Did you know that hiring a virtual assistant can help with entrepreneur burnout? Company problem-solving can often feel nearly impossible to turn off. Even when you aren’t ‘on the clock,’ you often find yourself troubleshooting and brainstorming. The potential for mental exhaustion is real, but that’s only part of the equation.

On top of the ongoing mental toil of owning a business, you face the logistics side. That to-do list can seem a mile long, which can lead to persistent feelings of inadequacy. If the stress of too many tasks weighs heavily on you for long, that can lead to business owner burnout and overwhelm.

In her “Entrepreneur” article entitled Understanding Entrepreneurial Burnout (And How to Deal with It), Genny Ghanimeh shares the following:

“It is worth pointing out that burnout doesn’t only occur when things aren’t going well. Many entrepreneurs running very successful businesses can be, and are, just as susceptible to burnout.”

Burnout also consists of more than simply being busy. At its core, entrepreneur burnout becomes far more insidious than merely feeling like you have too much to get done. After all, when you believe in what you’re doing and why, that can help you skate through many exhausting days without serious concern.

But with business burnout, it becomes challenging to hobble or even crawl through your day due to unresolved stress or anxiety. Some have said that the root of burnout is resentment. That resentment can lead to a debilitating lack of energy, purpose and vision for your business. You find yourself loathing even the tasks you once loved.

That’s a scary place to be. How do you move your business forward feeling that way? The answer is you can’t…Not without help anyway. But the good news is that hiring a virtual assistant can better allow you to overcome your burnout. Here are some specific ways that can happen.

Self-Defeating Burnout Patterns Get Broken with a Virtual Assistant

What’s the greatest temptation as a business owner when your productivity drastically declines due to burnout? The first thing often is that you stack all the tasks you think you should’ve completed today onto your to-do list for tomorrow.

That added pressure only makes each new day feel all the more impossible. You become paralyzed. You place so much pressure on yourself to get ‘everything’ done that you get little to nothing accomplished the next day…and the next. The defeat you experience gradually worsens as your high expectations are followed by what you perceive as an epic failure.

Business owners can rarely break out of this cycle alone. Although various strategies can help you escape this self-defeating cycle, one of the best is hiring a virtual assistant, virtual team or online business manager to assist with your tasks.

Once some of those responsibilities are accomplished, you won’t have to place so much pressure on yourself. As a result, your productivity will drastically increase due to consistently lower stress levels.

Delegating to a VA Can Help You Get Additional Rest During Burnout

When you face entrepreneur burnout, the thing you most need is what you feel you can least afford—rest. Because you operate in a constant productivity deficit, you feel guilty about taking a break. You hope that if you keep trying harder, things will eventually be different. The sad news is that, without adequate rest, life won’t get better—It’ll just keep getting worse.

You need more sleep. More family time. More exercise. You need to push the business concerns aside for a while to answer your deeper life concerns. The ones you were in touch with better before your business began consuming you so entirely that you now struggle to know who you are, why you do what you do or what you should do next.

Stepping back is the only way to heal, as scary as that may initially seem. It may feel like taking your hands off the steering wheel during rush hour traffic. Still, it’s critical.

Virtual assistant services can help you accomplish tasks that keep you from the rest you so desperately need. That way, you can step away for a while and become the best version of yourself.

A Virtual Assistant Can Guard Against Future Business Burnout

The best burnout care is preventative. You get to the root problems before they become destructive to your personal wellness, business and family. If you’re recovering from burnout or don’t currently consider yourself burned out, now is a great time to consider how remote assistants can help with tasks.

Instead of looking at burnout as something we have or don’t, it’s best to view it as a spectrum we all fall somewhere on. That fact is all the clearer given the additional pandemic stress nearly all business owners faced during the past year. Each day, we make choices that take us closer to burnout’s ‘danger zone’ or further away from it.

As you work at preventing burnout, stay aware of its signs. Also, be especially careful if you’ve experienced significant burnout in the past, so you don’t develop a chronic and long-lasting form of burnout.

Want to Learn More About How a VA Can Help Your Business?

Have you struggled with business owner overwhelm or burnout lately? If so, you certainly aren’t alone. Smart to Finish exists to help you with complex problems like these. We well understand that business overwhelm can happen at any stage, from startup burnout to feeling burnt out even after your business is established and thriving.

Whether you’re looking for the best virtual assistant for your business, remote managing or a virtual assistant team, we’re here for you.

If you’d like to learn more about how you can significantly ease your stress through delegating to a virtual assistant, feel free to reach out. You can schedule a free 30-minute consultation with us to determine the next best steps!