Here we go again I am slowly getting closer and closer to that burnout stage once more. I am starting to feel a little bit drained however, I am determined not to actually hit that burn out stage, I am going to catch it before it gets any worse. To make sure I catch it I have been taking time to reflect on what is pushing me in this direction and how I can get away from feeling like this. Funnily enough it is around this time last year when I also started to feel like this and unfortunately it ended up with me spending a night in hospital in December due to getting really bad tonsillitis which I am putting down to happening due to not listening to my body when it was running on empty. 

The back end of the year is always really busy for me as the year is coming to an end we have plenty of seasonal events coming up which take away most quiet evenings, we also have lots of football with both the women's and men's leagues in full swing add in the full time job and the 3 websites free time is more or less none existent.  After a bit of reflection time I have come to the conclusion that this year to help me avoid burnout if something doesn't align with my goals and where my priorities lie it can be put on the back burner, I don't need to attend everything, I don't need every night out and I don't need to do something that is pretty pointless when it could easily be an evening working towards my goal instead. 

My sleep isn't the best either currently as I am staying awake far too late working on content or I am laid in bed with my brain constantly switched on thinking of new ideas, why can you have a lack of ideas during the day but as soon as you try sleep they come flooding in?

The main way I am trying to fight against burn out this time around is by managing my time a whole lot better as I know that by doing this I will feel more relaxed and refreshed as plans are in place and I cope so much better with a routine. So here is how I plan to manage my time better...

Set nights for working on content

This is the biggest time saver as it means I can use 3 evenings to sit down and power through content for each site on 1 specific day of the week. So say Thursday evenings could be for this site and on 2 others nights we can work on gaming content and football content. This means my focus isn't constantly shifting and I can really focus on the tasks at hand. I can then use a few hours on a Sunday just to tie up any loose ends before starting the new week. I can even use those few hours on each Sunday to write out a plan for the week ahead, such as what posts I plan to work on each of the specific days.

Have a set bedtime & no social media before bed

This is going to change so much as if I have a bedtime in place I am going to say no to things that push me past that plus it means a set time for switching off on an evening, meaning laptop and phone away. There will be no more nights of endlessly scrolling through social media instead as it approaches bedtime I will be getting tucked in with my book and reading until it is time to get to sleep. This is definitely going to help me relax a whole lot more and I am determined to do this every night however, the only exception for not doing this is when Bradford City or Man Utd Women have late night games. 

Set aside 1 hour a day for workouts

I felt so much better when I was working out regularly so the plan is now to get back into having an hours workout daily. This means an hour away from the screen just moving more than I have been. This could be strength based, cardio based or even simply an hours walk with the dog and a podcast. Mentally this will do me the world of good and will help on my weight loss journey too.

Alongside all this I am also planning on having a lot less trips out just for the sake of. Like those shopping trips which take a huge chunk of time out of the day and cost you a fortune on items you don't actually need. By cutting back on these trips I can have more time to get things that align with my goals done and I can also save the money I am wanting to save rather than buying for the sake of it which I am still in the habit of doing for some reason. The questions I am going to ask myself are is this going to cost more than it should? Will it end up with a late night? Will it mean I fall behind on creating the content I am trying to work on?

Once each day is done before I get settled with my book I am going to sit and reflect on my day and document the good things, bad things and what I feel like I could have got done but didn't and why. This is just going to be nice to sit and reflect on if things get too much, I can see that one bad day can also lead to plenty of good ones after. Alongside all these things I will be adding my vitamins back into my routine, again when I was taking these daily I was doing really well so it is time that I got going with them again. I will also be adding 2 litres of water minimum a day back into my routine too as plenty of hydration means a happier, healthier and more productive version of me.

These are just a few ways that I will be adapting to avoid any future burnout and I am really determined to stick to all these things to have a very positive end to the year. Who knows it may also  mean the year ends with some personal growth and some website growth too but I guess we shall soon see.

Plans are already being put into place for 2024 which is going to be a year heavily focused on self growth so why not get a bit of a head start on this? Let's see how the remainder of the year goes.