rewrite this title How to Avoid Burnout and Keep Your Business Thriving – NerdWallet

When you run a small business, it can sometimes feel like it’s running you.

Early mornings, late nights, constant problem solving, a never-ending list of tasks that only you can handle — it takes a toll.

For many high achievers, including entrepreneurs, the pressure to keep pushing is tied to something bigger: building wealth, maximizing income or chasing a dream lifestyle.

But you don’t need to grind 24/7 to be successful. Creating work-life balance and allowing yourself space to recharge can actually make you a better business owner.

For some, balance might mean never missing key moments in your kids’ lives. For others, it might mean carving out time for a hobby. Or maybe you just want to relax on a beach somewhere and completely disconnect for a while.

There are ways to restore balance in your life when clocking out doesn’t feel like an option.

Boundaries are the bedrock of balance. Without them, your business will bleed into every corner of your life.

When I was running my own business selling private label products on Amazon, I used to take supplier calls from China in the middle of the night.

At first, it felt like the cost of doing business. But I learned quickly that I needed to set a rule: turn off my phone before going to bed.

It sounds simple, but initially it wasn’t. I was worried I’d miss problems with shipments or quality control. But setting a boundary helped me protect my time and energy, which allowed me to be more effective during the hours that mattered most.

Setting boundaries tends to be easier when your business is on solid financial footing, especially if you’ve built safety nets like a healthy cash cushion or access to a business line of credit for emergencies.

Bryant Jones, a business coach for Deliberate Directions, an Idaho-based business and executive coaching firm, suggests business owners try time-blocking as a boundary-setting tool.

This involves breaking your day into predefined “blocks” where you do one thing at a time. For example, setting up a daily 15-minute block at 4 p.m. to respond to emails.

Jones recommends time-blocking not just your work hours but your personal time, too, and giving each your full focus.

“A lot of business owners put in the family time and they’re mentally not there, they’re worried about other things,” he says. “They need that structure to say, ‘no, this is the time I’m doing this, and I’m giving 100% of my focus to these people.’”

Whether you’re at your desk or at dinner: be all-in.

Lots of small-business owners wear many hats, even when they don’t have to. Whether it’s due to perfectionism or tight budgets, trying to do everything yourself is a recipe for burnout.

The fix? Hand off tasks to others. Delegating to a full-time employee, part-time assistant or virtual contractor can free up your time and mental bandwidth.

Start by documenting your processes, creating templates and thinking through how you’d train someone to take over tasks that don’t require your direct input.

If you don’t have a team yet, this prep work can set you up for a smoother transition when you do. It can also help you decide whether it’s time to bring on help, even on a limited basis.

Delegation doesn’t have to involve people, either. Consider using automation tools, like scheduling software, email marketing platforms, accounting software or AI-powered apps to take repetitive work off your plate.

If you’re exhausted or burned out, it’s going to show in your decision-making and productivity.

That’s why treating your personal well-being with the same level of attention you give to your revenue or expenses is crucial.

One way to do that is to track personal key performance indicators, or KPIs, Jones says. Just like you’d track business KPIs, maintain a pulse on your mood, sleep quality, stress levels and mental bandwidth. You can use a daily journal, or set up a recurring, 10-minute weekly check-in to document and reflect.

If any of your personal metrics are out of whack, it may be a sign you need to course-correct. Consider stepping away for a long weekend, getting back into a fitness routine or simply taking a real lunch break.

When you start out, success might mean simply making more than you did at your 9-to-5.

But over time, it’s worth asking: What does success look like now?

Once your basic needs are met and you’ve built a lifestyle you enjoy, Jones recommends rethinking your definition of success.

“Once the lifestyle is created that they’re able to maintain, then the focus becomes freedom and autonomy of time,” he says.

That might mean shorter workweeks, days where you don’t check email, or the freedom to say “no.”