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<img src="/icons/info-alternate_gray.svg" alt="/icons/info-alternate_gray.svg" width="40px" /> What’s this about?
You have a limited amount of energy. When you exceed that amount of energy without restoring it effectively, you end up running beyond your capacity — and running into problems.
What do I need to do?
Try to put in place effective methods to stay within your energy budget and replenish your energy. Organizational culture is a tool you can leverage to put such methods in place for the team as a whole.
Contents
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Further reading
Productivity & burnout
You have a limited amount of energy.
When you exceed that amount of energy without restoring it effectively, you end up running beyond your capacity — and running into problems:
- Increased risk of burnout and illness;
- Increased risk of making mistakes; and
- Reduced energy available for other important things in your life.
It’s therefore important to consider how you can mitigate these issues — by ensuring you stay within your energy budget, and ensuring you take time to replenish your energy.
- Ways burnout can be exacerbated
Staying within your energy budget
In order to appropriately draw upon your limited energy budget, we recommend the following actions:
- Find your productivity style
- Track which tasks drain your energy
- Automate, delegate, eliminate
Replenishing your energy
Conserving energy, and using is wisely, is vital to prevent burnout.
But replenishing energy can be just as significant. Here are a few ways to replenish your energy:
- Notice whether any tasks feel like they restore your energy, and make a plan to double-down on those — it’s likely you’re a better fit for that sort of work
- Use your holiday allowance
- Dedicate some time in your week for rest, which can come in a number of forms (active, mental, emotional, or physical)
- Do things outside of work. If you care about your organization and your work, it's sometimes hard to switch off. Being mentally switched on all the time is draining and it's healthy to set boundaries.
Organizational culture & remote work
Organizational culture can play a big role in how effectively you can take care of yourself.
As you’re responsible for setting the culture of your organization, it might make sense to instill values or processes that safeguard your team’s productivity and minimize burnout.
Organizations are increasingly supportive of remote work, or take a “remote first” approach. The option to work remotely brings a number of benefits, like increased access to global talent, and not spending time commuting!
But, there are also a number of trade-offs. It can be harder to foster accountability and trust, for example. If you decide to lead a remote-first organization, we recommend that you:
- Celebrate wins and make sure you and your team feel valued
- Encourage moments of reflection to zoom out and make sure you're on the right path
- Assert your boundaries (e.g. by declining tasks or flagging your capacity), and stick to working hours
- Encourage your team to take time off, and don't expect people to work on weekends or evenings
- Switch off after work — try to ensure that your home office is the only place you work, and that you leave the office at an appropriate hour
- Consider removing work-related apps from your personal devices
- Have frequent check-ins with your team, while being mindful of everyone's time zones
- Schedule enough social time, such as a check in at the start of each all hands meeting
Getting support
If you’re struggling to sufficiently protect your wellbeing, feeling constantly stressed, or struggling with motivation, there are plenty of ways you can get support:
- Ask your team for help: If you don't speak up, people won’t necessarily notice your struggles — and you won't be able to delegate your tasks.
- Get a mentor: Mentors can leverage their own experience to help you get out of a rut that they’ve been in many times themselves, as well as give you an outside perspective on your situation. Magnify Mentoring is a great place to start.
- Consider counselling or therapy: There are many forms of therapy out there. CBT can help you spot unproductive patterns of thought and behavior, while psychotherapy may uncover adverse early experiences that play a role in your emotional regulation. You can find a list of providers here.
- Find a support group: Peer support groups can help you feel less alone with your issues. Rethink Wellbeing offers different programs to nurture mental wellbeing and resilience.
- Remove ambiguity from your role: Misaligned expectations can exacerbate burnout, so it’s important to understand the “winning conditions” of your role.
- Practice mindfulness: Mindfulness is the practice of noticing thoughts and feelings as they arise, in a non-judgmental way. Cultivating a practice of mindfulness (e.g. via meditation) can help you identify issues before you burn out.
Your wellbeing is a personal topic, and we can’t offer a cookie-cutter approach to looking after yourself. We’d therefore encourage you to check out online resources like MentNav which simplify the process of accessing mental health support and information. Simply noticing that you’re feeling a bit run down, stressed, or low on motivation is a good step in the right direction.
Besides these burnout-specific tips, it’s always good practice to nail the basics: sleep, exercise, time in nature, and socializing.
Good luck on your nonprofit journey!
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