Overcoming Burnout: 7 Tips for a Healthier Work-Life Balance

I want to talk about something a bit more personal today in the hope that what I have to say might help you if you're going through the same thing. I've talked before about how to get out of a creative block when you're feeling uninspired and you don't want to be creative. But what do you do when you've got the opposite problem? What if you are so busy and so motivated that you work all the time and you never have any downtime? If that sounds like you then you, like me, might be at risk of burnout. Burnout is caused by too much stress, particularly related to work or other demanding responsibilities. When you are burnt out you might feel as though you're drained and you're lacking in energy. You might be cranky and easily frustrated. You're not as focused as you once were. You're not as productive as you might have been and you make more mistakes than you usually do. I often wake up and I have this feeling of dread where I think the day is going to be bad. I fear that I'm at risk of burnout because I spend long hours here in the studio. Running a business is demanding. I get up early and I'm often down here working in the studio before Dom even gets out of bed. I work all morning either painting, voicing over, writing scripts or researching. I have a quick 20-minute lunch break and then I'm back in here working until dinner time. After dinner I'm at my computer in the house doing more work. I might be writing blog posts or answering more emails or I might be researching topics that I can talk about here on this YouTube channel. All this work is time-consuming and mentally exhausting and I do it six days a week. I don't get a lot of time to do what I really want to do and that's paint. Running a creative business is so much more than just painting. I estimate I spend about 20% of my time painting and 80% of my time doing other things and I find that really frustrating. When I do spend some time painting I'm often too tired to enjoy it properly. I take every Sunday off and Dom and I look after our little grandson for the day and it's the only time I really take for myself when I'm not thinking about or doing any work. If not for our little grandson I'd probably work on Sunday too. In fact I do. When he has his nap I'm often at my computer researching stuff and that's it. That's my week. There's no leisure time, there's no exercise time and there's just not enough painting time as I mentioned. My mind is constantly in work mode. I wake really early and as soon as I wake I start thinking about what I have to do and I can't get back to sleep. So I get up and I start my day sometimes at 4 30 or 5 in the morning and I'm often working until eight at night. My son Carl films and edits the YouTube videos which really helps. Once a month he comes up from Sydney and he stays for a few days and gets the work done. But I still have to get the videos ready and scripted for him and that's where a lot of the work lies. Now that he's working for me I have to make sure that I have a month's worth of videos ready to film when he comes home. Before he was helping me if I ran out of time one month then I'd skip a video that week. So be it. There wasn't much I could do about it but now that he's working for me I have to get these videos ready as well as do all the other work that I have to do. At the end of the day I'll often feel that I didn't do enough that day or I didn't achieve all that I wanted to. That's completely irrational of course because when I look back at what I have achieved over the past few years I wonder how I got it all done on my own. But that's the problem. I've worked so hard that I've forgotten how to live. I have the fear that if I take a break the YouTube algorithm will demote me and people will stop following and watching my videos and then I'll have to go back to teaching at school. It's crazy thinking that I know but that fear is what drives me. Now don't get me wrong I'm not complaining. I am but I'm doing what I love for a living and I'm grateful for that. I get to work at home and I'm my own boss but I know that what I'm doing at the moment is not sustainable and I need to make some changes. If this sounds familiar to you it's helpful to talk to someone who encourages you to think about how you're feeling. I recently reached out to BetterHelp about my fear of burning out. Thank you to BetterHelp for sponsoring this video. BetterHelp is the world's largest therapy service and it's 100% online. With BetterHelp you can tap into a network of over 30,000 licensed and experienced therapists who can help you with a wide range of issues not just how I'm feeling. To get started you just answer a few questions about your needs and preferences in therapy. That way BetterHelp can match you with the right therapist from their network. Then you can talk to your therapist however you feel comfortable whether it's via text, chat, phone or video call. You can message your therapist at any time and schedule live sessions when it's convenient for you. I asked to speak to an older female therapist, someone closer to my age and we messaged back and forth. I told her that I was waking too early and I couldn't get back to sleep because of my thoughts. I told her that I was concerned that I was at risk of burnout. She listened and she's helping me to develop new thought processes. I'm grateful to be reminded of these things and with her help I'm now working to make some positive changes. If your therapist isn't the right fit for any reason you can switch to a new therapist at no additional charge. With BetterHelp you get the same professionalism and quality that you expect from in-office therapy but with a therapist who is custom picked for you. You have more scheduling flexibility and it's at a more affordable price. If you feel that you need help you can get 10% off your first month at betterhelp.com forward slash louise that's better h-e-l-p better help and I've also linked them below in the description. So what I need to do now is reset my goals. Dom has told me many times to eat an elephant you need to eat it one bite at a time. I need to break down large overwhelming tasks into smaller manageable parts. I need to set realistic expectations and work towards my objectives rather than becoming discouraged by the amount of work that I have to do. Here are some other strategies that I'm using lately. I'm using the productivity app Notion. It allows me to keep all my thoughts ideas and current tasks in one place and it has helped me a lot. It's like my second brain. It's so good in fact I don't know how I used to work without it. I'm trying to let go of the need for perfectionism. I'm too hard on myself and everything has to be near perfect before I let it go. That's exhausting and I need to stop doing that. Dom is helping me where he can. We're working out other ways that he can help take some of the load like researching topics and writing scripts for me. I realise now that I can't do everything myself so we're looking to hire a content writer. Then I'll be able to offload a lot of the work that I do. What I really need to do is add regular exercise to my list. Self-care should be a priority and I don't exercise nearly enough. I realise that if I don't have my health then I don't have anything. I have scoliosis and sitting for long periods of time in the same position is causing all sorts of pain issues and that's what I do. I sit all day either at my computer voicing over tutorials or writing scripts and blog posts or I sit at my painting table and paint. I need to address that as quickly as I can. I need to get some movement happening in my day and I need to find value in something other than my work. So if you are feeling overwhelmed with your work here are seven tips that might help. Try to set boundaries between your work and your personal life. Put yourself first and do things that rejuvenate you away from work. Try to delegate and outsource some of your workload if you can. Break tasks into manageable chunks and celebrate your progress. Remember how to eat an elephant. Learn how to manage your time better. I'm reading a book at the moment called Make Time How to Focus on What Matters Every Day. I'll link it in the description. Evaluate and adjust your work practices. What's working what's not and take regular breaks if you can. That's something I'm not doing and I need to start. If you are feeling the way I feel I hope that sharing my pressures and strategies helps you better manage yourself so that you don't burn out. Keep enjoying what you do and make sure you take time for yourself. If you haven't already please like the video and subscribe because it helps the channel and it lets me know if these types of videos are valuable to you. I'll see you next week. Filming. Rolling. Action. Stop. I did all that without making a mistake because I sort of stumbled a bit there. But that's the problem. I've worked. Sorry. I'm not. Do it again. But I know that what I'm doing at the moment is not sustainable. And it's helped me a lot. You saved that cough there didn't you? It's liked. It's liked. It's liked my second brain. Does anyone need to cough? I'm using the. I'm too hard on myself and everyone. See too hard on myself. Dom is helping me where he can. We're thinking out. We're not. No we're working out. What I really need to do is add regular exercise to my lifts. I need a drink. Just water. Not alcohol.