Avoiding Burnout as a Restaurant Manager – The Three Batteries – Mental
Just to recap, we have three batteries that we use all in conjunction with each other – the physical, mental, and emotional. These batteries all get depleted in different ways and need to be recharged in different ways. Our work is at our best when all these batteries are filled up and conditioned to hold even more energy than before. When the bodies are healthy and at capacity, we feel better and do a better job at everything, not just our work. Therefore, it’s important to learn the ways they get depleted and the ways we can recharge them.
In my previous post, I spoke about the body battery. Now that we’ve covered the body battery, let’s now move on to the second battery that we can condition – that being, the mental battery.
The job of a restaurant manager is not only physical, but it’s a mental one as well. As we climb the ranks of the ladder from server, cashier, or cook to line manager to assistant manager to general manager to district manager and beyond, our job is going to require less of our body and more of our mind. So, as we grow and develop in our career as a restaurant manager, it’s important for us to learn how to rest the mind just like we rest our body.
First let’s talk about how to simply relax the mind. It seems to be universal that the most quick and efficient way to calm down the mind when it’s in a state of intensity is to take long, deep breaths. I actually like to fall asleep while counting my breaths. I inhale, and as I exhale, I count 1. Inhale again and the second exhale, 2. And so forth. This has actually been a great way for me to take a break at work to have like a little escape from work and do a little brain-nap a few times throughout the day. Often when I feel almost too tired to get through the day, I just do this method and count to 10, and I often feel reset and able to go back to work. A good practice is to use this technique each time you use the restroom instead of using your phone as an escape.
As for after work, I have found that reading, music, and TV are the best ways to let my brain relax and unwind. To just sit in front of my favorite show in my comfy chair and avoid my phone seems to really help my noggin get out of the work-mode and into home-mode. Comedy or kids shows are the best tools because it brings us back to a place of humor or wholesomeness, which is a great way to prepare us for bed as well.
As we focus our mind on something like reading a book, we tend to coalesce into the book. This means that we really experience the book in a deeper way – as we focus, we seem to be experiencing the book more deeply. As we experience the book or music or movie more deeply, we remove ourselves from the stressors and difficulties of the workplace. I know you have to keep your phone on and near you, but just accept that a phone call or text might take your attention away. For just a few minutes, it’s okay to let go and get entranced into something fun and meaningless. Without the ability to do that, we might just go insane.
As with all the other batteries, alcohol, drugs, and scrolling are not healthy ways to escape the taxing grind on our mind. Although they feel a bit better in the moment, they are usually a withdraw from the future, and what we are looking for is an investment into our future. Alcohol may help us relax, but it keeps our body from being able to recover well enough for the next day. Scrolling may help us escape the day’s thoughts, but it usually just adds thoughts of things so far from us that we feel we ought to be concerned about. Don’t worry about foreign wars and economic uncertainties – just relax and enjoy one thing that we can feel good about.
Just as conditioning is imperative to the body for increased performance, the same is with the mind. So how do we condition our mind to always be in tip top shape? The most helpful thing to our brains is to help it learn new skills. One great thing about this is that we can learn new skills on the job. You want to push your mind to learn new things about restaurant management in general. You’ve already started by coming to this blog. As you read and study the things on this blog, your mind is challenged and bettered in the field you already care about – restaurant management. In fact, I started this blog as a way for me to develop my own skills by reviewing what I’ve learned and communicating that back. You can do the same thing. In fact, I am looking for guest writers for this blog, so if you want to get paid for writing about your experience, send me a message!
If you get to the end of the day and you can’t even imagine thinking of doing anything to do with restaurant management, find a challenge you enjoy or something that breaks you out of your typical mindset. If you are mostly analytical, try drawing or playing music. If you are mostly creative, try challenging yourself with sudoku or word puzzles. These get us out of our mind while also strengthening it, so it can be a good way to keep your mind sharp while also relaxing. It’s just like the active recovery of the body, like walking or stretching.
Winston Churchill has been quoted as saying “There is no such thing as over-work, only under-rest.” I’ve taken this on as a maxim in my own life. Our job requires us to work almost all day every day, so it’s very important we get sufficient rest when we can. Whether this means napping in our car or just a few deep breaths after rush, you must prioritize your recovery from the work when you can, because you know that break you really need isn’t coming for quite some time. I know it feels impossible most, if not every day. But I know you can do it. Keep fighting the good fight. You got this.