Close To Burnout

I can feel myself close to a burnout. Though I have been turning down many job and non-job requests and already freeing up my Sundays, but I have severely overworked in December till New Year's day that what I most need is to take time completely off work, like a full week or two. It's now inevitable that some of the job and non-job requests I have taken up will not be done as soon as I intended. I will have to slowly shutdown for some days and let deadlines speed by.

image: hijabiblog.com

I have lots of emails I have not replied or even completely read. Lots of phone calls I have been missing. I have even stopped looking through my BBM chat. It is not unusual, just that this time I won't be in a hurry to reply them once I find the time. I will deliberately be spending the time I can squeeze out, even by postponing jobs, to rest. I will be slowing down and permanently implementing a speed limit. I will be taking fewer jobs, partner with others more and have two fully free days a week (my own Saturday and Sunday).

I will also spend a larger share of my working time on things that will get easier with time, like setting up a monthly Excel training. I will also use my charging more to pick jobs to do. For the type of jobs I don't like, I will give a very high charge. I will also let the financial/payment part of my jobs be completely agreed on before I start or even finish the technical specifications part.

I will end up becoming much less accessible for the next few weeks: not picking most phone calls, delaying replies to emails and working more strictly within the terms of the jobs for clients (I have found out that I end up doing way more than what was agreed).

If I am owing you an email reply or BBM reply, please bear with me. A clean shutdown is always better than a system crash. If I don't slow down to a halt now, I will experience a burnout.