Based on your answers, it looks like you are at serious risk of developing startup burnout.
Startup Burnout Stage 3
Startup Burnout doesn’t start with exhaustion. It starts with stress and that is exaclty what you are encountering in stage 3: ‘Chronic Stress’.
To be honest, most startup founders probably spend a lot of time in this stage. After all, startup life is stressful.
Even though you are not suffering from pure exhaustion yet (as you would in stages 4 and 5), this phase is already damaging your mental health and your productivity!
What to do to prevent completely burning out?
First of all, become aware of the danger and realize that not taking care of yourself is seriously slowing down your startup journey. The best way to speed up your game is make sure you are fit and focused. In other words: invest time in sleep, working out, relaxation, and connecting to other people.
You are probably procrastinating and feeling guilty about it, too. So, allocating time to not working will feel counterintuitive. But it’s the best thing you can do. Investing in your health means diminishing procrastination. Working long hours and sacrificing your free time means experiencing more brain fog.
Secondly, work on curbing your stress. Learn to deal with the uncertainties that come with building a startup, schedule your time well, and organize your work. In this stage of startup burnout it would be a good idea to limit your work hours and maybe adopt a fixed schedule to protect yourself. But for some, flexibility is more useful.
Stay Focused with Curbn
If you would like to have some extra help recovering from this stage, join the Curbn Community. Or download the e-book ‘Escaping Founder Burnout‘. There is a discount code in your mailbox. 😊