Thousands of professionals experience burnout from their job each year. In the construction industry, the risk of burnout has been increased because of social distancing measures enacted to combat COVID-19, as well as from economic uncertainty, and from juggling work and other responsibilities during a time of great stress. Learn to create healthy boundaries to prevent burnout and continue being productive.
Avoid Multitasking
One boundary you need is a limit on how many tasks you perform at once. For a lot of hard workers, it feels underproductive when you only do one task at a time. They feel more productive when they juggle five different tasks. Multitasking doesn’t make you more productive. All it does is make assignments take longer to complete. Moreover, when you take on too many tasks at once, you become busier and more stressed than you need to be. Focusing on one to-do item at a time will help you avoid feeling overwhelmed and reduce the chance of burnout.
Keep Realistic Expectations
We are in the middle of a pandemic. It may not be possible to keep the same work schedule you had before this global health crisis started. If you’re working from home all of a sudden, it’s alright to normalize your workday in some ways, such as setting up workspace at home similar to what you’re used to at the office. But you need to keep realistic expectations. For example, if you have children or other family members you need to take care of, you aren’t going to be able to maintain the same schedule you are used to. It’s important to keep up with your company’s expectations; you have responsibilities at work that must be completed. Communicate with your boss so you know their expectations and they know how your life has changed. Instead of trying to do too much, make a list of your responsibilities and arrange them in order or priority. Then, think about which responsibilities you can realistically accomplish without causing an overabundance of stress.
Share Tasks
Perfectionists often find it hard to delegate. You may worry that if someone else does the task, it won’t be done the right way. Or, you might feel the need to take on as many responsibilities as possible to show your boss that you’re strong and can handle yourself during a challenging situation. If you want to avoid burnout, however, you need to be able to share tasks. Teamwork is going to be more important than ever during the quarantine. The need to be in control hinders productivity because it makes it difficult to adapt to changes. Working as a team will enable firms to be more flexible, which is important because the situation surrounding COVID-19 is causing all kinds of rapid and unpredictable changes.
Many jobs in construction come with stress as firms have to deal with strict deadlines and budget constraints. Now that we are dealing with a global pandemic, construction professionals are at an increased risk for burnout. Setting boundaries can help construction workers stay grounded and avoid burnout.
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