Assassinating Burnout & Overwhelm [Checklist]

We often preach what we most need, and that is precisely the case today.

Burnout is the ever-lurking nemesis of the modern-day age.

If you unconsciously lean into producing, without simplifying or creating space, it will lead you straight off a cliff.

I know, because it happened to me (again) a month ago.

Now this time wasn't as severe as when it was in 2021, when I had a retail store, a newborn, a 2-year-old, my wife, a pandemic, and complete dissolution of the ego.

This time around I had the awareness that this was a mental burnout. (instead of the complete mind/body/soul burnout mentioned above)

I consciously pushed myself before my 5-year anniversary trip to Cancun. But the accumulation of the "complexity" of the last 3 years "peaked" and highlighted some core limiting behaviors.

Complexity Is Not The Way

Life is speeding up exponentially and it is literally hurting our brains. Add on the uncertainty and stress of starting a new business or career, or kids, or [fill in the blank] and life gets overwhelming.

This is why simplifying your cognitive load is a secret advantage in today's age.

What does that mean?

Simply put create space. Tactically, it means simplifying, eliminating, and automating wherever possible.

Ask yourself, where can I simplify, eliminate, or automate tasks/projects/to-dos in my life?

It also means creating space mentally (with mindfulness practices) and physically (by doubling down on active recovery practices).

You can also create space by accepting the state you are in vs trying to force it.

(which is why gratitude is a superpower for preventing burnout!)

This was the biggest game-changer for me. I had the awareness that I was burnout mentally. So the challenge was to accept it and give me the grace to slow down.

This also meant setting stronger boundaries, prioritizing sleep and sunshine, making more time for relationships, exercising, and taking care of my body.

Now if you are experiencing extreme levels of overwhelm, then use this S.O.S. Checklist:

• Qualify Urgency: Mapping out the things that are overwhelming and determine what is actually urgent

•  Blanket Ban to fixed date: If you are spending a lot of time on low quality social media, calls, meetings, etc. Place a temporary ban on that until the project or goal is met.

•  Linear Processing: Make sure you are working on one thing at a time, not jumping between things.

•  Go dark: Turn off email, messaging, and let people know that you are doing dark for a short time (to focus on the most important project/tasks).

•  Change Explanatory style: Frame things in the positive rather than the negative.

•  Reduce Cognitive load to the Nth degree: Create a massive list of everything that is taking up any mind space and automate and systematize every single thing possible.

•  Cut your losses with cut throat prioritization: Remove all low quality activities.

•  Embrace small sacrifices: Determine what small things you are willing to let go of for a limited amount of time.

•  Avoid meta-stress through radical acceptance: avoid the stress about the overwhelm. Accept the situation and act on it.

•  Walks, breaks and breaths: Use these religiously

•  Put in larger context: Zoom out to see the bigger picture. This too shall pass.

   

After experiencing a moderate level of mental burnout it inspired me to create an offering to prevent it for good. A model of 1:1 check-ins where we visualize every meaningful facet of life as a "dail" and check in on a weekly basis to stay in the sweet spot of growth.

If you are in a season of production and can use a pillar of support to prevent burnout and maximize productivity, hit reply with "Run The Overwhelm Assassination Protocol" and I will fill you in on the details.