As a support team at GitBook, one monthly question is important to us.
We are asking our 4 people team the first Monday of each month:
Have you planned enough days off?
Now that can feel like pressure. And it is in a way. But this is much better than burnout from forgetting to plan days off.
We could have left it as everyone’s responsibility to think.
We could have also left it as the manager’s responsibility to track and ask based on when a team member got some rest last.
We decided to surface that at the team level. To hold each other accountable. For it’s our responsibility to avoid burnout. As much as it is the company’s responsibility to allow us to care about that. And do something to avoid it.
Is vacation the only way to avoid burnout? Of course not. But it is the easiest and most straightforward measure that many teams forget to use.
There’s a balance here to consider of course. And leaving work, then returning, can have its difficulties. Building back your momentum, for example. The benefits outweigh that small annoyance. In fact, you often realize what mattered, doesn’t matter after your vacation. It is an opportunity to focus again on what matters the most.
Try it and let me know how it goes. What are some other practices to avoid burnout?