Burnout is the byproduct of long hours, hard work, little appreciation, and more and more work dumped on you at the most inopportune times.  It can be found in any job, any career field, and in almost any work situation.  It is not surprising then that even those who appear to be living the American Dream, namely working from home complete with fuzzy slippers on their feet, and favorite coffee mugs by sides, still suffer from burnout.  Fortunately there are some things you can do to banish the burnout, which may be easier to accomplish since you are your own boss.

Here are some tried and true tips to keep you going:

Use the proper equipment.  For example, if you are freelance writer and you are required to submit your writing in a certain format, it is wise to own the software that will permit you to complete the assignment thusly; however, if your computer was new when Bill Gates first took the computing world by storm, and you need to pre-write everything on old software and then take it to a friend’s house to convert it into the correct format just so that you can send it on, you will most likely get burned out on that process rather quickly.  So make sure that you have the adequate tools you need to do the work.  Similarly, if you will be working a large amount of time at your computer, but you do not have a computer desk and instead sit hunched over the keyboard and suffer from back pain for the rest of the evening, you will once again burn out much quicker than if you have ergonomically correct equipment. 

Set your work hours and stick to them.  Sure, it is tempting to take Fluffy for a walk in the woods, the kids to the water park, and do a million household chores before sitting down and doing your work, but remember that you cannot do it all.  No matter what clever advertisers try to sell you, the answer is “no” – you cannot have it all and you cannot do it all.  The notion of super-mom or super-dad is a figment of the imagination that has nothing to do with reality.  If you work from home, you will need to set your hours and stick to them.  This means negotiating with your family, friends, and yourself.  For example, if you are working part-time from home, and require four hours of work every day to keep up with your responsibilities, it is up to you to decide if you want to do these four hours in one sitting, or divide them up into two two-hour blocks.  No matter what works best for you, make a plan and stick to it.

Do something you like, rather than something you endure.  Opening that home daycare may have sounded like a great idea at the time, but if you suddenly find that you dread the idea of having a house full of screaming children you will need to think about doing something else with your time.  There is no shame in trying out a business only to find later that it does not suit you.

Once your office hours are done, do not fall into the trap of working longer.  It is easy to do, but it will not net you as much success as you hope.  As a matter of fact, you will find yourself burning out even quicker than if you had just stuck to your schedule.

Reward yourself and take a day off.  Look at the work you need to accomplish and try to apportion it so that you can take a day off here and there.  If you have to work every day in order to meet your goals and expectations, you might need to realign them with real life.  You still want to have a social life, a family life, and just some me-time that does not require you to do work.

It is easy to see why home workers suffer from burnout just like their counterparts that drive to an office or other business location every day.  Yet it is just as easily seen that with a little bit of planning, and some restructuring of your workday, you will be able to banish the burnout and keep going!