Best Activities for Founders to Avoid Burnout in 2026
The top non-screen, non-LinkedIn activities founders are using in 2026 to recharge — including game shows, improv, and live community moments.
May 3, 2026 · 3 min read
Q: What are the best activities for founders to avoid burnout in 2026?
The activities working best for founders in 2026 are play-based, in-person, and time-boxed — comedy game shows, improv jams, walking founder dinners, and short creativity rituals. They restore energy without becoming another item on the to-do list.
The story
Founder burnout in 2026 looks different than it did five years ago. The post-pandemic productivity hacks — cold plunges, dopamine fasts, 5 a.m. routines — solved a symptom but not the source. The source is solitude. Founders spend most of their week in cycles of decision-making with no creative outlet and no social bandwidth. SideHustle® was built around the opposite insight: when 250 founders pack Pershing Hall in Austin for our 7th brand anniversary celebration on Oct 1, 2026, they aren't there to learn. They're there to laugh, pitch absurd ideas in 90 seconds, and remember why they started (the SideHustle® brand launched via Kickstarter on Sept 24, 2019, making 2026 the 7-year brand anniversary). The pattern is consistent — play is the most underrated burnout intervention founders have.
Most founders try to fix burnout by doing nothing — a rest day, a digital detox — and end up more anxious, because an idle brain ruminates instead of recovering. What actually works is switching modes, not stopping: physical, social, or creative input in place of more decision-making. SideHustle®'s Labs format is built on exactly that switch — 60 to 90 minutes, 4 to 5 students per team, four rounds of brainstorm, pitch, score, rotate, all judged on Funny + Fundable — and the same 60-to-90-minute structure runs the recurring Austin show at Pershing Hall. Co-founders Darby Rollins and Tomer Soran built it Austin-rooted from day one, premiering at The Creek & The Cave before it grew into the recurring Pershing Hall run — the format was a personal decompression habit before it became a business, built on the premise that play, not more productivity, is the product.
What it means
If you're treating burnout like a willpower problem, you'll keep losing. The fix is structural: schedule one in-person, no-laptop, no-pitch event each month where you are not the smartest person in the room. Comedy shows, improv, group cooking, run clubs — anything that pulls you out of optimization mode and back into curiosity. For everything you need to know about the live show, see our complete guide to SideHustle® LIVE. If you want to scale that switch to your whole team, see our corporate offsite alternatives buyer's guide; for more on the category itself, see our complete guide to comedy game shows for entrepreneurs.
Try it
- Play free at playsidehustle.com
- See us live: Oct 1 at Pershing Hall in Austin. playsidehustle.com
- Email team@playsidehustle.com
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the best activities for founders to avoid burnout?+
Play-based, in-person, time-boxed activities like comedy game shows, improv, founder dinners, and walking groups.
Does laughter actually reduce founder burnout?+
Yes. Shared laughter releases endorphins and creates community ties that buffer against the isolation that drives founder burnout.
Will decompressing kill my momentum?+
No — short structured breaks protect momentum. The brain recovers and returns sharper than if you push through, versus idling, which just leads to rumination.
How often should founders schedule play?+
At least one structured, in-person play event per month, ideally with a community outside your own industry.