In the fast-paced, highly driven and goal oriented world of entrepreneurship, professional burnout is an ever present risk that has to be taken into account and mitigated as much as possible both for the sake of the success of the professional venture itself, and also for the sanity and well-being of the entrepreneur in question.

 

There’s a lot for an entrepreneur, or any professional, for that matter, to consider and weigh up. It might be that you need to make plans for business funding, figuring out storage and warehousing solutions, and trying to navigate the often complex world of international trade and Incoterms.

 

While the advice that tends to be given in order to help people avoid burning out is typically pretty sound – things like “don’t take on too many projects at once,” for example – sometimes the best way of getting a sense of perspective on things is to consider just what “the wrong approach” would look like.

 

So without further ado, here are a few ways to guarantee that you will burn out professionally

 

Grind around the clock with no division between your professional and personal lives

 

One of the best ways of completely exhausting yourself, and throwing yourself into a world where rest seems impossible, is to do your best to grind around the clock with absolutely no division at all between professional time and personal time.

 

By doing things this way, you guarantee that you will be in a state of at least low-level anxiety 24 hours a day, since at any given moment you will be compelled to check your email, or will feel guilty for hanging out with your family or watching a TV program instead of “hustling and grinding.”

 

By contrast, setting yourself clear hours during the day during which you know you should be working, and clear hours during which you know you are “off the clock, means that you will be significantly more motivated to actually get your work done when the time comes around, while also having the ability to switch off and enjoy your personal time without feeling completely haunted about it.

 

Leave things till the last minute, and let the ensuing stress spur you on

 

Leaving projects, obligations, and individual tasks until the absolute last minute is a brilliant way of heightening your stress levels far beyond baseline – and this is especially the case if there are deadlines involved that you might very well end up missing.

 

Many new entrepreneurs end up becoming so overwhelmed with the sheer amount of stuff they have to get done and keep track of, that it becomes more or less a logistical impossibility to actually juggle everything in a balanced and effective manner.

 

The end result is that everything ends up going to the wire, with last-minute stress and anxiety being the primary fuel that results in things getting finalised and wrapped up.

 

If you could manage to organise things in a way that would keep you ahead of the curve, and that would allow you to get most things quite well wrapped up before the situation became really urgent, you would be able to defuse a huge amount of that stress altogether. You would probably also have a significantly more positive overall experience of your job, in and of itself.

 

Strive to always handle everything yourself, and thoroughly reject delegation

 

Many start-ups begin as solo ventures, which is understandable considering the resource constraints that are typically present in the early days of any business project.

 

Since these entrepreneurs become used to handling everything themselves, it is not uncommon that they end up carrying this mindset forward with him and applying it to situations that no longer warrant it. Such as when the business grows in size or complexity, or when additional resources become available.

 

By striving to always handle everything yourself, and by thoroughly rejecting delegation and embracing micromanagement, you ensure that not only will you never have an iota of peace, but you also foster a resentful workplace environment for anyone you do end up hiring – in addition to ensuring that employees can’t get much of anything done by themselves.

 

Perhaps you will avoid hiring staff altogether, and even avoid working with contractors or third-party experts, opting instead to save some money by doing the job yourself. This is certainly a great approach if you want to make sure that you have little time and energy available to focus on your core competencies.

 

Set no parameters on the type and number projects you are going to pursue

 

For any business, there will be a hypothetically infinite number of projects and initiatives that can be worked on, and avenues that can be explored, at any given time.

 

For an entrepreneur who wants to stay on track and prevent overwhelm, it’s important to set certain parameters on the type and number of projects you’re going to pursue at any given moment in time, in order to ensure that you don’t end up dispersing your resources too broadly, without progressing in a coherent direction.

 

For someone who wants to have the best possible chance of burning out, however, setting no parameters on the type and number of projects to be worked on is a great approach.

 

On the one hand, it means that you will constantly feel compelled to search for new approaches and initiatives to try, instead of paying attention to the ones you already have, and on the other hand it will mean that you experience major “paralysis analysis” about virtually every professional decision.

 

Put all your eggs in one basket

 

Entrepreneurs who end up being successful over time and making a name for themselves frequently end up accumulating a substantial number of failed business experiments along the way, both with regards to individual businesses themselves, also with regards to particular projects or campaigns within a business.

 

Keeping this in mind, a wise entrepreneur might want to emphasise the importance of things like A/B testing, in addition to remaining cognizant of the fact that it may be necessary to abandon and reformulate strategies, and even whole businesses, on the path to success.

 

For the entrepreneur who is keen on burning out, however, putting all their eggs in one basket allows for maximum damage and disheartenment when setbacks occur.