Are you stuck working inside while summer seems to fly by? Many people use summer to relax and enjoy the outdoors, but find it hard to balance work and play. We’ve identified some ways you can have your cake and eat it too! Learn about burnout, how to identify it, and prevent it while making this summer your most memorable.

Burnout is a form of mental, emotional and/ or physical exhaustion due to ongoing stress. Without giving ourselves a break, downtime from work, or even a vacation stress will continue to pile up. Most often, burnout is not an ‘if’ but rather ‘when’. It can come from numerous sources in your life such as, working long hours and never being able to ‘turn off’ work, unclear job expectations, toxic work environments, and more stress. It is important to notice the signs of burnout to help relieve stressors and manage your overall health. Things you may notice if you are beginning to or are burnt out: 

• Feeling unmotivated towards your work

• A lack of energy and always feeling tired 

• Unable to concentrate 

• Headaches or physical aches and pains

• Finding normal activities take longer to complete 

Bringing some form of balance to your day-to-day seems to be the best way to manage burnout. By putting things in your calendar that excite you, involve friends and family, or bring you back to the present can go a long way in managing stress. 

Calendars are a great way to lay out everything you need in one place. It can be functional and entertaining to colour code tasks with those fun pens you bought but have yet to use! But it can be overwhelming to see everything you have to do, typically for other people. You probably have things for your work, your kids, keeping up with household chores, and anything else that is a must in your day. You might crash into bed feeling like you didn’t do anything for yourself. By prioritizing fun activities into your calendar you will likely feel more accomplished crossing things off your list and enjoy yourself for an hour during a busy day. They don’t say ‘put your oxygen mask on first, to then help others’ for no reason. Treat a walk with your bestie like you would a work meeting; by putting it in your calendar and showing up on time! A calendar filled with both work and play will likely leave you feeling productive and full of life. 

Consider batch working content and planning several weeks ahead, now. By spending a little extra time now, scheduling focused time for work, you could have content and projects scheduled for weeks at a time. Platforms like Instagram are allowing third party apps like Later or Planoly to schedule posts and have them automatically post while you’re away! This means you can enjoy some well-deserved vacation without worry. Enjoy your book in a hammock knowing your business and clients are taken care of. 

Make sure you put those out of office notifications on your email and enjoy the much needed time off! Even if you plan for a single afternoon, work free, it can truly make a difference towards your overall health. Burnout can affect every aspect of your life so be sure to take care of yourself as much as you do for others. By working ahead, your clients might not even know you left!

Follow us on Instagram and tag us in your summer fun! Whether you’re headed to the beach or you’re planning ahead for your vacation in a few weeks, we’d love to see it. Our page is filled with lots of ideas, tips to balance work and life, and meet new friends while you’re there.