Burnout is the result of a lopsided life that focuses on one thing at the expense of everything else.
As my mentor Allen Pathmarajah asks me every Friday afternoon...
"Ivan, are you balancing your life?"
As entrepreneurs - more often than not - we probably all feel overloaded and stressed at times.

Are you working too much?

Maybe you feel that you could be headed for burnout, where you lose your enthusiasm and creativity and you feel cut off from everything else you enjoy doing. 
Have you experienced any of the following symptoms?
  • You feel overwhelmed and have  that ‘BLANK’ feeling where you can’t seem to make a plan of action for what steps to follow next.

  • You’re  increasingly irritable and you lose your temper easily.

  • You feel mentally and physically exhausted at the end of the day, but the minute your head hits the pillow your thoughts bombard you, and you can’t get a good night’s sleep. 

(You sleep like a baby - wake up every hour and cry!! ;))

  • Taking care of normal things like eating seems like an inconvenience.

  • You have just put in a mammoth week and you’re unable to accomplish what you think you should. You can't see the light at the end of the tunnel 

  • You feel self-doubt and very little positive motivation

  • You just keep plodding away with no reward.

  • You push people away and don’t want anything to interfere with your work, but you get no pleasure out of your work.

You feel that you are doing stuff that you are not that good at , because they are necessary things to run your business . 80pc of your time is spent on stuff not related to your core.

If the above is you, how effective and creative are you ?
Can you possible be at your most creative?
 Are you enjoying your life. ?
How long before you snap, crackle, or pop.
The solution is time management.
Real time management is not about doing your job well. It is about living your life well. You should have time for everything you want to do, and that includes work, play, and just taking the time now and then to sit and stare, because that’s when you get your most creative ideas. So here are my nine rules for successful time management:
  1. Start your day right. Don’t rush into the day. Take a few minutes to sit quietly and gather your thoughts. Remember what’s really important to you and prepare yourself inwardly to meet whatever the day brings. My wife Robyn starts each day with a yoga session!
  2. Have a plan for what you want to accomplish. Have a set of reasonable goals for what you will be able to do that day. Write them down ... Ideally at the end of the previous day!
  3. Break tasks into reasonable units. Chunk it !! Looking at a big task can make you feel overwhelmed and hopeless. And unless you’re careful, it can keep you from doing other things you need to do. So break it up into chewable bites so you know what you’ll get done today, and what you’ll do each day over the coming week. 
  4. Allocate activities into 4 d's - 
  5. Do it - prioritise  - Decide what’s the best order to do things, what needs to get done no matter what
  6. Delegate it - get a great team of people to do what you are not great at - so you can focus on the core - team really does stand for together everyone achieves more "
  7. Defer it - if it's not critical 
  8. Dump it - refuse inessential tasks be brutal about crossing off the list what you can forget about. That may mean saying “no” to other people who want you to do things that you don't want to do
  9. Follow a big push with relaxation. After having  to work hard to meet a deadline, or an all nighter based on an inspirational spurt - force yourself to take time off, do it. There’s a clever sign on a local restaurant that says, “We give our cooks time off. Do you?” That’s a question you should ask yourself.
  10. Swallow the frog -Practice the 10-minute rule. We all have tasks we dread to do. We put off starting them and they loom before us, keeping us in a state of anxiety that drains our energy. The rule is to just work on it for 10 minutes. Chances are, once you get started, you’ll keep working on it, but start out planning just 10 minutes. Do that over a number of days, and the task will get done – and off your back! 
What are some of your gems?