Thread by @dunkhippo33

Today's tweet storm is on my learnings on burnout. Burnout is real and can't be ignored. I've faced it a bunch - when I was at Google, during my startup, and even now.

Most founders and busy professionals get burned out at some pt (or multiple pts) in their career.

Read on >>

1) First how do you know if you're feeling burned out?

For me (and many others), one signal is when you wake up in the morning after decent rest and you still feel exhausted. And if this happens for days in a row, it's definitely burnout.

2) When I was younger, my solution was to just plow through it.

You can plow through it but that doesn't mean you should. This turns out to be the wrong move in the long run.

3) Like any other illness, burnout makes you weaker. You don't think clearly. You make poor decisions.

Because you are fatigued, you end up making decisions that you might not otherwise make.

4) Such common poor decision-making might be around:

-avoiding a conflict that you would ordinarily take up and is a better to face head-on
-quitting / leaving a situation that isn't a good solution
-selling your company / folding your company earlier than you'd normally like

5) It is really hard to make good decisions that require energy when you are burned out. And that has an impact on the long term.

But often people plow through, because they feel like they can just make it through this phase and fix things later.

6) What should you do instead? You need to stop the root cause of burn out.

There are many reasons you could be feeling burned out. It could be that you are just not sleeping enough because you are working too hard.

7) And, there are many other potential root causes -- it could also be that you are

-in an exhausting situation you just want to be done with
-in a conflict with someone
-feeling overwhelmed, stressed & feeling pressure
-etc...

8) Identify the root cause and immediately make a plan to address it. This isn't something you should put off until tmrw, because it will likely take a while to execute on the plan.

9) If the root cause is that you're working too hard and doing too many things. And, the solve could be to pare back on what you're doing and really relentlessly prioritize what is impt and what is a nice-to-have activity

10) OR it could be that you need help. Hire. Delegate. Often founders don't prioritize hiring early enough. Typically, it's because ppl don't realize it takes a LONG time to hire. It takes a TON of time to hire & onboard. So founders spend too long doing everything themselves.

11) It could be just simply that one is not prioritizing sleep enough. Sometimes burnout is because of some simple reason that can be solved w/ discipline.

12) Be honest with yourself around what is causing the burnout.

Once you come up w/ a plan to address it, it's easier to power through the burnout and go through w/ the plan.

After you put a solution in place, take a vacation.

13) You don't have to go anywhere. But rest is really impt for new perspective and new ideas.

Often ppl don't think that they can take off for more than a week, but I think that if you are really burned out, you'll need at least 2-3 weeks to recover.

14) I know - it sounds impossible to take that kind of time off. But if you force yourself to do that, then you'll find a way to delegate everything and really push off & pare things down to make it happen.

There's always a way. Most ppl just don't prioritize taking time off.

15) I also think part of why ppl don't want to do this is that the optics make them look weak and lazy.

For founders, ppl wonder if that sends the right msg to employees. And for employees, they often feel like that won't look good to the boss.

But taking time off is impt.

15) I've felt burnt out many times during my career -- whether it was at Google or my own startup or @HustleFundVC.

But each time it's happened, it's gotten easier to manage. You just know what to do over time to address it.

16) The most recent time it happened was just a few weeks ago. Actions I took:

-Went on vacation. Didn't turn out to be much of a vacation. Took another vacation.
-Hired a part-time EA (for the 1st time!)
-Turned down a LOT of events / speaking activities

17) Also
-Paused night mtgs (timezones affect your sleep)
-Moved more mtgs to async emails

And this was enough. But you can always find more things to cut / reduce. Always.

18) It's important to maintain high energy in a startup.

Doing a startup is like running a series of sprints during a marathon. It's a long haul but you need to have the energy when it's time to sprint.

Burnout causes you to slow or quit the race.