hacks in the tools you already use. Sometimes it’s about a feature you didn’t know yet, other times it’s about using something in a different way or picking up on a new habit.
But we’re not there yet. So, for the time being, I’ll just share some of that knowledge in my newsletter. So keep an eye on your mailbox and dig out the trash can (spam) if you want to stay in the loop.