Today’s topic is near and dear to my heart because I want to talk about burnout and how to avoid it. See, many years ago I worked like an absolute lunatic for my nonprofit and although I was proud of my work, I was so burnt out I was practically char-grilled.

 

Let me set the scene for you: each week I averaged 60-80 hours per week at work, I genuinely felt that if I didn’t get everything done that everything would fall apart, I did excellent work but my family, my health, and my sanity paid a price.

 

Sound familiar? If it does, then I have 2 things that I really, really want to say to you:

1. 1. You work like this because you care about your organization, its mission, and you take pride in your work. This says a lot about your character and you SHOULD be proud. I know it’s been tough for you, but hold your head up high. I see you.
      

 

1. It is absolutely possible for you to get (most) things done without your nonprofit falling apart and with you actually maintaining a respectable work/life balance. I promise.

 

Here are my top pieces of advice for creating a more balanced life and going home on time (almost) every week…

 

Change Your Mind

Now, I said that it’s possible for you to achieve a better work/life balance but I did not say that it’s necessarily easy. Because I know you. I WAS you. And you will be pried from your work kicking and screaming.

So my very first piece of advice for you if you truly want a better balance is that you are going to have to change your mindset before you do anything else. You are allowed and encouraged to be proud of your work, but you must let go of feeling that you have to sacrifice yourself on the altar of that work in order for you to be good enough. More than that, you may need to stop thinking about putting in overtime as a good thing and start thinking of it as an indicator that you are not as efficient as you need to be or could be.

 

Value Efficiency Over Volume

Again, the sheer quantity of work you pump out each week and the number of hours you put in are NOT good indicators of your value as an employee or the quality of your work, so stop thinking of them that way. Make the shift to evaluating your value in terms of your ability to work intelligently and efficiently and I promise you will find ways to cut time off of your tasks.

For instance, data entry and other repetitive tasks can be automated most of the time using tools like Zapier. Managing your nonprofit’s social media accounts can be made automated and made infinitely faster by using a scheduling tool. Writing grants throughout the year can be made easier and less time-consuming by crafting an in-depth strategy, doing your research, and creating a killer case statement at the beginning of the year.

 

Schedule, Prioritize, & Ask for Help

For over a decade I’ve spent the end of December and/or beginning of January mapping out my biggest goals and priorities for the year and putting them into my calendar. Then I take that one step further. At the end of each week I plan out the next week. I choose my top priorities and I block out time every day to get those priorities done. (By the way, if it isn’t truly a priority then you are NOT allowed to stay late to get it done.)

I fill in any remaining time either with things I would like to get done but aren’t a priority or by getting a headstart on the next priority in my calendar.

Now, you may have heard of Murphy’s Law, which essentially states that if something can go wrong, then it will. This is true of your plans, also. Not every year or week unfolds exactly the way you plan it and I’m not suggesting that it will.

When things don’t go the way you plan and you find yourself falling behind on big priorities, you need to learn to ask for help. If you have a boss, go to them and talk to them about your plan for the week and where it went awry. Ask them to help you re-prioritize your tasks with the time remaining in the week. If you are the ED, you can follow this same process with the board.

This has the added bonus of letting the powers that be know how much time and effort you put in, that you are organized and efficient, and many times they will personally step up to lend a helping hand.

 

Be Clear About Your Boundaries

Sometimes your boss and/or your board are not in a position to pitch in and help and it’s really all on you to get it done. When that is the case, you need to rely on yourself to decide what is truly a priority right now and what can wait. Once you’ve made that decision, then you need to stand firm.

Maybe that means that you put in an extra hour or two throughout the week to get the “must-do’s” completed and you worry about the rest next week. Every once in a while, that’s a reasonable thing to do. But watch for creep. It’s not sustainable for you to stay late every single day because of every little thing.

If your work ethic or your output is questioned, be honest about what you are accomplishing, about your process for prioritizing your tasks, and about how overwhelmed you are. But DO NOT (I repeat, DO NOT) agree to work crazy amounts of overtime. If you do, this will become an expectation and you will eventually burn out.

If you happen to be in a leadership position at your org, I would encourage you to speak with other leaders about creating a work culture that values efficiency and time off for staff. Changing your work culture can change everything.

 

Track Your Work and Your Progress Towards Your Goals

I wish this wasn’t a piece of advice I had to give, but sometimes others question our work and that can lead to us feeling like we aren’t doing enough either. To combat this, I recommend being meticulous in tracking what you work on and your progress towards your goals. This way, you can remind yourself of everything you’ve accomplished and it can serve as a record to others of all the progress you have legitimately made towards achieving your goals for the year.

This can be done by hand writing it in a planner or notebook or tracking everything in a spreadsheet. Whatever method you use, just keep it handy so you can pull it out and refer to it when needed. Personally, this is why I love keeping a goal tracker spreadsheet. I’ve done it for years.

 

These are my top tips for creating a better balance in your life and going home on time, most of the time. Having said that, most of these tips revolve around mindset shifts and being more vocal about your value and your challenges.

 

If you would like to get more into the nitty gritty of how to shave time off work tasks, I encourage you to download my FREE Nonprofit MasterMind Cheat Sheet. In it, I give you 5 actionable strategies for getting more done in less time with much less stress.

GET THE CHEAT SHEET!