Over the past month, I’ve dealt with acute burnout for four or five days while my Dad was hospitalized. I implemented my burnout system, which allows me to continue to work even when dealing with burnout. There are many, many tactics in my upcoming book about this topic, but the three main tactics I deployed this time were:

  1. Catch it early.
  2. Pause bigger initiatives.
  3. Rely on my support group at home and work.

Those three practices allowed me to finish my book.

I recognized RIGHT AWAY when I was burned out and turned it around. I can do that because I know what it looks like for me. When I caught it, I stopped all non-essential work. Social media posts didn’t happen. I missed a weekly email to you all. I canceled meetings. I only replied to crucial emails.

I also paused bigger initiatives. I need to hire a marketing assistant, but that initiative was (and still is) on pause. A website redesign project stopped. Developing an online course to show business owners how to reduce labor costs by 60% was put on hold. These will be started up again, but they’re currently paused.

Finally, I relied on my support groups at home and work. My partner stepped in quite a bit. My family did as well. At work, I asked my team to take on the higher-priority work I was doing so that I could focus on taking care of my Dad.

During the time I spent working, I focused on my top priority – finishing my book.

The lesson I continue to learn is that burnout happens, so it’s better to prepare for it than be reactive when it does happen.