Setting goals and burnout

Key Insight

● "People overestimate what they can do in a year, and underestimate what they can do in 10." - Bill Gates.

● The key thing for success is setting the right goals, and there is no simple solution, but in general we want our long-term goals to be hard and very ambitious, but we have a plan to achieve long-term goals through a series of short-term, easily achievable goals. Divide and conquer!

● We want daily/weekly goals that are precise, measurable and achievable. For example, if we are writing a book, instead of "I want to write a book in 6 months," a much better goal would be "I want to write 2,000 words every day." Big goals can feel intimidating and cause cognitive paralysis.

● It’s very important to find the ideal weight/the right balance: if they are too hard, we won’t be able to achieve “small” wins that release the dopamine needed to continue the activity; on the other hand, if they are too easy, we’ll be bored and won’t be inspired. Very often “small” wins are neglected, but they are extremely important because they release dopamine and help us persevere, and perseverance is a key ingredient of the success formula. We don’t want to rely on “internal” motivation, we want to rely on a system.

● Just like with vision, a certain magic occurs when we write them down (and if we know them by heart). We need to have precisely written goals for that day, that week, that month, quarter or year. In addition to written daily goals, we should record daily actual results. This subconsciously provides encouragement and proof that we are progressing toward our long-term goals and is important on days of low mental motivation.

● Ideally, have at least one “win” per week, even a small one, and it’s also very important to have cycles when the work is done. When we have completed the daily, weekly or monthly goal, we should take a break or a small rest. We had a plan of what we wanted to do, and we did it, now rest. No matter how hard you work, if you have regular cycles of “completed” work, the likelihood of burnout is very low.

● The vast majority of entrepreneurs do not operate on a workday–weekend basis; almost all days are workdays. I personally have the same routine every day, but I insert rest as needed after finishing work. I usually work on weekends (in fact I mostly like working on weekends because everyone else rests and no one calls me/writes to me/gets emails), and when I finish the whole, I take a day or two to rest, regardless of the day of the week.

● There are common misconceptions about how and why burnout happens, and actually a large amount of work is not the main cause of burnout, but rather not reaching long-term goals. If we don’t reach the goals or we work “without end,” the body and brain are in a constant state of tension, and can withstand this for some time, but not forever.

● If we work a lot, and by a lot I mean 6–12 effective hours per day (in absolutely ideal conditions), i.e., 30–70 hours per week, and regularly achieve goals, our project moves in a good direction, the company grows and makes money, we have regular cycles of celebration and rest, we believe in what we do, we have healthy mind and body, burnout almost certainly will not occur.

○ How is 6–12 effective hours per day a lot? Isn’t 18 hours a lot, as “real” entrepreneurs say? Most of those who “work 18 hours” actually don’t accumulate even 3–4 effective hours in one day, and the average worker has between 1–3 effective working hours in a day. HBR confirms.

● A common mistake happens when people enter burnout, realize they are in burnout, and then say: “Just a little more and I’ll finish this,” and they continue for months and years, and since they don’t have their “best” brain, they start making more mistakes, and actually have fewer effective hours during the day, and more unproductive hours (where they sit at the workplace but don’t actually do anything useful), and then reduce rest hours during the day (or worse, sleep), which leads them into an even more unproductive state, and further away from their goals, and they actually go deeper into burnout. “How will I rest now that I’m burning?” Well, there is a high likelihood you’re burning because you didn’t work properly, and it takes time to think.

● The cost of staying in burnout through poor decisions and hours spent in ineffective work grows rapidly, and often exponentially, and is far greater than the cost of a temporary break, and if at the moment of the “fire” it doesn’t seem so.