How To Deal With Nanny Stress Or Caregiver Burnout

Being a nanny or caregiver often involves tending to the needs of some of the most vulnerable members of our society. It is very demanding and requires mental toughness because of the stressful nature of the occupation. If the job stress is not managed properly, it can lead to a condition known as caregiver burnout. Caregiver burnout happens when a nanny or caregiver is mentally, emotionally and physically exhausted. The caregiver’s attitude changes from loving and caring to less caring and negative.

“Self-care is not selfish. You cannot serve from an empty vessel”. —– Eleanor Brown

Having too much work to do is not necessarily the reason why caregivers and nannies get stressed out at work. You can have a lot of work to do and still won’t get stressed out about it as long as you know what your priorities are. One of the main causes of stress associated with caregivers and nannies simply comes from having a lot of work to do without keeping track everything that you are supposed to do.

If you a nanny or planning to become a caregiver, find out this simple and effective way of managing your chores and duties at work. These simple techniques have been proven time and time again. In short, the simple secret lies in managing and controlling your time.

If you want to control your stress levels, maintain your sanity and continue to discharge your duties as a caring caregiver, master the following techniques:

You Must Write Everything Down!

It is not surprising that most stressed out caregivers often try to keep all the things they have to do in their heads. Stress is often more about knowing that you have a lot of chores and duties to complete but you can’t seem to remember exactly what is it that needs to be done. In order for you to have a to-do list that you can rely on, you must trust that it contains ALL the things you have to do. Otherwise, you will still have a nagging feeling that you may not be focussing on the right things.

You Must Channel Interruptions To Your To-Do List

Whether you are in the domestic help industry or not, interruptions are a part of life so don’t let them stress you. 95% of all interruptions are either very quick so that you can deal with them straight away or something that you can defer to a time when YOU decide.

You Must Not Allow Your Facebook Feed And Email Inbox Become Your To-Do List

Caregivers and nannies are often working far away from their homes or countries. By all means, it is important to keep in touch with friends and family members through facebook and it can be a great fun to receive emails. Unfortunately, it is also very easy to confuse your facebook wall and email inbox with your to-do list. Try to only scan your facebook wall posts and email inbox once every hour or two.

Caregivers Don’t Have To Do Everything!

By far, the most significant reason why caregivers and nannies fail with their to-do lists is that they lack the ability to strike things off it. Things change and so should your to-do list. If you are uncomfortable with deleting tasks, create a “storage” list and move it to that.

Use The Nibble Technique

whether we like it or not, some tasks are big, vague and truly and utterly boring. We end up postponing these tasks forever and as a result they never leave our to-do list. Eventually, our list is filled with these types of tasks
and finally we decide not to look at the depressing thing. The trick is “The Nibble”. Break the task down into smaller components. Make sure that the first step is takes less than 5 minutes to do. Then take that first step.

Find Out Your Most Productive Hours

Monitor and observe yourself to discover your own rhythm. Let’s face it. Caregivers and nannies are human, not machines. At times you are productive and at times you are not. It is like a surfer who times the waves and then rides them to their fullest. Try to find a task management system that let’s you monitor your own “waves”. You will probably find that you know less about yourself than you think you do.

Yes, Find Time To Play

All work without play can render a supernanny a dull nanny. Be creative and find ways to turn your work into a game. Set small targets and reward yourself.