Burnout Relief Retreat

Develop a lasting solution

Most efforts to solve burnout focus on giving you some time off or an hourlong training, but the chances that these work for more than a week is next to zero. The World Health Organization describes burnout as “chronic workplace stress.” You can’t solve a chronic problem with a temporary solution.

Overcoming burnout requires applying the new tools and mindsets we give you in a variety of circumstances over time. That is why we’ve designed the Burnout Relief Retreat to provide you with the opportunity to learn, apply, and practice these tools intensely over 3 days and then maintain them over 3 weeks.

Through years of professional coaching, we have found that lasting change happens when the adjustments you make to how you think and act are tested by a variety of circumstances and they prevail. This requires ongoing troubleshooting and adjustments until you get behaviors that can last.

One manager we worked with who was considering quitting because she didn’t believe her job could be done sustainably reported this:

“I am still feeling incredibly grateful for the coaching you provided earlier this year. I’m happy to report that since we started working together ~6 (7?) months ago, that there have only been 2 weeks that I’ve worked over 45 hours and I’ve never worked more than 50 hours. It is feeling awesome. Thank you!!”

Another person we worked with who was burnt out and working 70 hours per week reported:

“I got promoted this week! Life is good. Had a week that felt busy but still not cracking 50 hours a week. I am happy!”

8 hours of sessions mixing teaching, reflection, and group problem-solving
Workbooks and content packets for each session packed with science-based tools

Support from people who can relate to your challenges
Lifetime access to an online community where you can find answers

30 min 1-on-1 coaching session with Zarvana CEO Matt
Unlimited email support from Matt for full length of the program

Put into practice science-based tools that really work

We will work with you to help you define what needs to be true for you to feel that work and life are sustainable in the first session. Then we will give you the tools, support, and accountability you need to turn your definition of sustainability into a reality. The tools we offer you aren’t the well-intentioned, but largely ineffective approaches that you find littered across the internet. Those approaches focus largely on treating your symptoms and helping you cope with the stress rather than addressing the root causes.

We teach science-based, time-tested tools that others have used to get results in days. Literally, the last time we taught these tools to a group, one person said that for them to feel like work was sustainable, they would need to stop work at 4pm on Friday and not work the weekend. The upcoming weekend this became a reality for this person for the first time in a long time.

We have written about these tools in leading business magazines, including Harvard Business Review, Inc, and Thrive Global.

Here are some of the things past attendees say:

“If you are struggling to get beyond survival and really thrive at work, then the Burnout Recovery Retreat could be a real help. It is a community-based, collaborative experience that leverages helpful insights, practical tips and real life experience. And the best part is that I could learn on the edges of my work and immediately apply what I was learning. I highly recommend this retreat.”

Director of Product Innovation (International NGO)

“Definitely worth your investment if you are suffering from or are close to burnout. Illuminating insights and practical activities packaged in a time-efficient manner.”

Partner, Head of Innovation & Learning (Consulting Firm)

“As a younger professional trying to balance pursuing interesting stretch projects at work with my core workload, this retreat was incredibly valuable in providing me with concrete strategies to rest and recharge. I’ve been able to use what I learned in this retreat to advocate for myself and communicate my needs to various project teams, which has helped me become even more effective in my work. I highly recommend this retreat, especially for anyone who is trying to figure out how to reach ambitious goals without burning themselves out in the process.”

Associate Advisor (Financial Advising Firm)

“The Burnout Retreat provides many well thought out and helpful tools of how to navigate working during this time of quarantine. The reflection times were valuable as they helped provide a space to create concrete plans to avoid burnout as well as a starting point for future accountability. I highly recommend this retreat for anyone who wants to be a better employee or boss, regardless if you work from home or not. The themes that are discussed are applicable across disciplines.”

Emergency Room Nurse (Hospital)

“The retreat provided real tools and evidence-based explanations for burnout recovery that will improve my performance at work and ability to work with teams more effectively.”

Head of Learning and Development (Insurance Company)

“This was such an important and transformative time commitment. From identifying what burnout looks like to learning concrete steps and tools to change reverse it, it was an exponential return on the investment of time and expense.”

Associate Director of Communications (International NGO)

“I finally have implementable tools to manage my workload and burnout.”

Program Director (Health Care Training Company)

How the Burnout Relief Retreat Works

The Burnout Relief Retreat is a 5-week program that starts with a 3-day intensive.

Here is how it is structured:

Day 1 – Thursday: 8-9am PST and 2-3pm PST
Day 2 – Friday: 8-9am PST and 2-3pm PST
Day 3 – Monday: 8-9am PST and 2-3pm PST
Day 4 – Friday: 2-3pm PST
2 week time of independent application during which you can access online support from Matt and other participants
Day 5 – Friday: 8-9am PST

Each session follows roughly the same structure:

Teaching: Matt will teach you how to use science-based insights, tools, and mindsets.
Practice & application: You’ll have the opportunity to work with the tools, reflecting on your personal experience.
Goal-sharing & problem-solving in small groups: You’ll meet with a few other people, share how you’re doing on your sustainability goal, and share challenges threatening your sustainability. The other people in your group will share ideas and push your thinking. You’ll do the same for them. Matt will listen in on the small groups, providing coaching when applicable, and bringing common challenges back for the last segment of the session.
Coaching & solution-sharing: Based on what Matt hears in the small groups, Matt will offer advice, guidance, and solutions. You’ll also get a chance to ask questions.

In advance of each session, you’ll receive a workbook that you can fill in during the session. After each session, you’ll receive a content package providing detailed notes on what was discussed during the teaching time with links to outside resources.

Additional Support Beyond the Sessions

In addition to the 8 hours of session time, you’ll get access to these additional supports:

Online community where you can converse with your fellow BRP participants at any time, posting questions, and getting advice when you need it. When the program ends, you get to stay in this group and enjoy the community and support it offers.
Real-time messaging support from Matt: Through the online community, you can ask Matt questions at any time and he’ll get back to you in short order with advice and timely guidance.
1-on-1 coaching call: You’ll get access to one 30-min coaching session with Matt at any point during the 3 weeks or month after.

Defining Sustainability: Most people want work-life balance, but have never taken the time to define what it would look like to have true balance. We share a high-level, but practical definition of sustainability for you to aspire to and then walk you through the exercise of figuring out what would have to be true for you to feel that your work-life is sustainable.
Prioritizing When There’s Too Much To Do: We describe the two different prioritization modes that professionals find themselves in. If you’re experiencing burn out, you’re probably in level 2 prioritization mode, but define success in the way people do in level 1. This makes you feel guilty, keeps you connected to work, and makes it difficult to feel like you’re doing a good job.
Recovery Cycles and Experiences: Burn out is primarily about managing your internal resources. Most people are not intentional about what they do outside of work to conserve and replenish their internal resources, causing them to return to work each morning feeling exhausted. We help you plot out your recovery cycle (how long it takes you to get back to full) and then explain the three types of evidence-based recovery experiences you can use to shorten your recovery cycle. You’ll then create a schedule where you insert recovery experiences into specific parts of your recovery cycle to maximize resource conservation.
Finding and Keeping Motivation and Agency: When you experience burn out, you often lose interest in activities that you used to love. Apathy is one of three common symptoms of burnout. We walk you through several science-based ways to find motivation in the midst of apathy. One of those has to do with increasing how much control or agency you have over your environment. When you’re burnt out, you feel like you are a victim of your environment. We’ll take you through a mindset shift so that you can find a choice in everything you experience.
Seasons, Boundaries, & Magnets: Your definition of sustainability needs to be flexible enough to accommodate the way your life changes. We’ll talk about the two types of seasons: enduring and limited, and how to think about sustainability in each. Boundaries are also a key characteristic of seasons. Boundaries are helpful, but they often fail to protect you from the forces that oppose them. To combat the powerful pull of work on your life, we’ll introduce the concept of “magnets” and give you time to define several magnets for your upcoming season.
People-Pleasing: People-pleasing happens when you go along with others’ perspectives even when you don’t think you should. It causes you to move between guilt and resentment as other people’s priorities overrun your own. We’ll talk through the mindset that enables you to be a people person without being a people pleaser and specific tactics you can use to push back on others without damaging your relationships.
Community: Social support is one of the most effective ways to recover from burnout. Yet, just interacting with other people doesn’t, by default, give us the community we need. We’ll explain the 4 dimensions of the VARS Framework for Preventing Loneliness at Work and the value of accountability partnerships. We’ll then give you time to shore up the areas in your social lives where there are deficits.
3 Time Sinkholes: Working less is one of the most effective ways, alongside community, to recover from burnout – even if workload is not the key cause of your current bout of burnout. Most people lose countless hours a week and even a day to email, meetings, and interruptions. We’ll walk through science-based techniques for saving time in these areas.
Sustainability Plan: In the last session, we’ll talk through the components of a comprehensive sustainability plan and take time for you to develop your own. The goal is that the sustainability plan you create will keep you from slipping back into burnout even after the program ends. You can share your plan with Matt after the session and he’ll provide feedback on it until it is robust.

When I started my job as a consultant, I saw many of my peers burn out and leave after 2 years. But I didn’t want to leave. I loved what I did.

I thought to myself: there has to be another way. Well, in a year’s time, I had found another way. I figured out how to work less and uphold boundaries such that I was working under 40 hours/week while the average was 50-55.

– Matt Plummer (Facilitator of the Program & CEO of Zarvana)

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We want you to get results. At the end of the day, that’s actually all we care about.

Zarvana’s mission is to help ambitious professionals excel in work and life at the same time. We don’t think people should have to choose between having a high-impact, demanding career and a healthy and fulfilling personal life.

Yet, we know that the challenge of managing work and life priorities is significant and in this unprecedented time, ever-increasing. Even before the pandemic, about one in four people said they felt frequent or constant burnout at work.

FAQs

When will this happen?

The program will take place on the following dates at the following times:

Thu, Jan 21: 8-9am PST, 2-3pm PST
Fri, Jan 22: 8-9am PST, 2-3pm PST
Mon, Jan 25: 8-9am PST, 2-3pm PST
Fri, Jan 29: 2-3pm PST
Fri, Feb 12: 8-9am PST

The 30-minute coaching sessions can be scheduled at any time during the Retreat or in the month following the Retreat.

We will be offering the Retreat again in the future, so if these dates don’t work for you, don’t worry. Join our waiting list and we’ll let you know when we open the Retreat again. If you need more urgent help, send us a note or schedule a 30-min free consultation with Matt and you can explore other options, including 1-on-1 coaching.

Do I need to attend all sessions?

We expect those who sign up to do their best to attend all sessions. Part of the magic of the Retreat is the interaction attendees have with each other and the accountability provided by consistent connection. If you miss sessions, you diminish the experience for others.

We’re purposefully letting you know the dates several weeks in advance so that you can book and hold the times. If you think you’ll need to miss more than 1-2 sessions, please consider joining the Retreat at a later date (you can sign up for our waiting list here).

Where will sessions be held?

The sessions will be conducted via Zoom video-conferencing technology. The online community will convene in Slack.

Who will be facilitating the Program and doing the coaching sessions?

Zarvana CEO Matt Plummer will be leading the program and meeting with each attendee. Matt founded Zarvana after figuring out how to reduce the hours he was working at a premier strategy and management consulting firm by 15-20% and ultimately, managing 3-4 projects in the time most others managed 2. Matt writes articles on research-based, sustainable ways to boost professionals’ performance on Zarvana, Harvard Business Review, and Inc.

If you have any additional questions, send us a note or schedule a short call.

Exhaustion is not inevitable

Develop a lasting solution