Step 1: Write down where your hours actually go
Before you call anyone, track two ordinary weeks. Note meetings, travel between sites, email after hours and the time you spend preparing for the next day. Leaders tied to Augusta University often find a large share of their week goes to moving between its campuses, which the university lists as Health Sciences, Summerville, Riverfront and Forest Hills. Those tied to the Savannah River Site, which the Department of Energy describes as a 310-square-mile complex in Aiken, South Carolina, may see a lot of hours in review cycles and cross-state travel.
You are not judging yourself yet. You are collecting a baseline.
Step 2: Name the pressure points
Look at your two weeks and circle the patterns that drain you most. Common ones:
- back-to-back meetings with no gap;
- decisions that only you are allowed to make;
- evening or weekend messages that set the tone for the next morning;
- travel that eats the time you meant for planning.
Pick the two or three that matter most. These become the starting agenda for coaching.
Step 3: Decide what kind of help you want
Burnout coaching is non-clinical. It focuses on workload, delegation, boundaries and recovery time. If what you are feeling goes beyond work strain, speak with a qualified health professional; a coach is not a replacement for that.
Decide whether you want a short, focused engagement or a longer arrangement, and whether your employer will be involved or paying.
Step 4: Build a shortlist of independent coaches
Executive Burnout Pros lists independent coaches. We do not employ them or review their credentials. Choose two or three to talk with and ask each the same questions:
1. How many sessions do you usually plan for, and how long is each? 2. What experience do you have with leaders in large institutions or regulated, technical work? 3. How do you handle confidentiality when an employer is involved? 4. Do you offer video sessions for people whose weeks cross state lines? 5. What do you ask clients to do between sessions?
Write the answers down so you can compare them fairly.
Step 5: Agree on ground rules
Once you choose a coach, settle the basics in writing: session length and frequency, how to reschedule, what stays private, and how you will both decide when the work is finished. Pick a fixed weekly or biweekly slot that does not collide with your heaviest commute day.
Step 6: Put one small daily buffer on the calendar
Coaching works better when there is something to practice. Start with a daily buffer that is easy to keep. In Augusta, the canal is a natural choice. The Augusta Canal Authority says hikers, cyclists and runners regularly use the canal's wide, level towpath, and describes the canal as the nation's only industrial power canal still used for its original purpose. Twenty quiet minutes there before work, a few mornings a week, gives you a routine to talk through with your coach.
Step 7: Plan one real weekend away
Within the first two months, schedule a full weekend with no work. Mistletoe State Park, on Clarks Hill Lake near Augusta in Columbia County, is one option the Georgia Department of Natural Resources describes with shaded nature trails, a peninsula campground and lakeside cottages. Work through the plan with your coach ahead of time: who covers for you, what qualifies as an actual emergency, and when you will check messages, if at all. Drive times vary with your starting point and traffic, so think of any estimate as approximate.
Step 8: Review the baseline
After six to eight weeks, track another two ordinary weeks and compare them with Step 1. Are meetings more spaced out? Are evenings quieter? Did the weekend away actually happen? Bring the comparison to a session and decide what to keep, change or stop.
Step 9: Make the changes stick
Before you wrap up with the coach, write a one-page plan: the boundaries you will keep, the buffers on your calendar, and the signs that tell you the old pace is creeping back. Put a reminder on your calendar to reread it each quarter. If the pressure returns with a new role or a new project, you will have a clear starting point rather than a blank page.