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Founder Burnout Prevention

A burnout baseline, written limits and a support map, then the weekly check-ins, days off, sleep and recovery routines that keep a founder well enough to lead for years.

Free · Mac (Apple silicon) and Windows · v1.0.0 · Other platforms

Then open the Marketplace in the app, search for Founder Burnout Prevention, and click Install. It goes into your own files, and works offline from then on.

What it installs.

1

Pillar

1

Area

50

Projects

201

Starter tasks

🚀 Founding & Startups

Founder Burnout Prevention

Protecting a founder's health, sleep and relationships through the startup years with limits, support and recovery built in.

  1. Burnout self-check baseline
  2. Personal early warning signs list
  3. Founder health check with your doctor
  4. Two-week sleep baseline
  5. Real working hours audit
  6. Written non-negotiables for founder life
  7. Founder support map
  8. Red, amber, green burnout plan
  9. Sickness cover and income protection check
  10. Paying yourself enough to stop money panic
  11. Weekly energy and mood check-in
  12. End-of-day shutdown routine
  13. Protected full day off each week
  14. Monthly burnout score and trend
  15. Quarterly recovery break
  16. Minimum movement floor for busy weeks
  17. After-hours notification boundaries
  18. Monthly honest talk with your closest person
  19. Annual founder health review
  20. Recovery routine for heavy travel stretches
  21. Understanding how burnout works
  22. Sleep skills for founders who lie awake
  23. Scripts for saying no to investors, customers and team
  24. Scheduled worry time for metrics and runway
  25. Handling rejection during a fundraise
  26. Energy audit of your recurring work
  27. Thirty-day breathing or mindfulness trial
  28. Caffeine, alcohol and screen pattern review
  29. Conversation with investors about sustainable pace
  30. Founder stop-doing list
  31. Separating home from work space
  32. Choosing a counsellor or therapist
  33. Food routine for long founder days
  34. A real two-week holiday with the company running
  35. Fundraise period protection plan
  36. Recovery week after a public launch
  37. Coming back from a crisis week
  38. Planning a founder sabbatical
  39. Illness cover plan for a solo founder
  40. Founding with a long-term health condition
  41. Founding with ADHD or another neurodivergent profile
  42. Time zone limits for globally spread teams
  43. Recovering after layoffs or a down round
  44. Phased return to work after burnout
  45. Co-founder burnout watch pact
  46. Personal health dashboard from wearable data
  47. Leading a small team through crunch without burnout
  48. Company leave and on-call policy for a small team
  49. Ten-year sustainability check for your founder life
  50. Deciding whether to step back from the company

Where it starts.

Each project arrives with its purpose, milestones and first tasks written out. Here is how the first three read.

Burnout self-check baseline

Exhaustion and cynicism feel like normal startup life, so founders are usually the last to notice they are burning out. Taking a recognised burnout questionnaire once now, while things are reasonably calm, gives you a number to compare against when the next crunch arrives instead of relying on how you feel that week.

First tasks

  • Pick a burnout questionnaire published by a health or occupational body
  • Complete it in one sitting and record the score and date
  • Note the three items you scored worst on
  • Put a retake reminder in your calendar for one month from today

Personal early warning signs list

Everyone burns out in their own pattern: one founder stops answering friends, another snaps in standups, another lies awake replaying the pipeline. Writing down your own early signs, with help from someone who has seen you in a bad patch, turns a vague sense of being tired into signals you and others can act on.

First tasks

  • Write down what you noticed in yourself the last time you were overloaded
  • Ask a partner, friend or co-founder what they saw from the outside
  • Grade each sign as early, middle or late
  • Pin the list next to your weekly check-in notes

Founder health check with your doctor

Years of short sleep, skipped meals and adrenaline show up in blood pressure, weight, mood and blood tests long before they show up as a crisis. Booking a general check with your doctor at the start of a demanding phase gives you a medical baseline and a professional to call if things slide.

First tasks

  • Book a general health check with your doctor or practice
  • Write a one-page list of symptoms, sleep hours and mood to bring
  • Book any tests or referrals the doctor suggests
  • File the results and put the next check date in your calendar

Make it yours.

Install Founder Burnout Prevention, then tell Aurum the date you're aiming for. It checks whether the plan fits the weeks you actually have.

Free · Mac (Apple silicon) and Windows · v1.0.0 · Other platforms

Blueprints are general information to help you organise your own work. They are not medical, financial, legal or other professional advice. See the Terms.