How to Stop Being Busy (Craig Fortune)

This episode delves into Craig Fortune's journey from business owner to burnout prevention specialist. After shutting down his 12-year childcare business, Craig founded Breaking Busy to help knowledge workers avoid exhaustion and improve productivity.

Craig shares alarming statistics: 49% of Australasian knowledge workers reported burnout or exhaustion in the past year, with 51% rating their mental wellbeing as average to very low. His approach focuses on changing ingrained work behaviours through six-week mentoring programmes and targeted seminars on email management, meetings, and procrastination.

Drawing from his own experience with depression as a business owner, Craig emphasises the importance of sustainable work practices and proper boundaries. He challenges traditional productivity metrics, arguing that measuring output by task quantity often compromises quality.

Breaking Busy offers both individual and team development programmes, tailored differently for decision-makers versus employees. Craig prefers in-person delivery, believing the personal connection is vital when addressing mental wellbeing and behavioural change.

His key message: burnout is avoidable, but requires unlearning current work habits and implementing structured strategies for sustainable productivity. The goal is enabling people to truly disconnect from work and maintain better work-life boundaries.