Recovering from communications burnout as an introverted entrepreneur
You know the feeling: one week you’re enthusiastically chatting with a few people on Facebook, making plans to collaborate, on the ball with all your clients — and the next, you’re sprawled on the sofa wishing everyone would just leave you alone.
Communications burnout is a real thing, and it happens to everyone, not just introverts.
And it takes a different form for entrepreneurs compared to those working a full-time job, too. When I was working 7am - 6pm days as a teacher, it was easy to recognise. There were evenings where I’d come home, sprawl on the couch, and switch on CBeebies. The moving shapes and wordless music were about the only stimuli my overworked brain could take after talking to over two hundred people a day.
Burnout isn’t that obvious to recognise at first when you’re running a business, and especially if you’re doing something you love. Having to wear all the hats — including plenty of social interaction, networking, and sales — means that communications burnout can creep up slowly on you, and by the time you see it for what it is, you’re going to need a long time to recover.
While a lot of people believe that if you love what you do, you’ll never burn out, the reverse is actually true. It’s because you’re doing what you love that you don’t notice burnout until it’s too late. And burnout has far more serious consequences for a passionate entrepreneur.
So what can you do to prevent this?
1. Recognise the signs.
One of the first signs of burnout is when you lose motivation, especially for tasks that you’re already not enthusiastic about.
For an introvert like me, that meant dropping the ball on messages and emails. It was a vicious cycle because the more I avoided seeing and replying to them, the greater the guilt and pressure, which drained me even more. Rinse and repeat.
Ask yourself: what are the tasks you don’t like doing in your business, but do so because they’re necessary? Take note of these tasks. The next time you find yourself putting them off for the millionth time for no good reason other than “I just can’t face it right now”, you might be a little burnt out.
Recognising the signs early means you have enough time and energy left to take remedial action, and prevent yourself from spiralling downward.
2. Take time out — and don’t beat yourself up over it.
As my good friend and mentor Rhiannon from Flame and Arrow said to me when I confided in her about dreading interaction: “You can’t pour from an empty cup.”
Take time to recharge and refill your cup. That could mean taking a vacation, a few days off, or even giving yourself an earlier time to knock off work for the week. You’re the boss — why not enjoy the perks of being one?
More importantly, DO NOT beat yourself up over it. When I was running my wedding stationery business, I couldn’t help feeling guilty as hell whenever I took a few days off, and never had a properly work-free day — until it reached a point where I was so sick of everything, I just stopped taking orders and didn’t operate for two months.
Reframe it this way: by taking a couple of days off, you’re preventing a much bigger case of burnout down the road. Also, you can use this time off to step away from the grind and properly reflect on whether you’re going in the right direction.
3. Consolidate your messages in one place.
There are way too many communication channels these days: Slack, Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram DMs, to name a few. It’s like having 523 mental tabs open in your head.
To avoid dropping the ball on any of my messages, I use an app to consolidate all my channels. There are a few out there, but Franz is my favourite. It opens the web versions of the apps, so it doesn’t store any information and can’t see your messages. Having Franz lets me switch seamlessly from discussing a podcast collaboration on Facebook messenger to updating a client on Whatsapp.
Having a dedicated workspace for communication also means you can close the app and literally switch off at the end of the work day, knowing all the messages are safely waiting for you the next day.
4. Set a regular communications-blackout day.
I prefer Sunday for this, because my clients in the US are also enjoying the weekend by then. During this time, avoid all messages that are work-related. Make this a thing — state it in your communications policy (which I talk about in the second episode of my podcast), Google Business hours, etc.
Even if you have urgent work that can’t be avoided on Sunday, don’t send emails right away, because it communicates availability. If you’re on Gmail, there’s a Schedule Send button — click the little dropdown carrot next to the Send button, and choose the time you want to send it. I usually do 8am the next day.
By putting preventive measures in place and recognising the signs early, you’ll be able to manage early stages of burnout and catch yourself before it’s too late.
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the author
Hi, I’m Melody! I help creative entrepreneurs make money by streamlining their communications and building a brand that their clients like and trust.
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