Avoiding Burnout

In today’s “always-on” society, business owners and managers are under more pressure than ever so it is important to avoid burnout and follow our simple steps.

Stress related workplace burnout is now recognised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as an official medical diagnosis. Here are some tips to help to avoid burnout.

Manage your time

It’s impossible to sustain long-term happiness without appropriately balancing your professional and personal time. Avoiding burnout means using that time wisely, both now and in the future. Use an Outlook calendar or scheduling tool to keep close tabs on how you’re spending your time. Regularly assess your week: How much time are you spending in the office? How much work do you do at home? How much time do you have fully to yourself? If any of those numbers look out of line, that’s a sign that something needs to change.

Use your full holiday entitlement

A high proportion of business professionals don’t use all of their annual leave days and they’re paying the price for it. Time off work can provide a big boost to your productivity, creativity and overall job satisfaction. Working through your holiday might feel like the right thing to do for your career, but only increases the likelihood of burnout in the long run. Take holidays that will be good for your overall mental health – go somewhere relaxing and new. Even if it’s just to a nearby destination, a change of scenery can go a long way toward helping you gain perspective on where you’re at in life.

Separate work and home life

One of the most common ways burnout occurs is through work creep. When professional responsibilities start to creep into your out-of-office life, whether it’s in the evening, over the weekends or on holiday, that’s a sign that burnout is approaching. People who work from home are most susceptible as the dividing line between work and family time is merely a closed door. One way of avoiding creep is by disconnecting. If your phone and laptop are always on and at the ready while you’re at home, then you’ve never really left the office at all. Make an effort to fully unplug from the job when you’re on your own time, and you’ll notice a shift in how much you get from your time at home. Also, focusing your attention on different aspects of your life will help you feel more invigorated and creative when it’s time to work again.

Embrace remote working

On the same note, you can get a change of scenery without fully leaving work behind. While it’s important to completely disconnect during holiday time, working remotely can give your work the breath of fresh air it needs without fear of falling behind. Remote work has other benefits as well, such as increased productivity and a boost in company culture.

We offer a wide range of services. Our aim is to help take the stress out of all your accounting and tax issues. Our team work hard to ensure they create smart and effective tax-efficient solutions for start-ups to optimise growth and help them succeed. If you want to learn more about how the team can help or simply want some start-up advice from a trusted accountant do hesitate to contact us. For more information please do hesitate to contact us on 0161 962 1855. Alternatively you can email us using the form below and we will contact you as soon as possible.

Our fantastic team at A&C Chartered Accountants are here to help.

Whether it’s your University classmates or the colleagues you trained with at your first firm, we all have an alumni network.

Your alumni network is an immense network of professional contacts – all with whom you already have one thing in common. That one thing could be a University that you attended, a previous employer or perhaps you took an evening study course together. How you are connected doesn’t really matter. The fact that you have a connection gives you the right to reach out to someone and make contact. After all, people tend to be more receptive to contact from someone from within their network.

LinkedIn is a useful tool for reaching out to and connecting with your alumni. You can search by University or by Employer and connect / re-connect with former colleagues. LinkedIn features some useful filters which can help you to find some of your old contacts by location, firm, etc. You can even set up a dedicated online group for your alumni network using the “Groups” page on LinkedIn. Members of your Group can post messages, updates and communicate easily.

Online tools are great but there is no substitute for meeting up with your contacts, in person. If there is an annual alumni event then try to attend it every now and then, in order to maintain your network. If not, perhaps you can create an annual alumni networking event. It might be as simple as booking a private area in a bar and sending an email invitation to your alumni network.

Another great way to tap into your alumni network is to share your professional expertise. You could create a business blog or even offer to give a talk. If your alumni network has a common interest such as say, business startups, you could put together a panel of speakers who provide insights to your group. It makes a lot of sense to invest in cultivating your alumni network yet many business people don’t make the time to do so. You could gain a real competitive advantage by taking the time to re-connect with your alumni.

Our team of chartered accountants have a wealth of experience in a broad range of sectors and work hard to ensure we create smart and effective tax-efficient solutions for start-ups and SME’s to optimise growth. If you want to learn more about how the team can help or simply want some start-up advice from a trusted accountant do hesitate to contact us. For more information please do hesitate to contact us on 0161 962 1855. Alternatively you can email us using the form below and we will contact you as soon as possible.

Our fantastic team at A&C Chartered Accountants are here to help.