Burnout is one of the most dreaded words for an entrepreneur.

I know this firsthand because, for 3 weeks at the end of last year, I was burned out. For the first time in almost 11 months on X I stopped posting online. I had lost my direction. I was distracted and made little progress towards my goals.

I even began writing this newsletter a month ago and then completely stopped.

But I'm back in my routine and I know what must occur to stop burnout.

Most people (myself included) will set big goals that they want to achieve for the new year. For many people in the business space, it might be 10k/mo. You feel super motivated and ready to crush your goal. Then you start moving toward your goals and you feel a lack of clarity. Without clarity on what to do next, you feel hopeless. This is the reason why most people don't make it as entrepreneurs. They don't know how to deal with a lack of clarity and how to create clarity.

As an entrepreneur, your forced to own your life. You can't outsource it to your boss, the media, or your family. You have to take ownership of what you do or else you'll fail. Most entrepreneur's ideas never meet execution. They think all they need is more discipline but this causes them to do work that doesn't move the needle causing them to burnout.

Making Progress

You probably are reading this because you want to make progress toward your big goals this year. You think you don't have enough time to reach your goals or the discipline. You might be right but the only way to truly know is by getting clarity. With clarity, you can create time and have discipline.

What we want to achieve is a state of macro flow. It's great to have one productive day. But if you want to achieve your goals and crush 2025 or any year you need to get into a macro flow state. To stay in a macro flow state you need to make sure you don't fall off in the micro and if you do you get right back on track. Productivity seems to be a momentum game and if you're on a roll it's easier to keep going. But if you take a step back it's easy to take many steps back until you're back where you started or worse. That's why I've built a system to minimize the number of steps you take backward and course correct if you do.

The Burnout-less System

I plan to use this system to stay in a macro flow state. It ensures you're able to say no to distraction and yes to focus on a daily basis.

1) Set Your End-Caps

The way you start the day and the way end the day are crucial important to building a momentum of productivity. How you start and end the day sets the tone. If you wake up and scroll for 2 hours in bed and then expect to do productive work you will be disappointed.

Morning Ritual:

These rituals are highly dependent on your personal preference. Currently, I'm experimenting with waking up at 7 AM you might prefer waking up at 4 AM, 5:30 AM, etc. The key is experimentation. You might find something that works for a while and then need to switch it up.

Principles of a Morning Ritual:

• Wakes you up

• High energy and focus

• It makes you clear on what you're doing

Night Ritual:

This ritual is to help you:

• reflect on the day

• prepare for the next day

• relax your mind and body for sleep

This could include journalling, scheduling, sauna, a walk, etc. During your night ritual, it's best to stay away from blue light as much as possible especially the closer you get to bed. If you can't stay away from blue light it's likely worth investing in some quality blue-light glasses.

2) The power of No

This is one of the most powerful words you have at your disposal. Many times we get distracted and lose focus because we struggle to say no. We overcommit to things or say yes to things that are a detriment to progress towards our goals.

Saying no to yourself

You can't say no to others if you don't say no to yourself.

If you can say no to:

• Distractions

• Cheap Dopamine

• The chaos of your mind

You will be able to focus.

Saying no to others

This doesn't mean you have to never see people again for the rest of your life. It means that you need to create boundaries and expectations for the people in your life. It means you can't always be available to hang out and do things.

If I get distracted from my purpose because I can't say no to others I feel depressed and upset with myself. And it also makes my interactions with others worse because I feel guilty.

You need to have boundaries with others.

3) Anti-Routine

This is by far one of the most powerful tools at your disposal. Think about all the things you can't do if you are to stay on track to reaching your goals.

Here's my anti-routine for inspiration:

The purpose of the anti-routine is to bring awareness to the things that will bring you off track from your goals, aspirations, and daily routine. An anti-routine makes sure you don't lose momentum by doing destructive activities.

4) Build a Good Foundation

The most important thing to your business is your health. If you don't have good mental clarity and focus it doesn't matter how many hours you spend working or what business model you choose.

That's why you must spend time on:

• Diet

• Sleep

• Supplements

• Moving your body

During your work blocks it's crucial that your mental focus is high. According to research if you can get into a flow state it will increase your productivity by 500%. It's more difficult to access a flow state if your body and mind aren't fueled with proper rest and good nutrition.

I'm not going to tell you how to eat. But, I will give a little summary of how I eat.

I eat an animal-based diet meaning I eat lots of ground beef, dairy, some organs, and lots of fruit. Experiment and find what diet works best for your mental focus and clarity.

In terms of moving your body at least get 10,000 steps daily. That's the bare minimum. If you can do some kind of sport or work out at the gym those are bonuses.

With supplements, my general view is that it's best to have a strong foundation of diet and sleep before you start adding supplements. You don't want to get a supplement that helps with fatigue when the real problem is that you're only getting 6 hours of sleep per night. Of course, there are exceptions to this but for me, that's the rule of thumb I follow.

5) Proper Recovery

This was sort of touched on in the previous step but it's so important that I'll say it again here.

This recovery is apart from sleep.

It means doing activities that help you recover:

• Sauna

• Walking

• Napping

• Cold Plunge

• Etc

Break up your work blocks with a recovery block to have sustained focus.

Rian Doris once said, "There's no such thing as overworking, only under-recovering."

6) Analysis

Analyzing is about prioritizing the highest-leverage things and doing them in the best possible way.

I do my big analysis on the weekends and a little analysis at the end of each day. The purpose is to use cybernetics and course-correct toward the goal I am trying to reach. If you're not in a feedback loop there's no way to improve. And if you're in a feedback loop but aren't analyzing the feedback your progress will be slow.

Some simple questions I ask myself are:

What went well?

How did I move the needle?

What didn’t go well?

What am I going to change/ implement for next week?

What beliefs were challenged/ changed?

What’s one story-worthy moment from this week?

You don't have to follow my questions exactly but instead use them for inspiration for your self-analysis.

Analyze your:

• Life

• Health

• Business

If you attack these 3 areas with your analysis each week should be better than the last.

7) SOPs for when you get off track

Build standard operating procedures (SOPs) for when you get off track.

These are steps you take to regain focus on your work and leave the distractions behind.

Mini SOP

1. 10 Big Sips of Water

2. NSDR

3. Listen to NF (My favorite artist)

4. Walk around Block

Big SOP

1. 10 Big Sips of Water

2. NSDR

3. Read Papers

4. Listen to NF 

5. Walk around Block

You don't have to have a mini and big one but the purpose is to have a go-to system you can implement when you feel you're veering off track within your day. It's a way to start building some momentum. Most people feel behind and distracted then look at their big lists of tasks for the day, feel overwhelmed, and then let the day waste away. Instead when get off track (everyone does) you will have a step-by-step system to build momentum and make sure your day doesn't waste away.

When you start implementing this system to prevent burnout you'll likely want to have a goal to focus on and understand how to prioritize.

If you want a head start so you have a goal to work towards and know how to prioritize I’d recommend reading these:

• How to prioritize and escape overwhelm

• How to turn your failures into money

• Creator Business Blueprint

That’s it for this letter.

Thanks for reading.

– Christian