Tips To Avoiding Burning Out At Work

It's Tuesday morning, and you’re already longing for the weekend.

For the last couple of months, you’ve been feeling all out of whack at work and you’re not quite sure why. You’re feeling tired, disengaged and unmotivated, you’re snapping at people and you’re constantly checking how long you have left to endure until clock out time.

These are all classic signs of burnout.

What is burnout, you say? At its core, burnout is a form of exhaustion and disillusionment brought about by long term devotion to emotionally draining situations or a cause that has failed to produce the expected reward.

Anyone can become exhausted. The main paradox of burnout is that it generally strikes people who are overly devoted to their work: and so the most obvious solution (i.e., taking a break) is often perceived with about as much enthusiasm as voluntarily having a tooth removed.

With that being said, here are a few helpful tips to help you avoid or cope with burnout.

1. REST

This one should go without saying. Avoiding rest is one of the fastest routes to Burnoutville known to man, and yet very few of us make R&R a priority. It doesn’t have to be huge: even a single afternoon off per week can do wonders for your poor overworked brain. The key is to schedule regular breaks and to treat them like breaks. Worrying about deadlines during your vacation? Stop that. Doing overtime at home during your weekends? That’s not what weekends are for. Checking your emails during your lunch hour? Focus on your sandwich.

2. Focus On Your Physical Wellbeing

Healthy body, healthy mind: It’s not just a cheesy catch phrase, you know. Without overloading you with a slew of medical research journal quotes, it is fundamentally important for your mental health to prioritise getting good quality sleep, having a balanced diet and exercising regularly. We know that it’s often easier to say than do, especially when you already feel like you have too much on your plate, but nothing of value comes without a little sustained effort. Unexpected circumstances occur and maybe you won’t always have time for the gym. But being kind to yourself is the best way to return to your perch.

“When I feel so mentally burnt out from juggling multiple projects, there's only one thing that can recharge my brain and my enthusiasm—working out. It's a way to unplug and just focus on the task in front of me, whether I go for a long run or a four-hour bike ride around my city. When I'm done, I have a high so powerful that all of the stress from my day-to-day activities is gone.” —Andrew Vest, Preferling

3. Work Better, Not Harder

Stop working so many hours. Do you really need to put in 80 hours a week to get what you need to get done? Get all the difficult tasks done first and treat them like ripping off a bandaid - quick and painless. Be productive for the entire time your working on the hard stuff. And then you can take your time with the easier parts of the job. Got some invoicing to do? Use easy tasks to take a little break from the tasks that stress you out.

4. Learn How To Say ‘No’

Every ‘yes’ adds another thing that takes energy away from you. Too many ideas? Execute a few and put the rest in a To Do List. Too much on right now? Start letting people know that you’re not going to be available at certain times. The world won’t end and your colleagues won’t hate you, I promise.

5. Let It Go

In real burnout mode, you’ll be too exhausted to stay positive, and all the people insisting that you should be won’t be helping. Resist the urge to bottle up those negative feelings: we all know what happens to bottles under pressure. Let yourself feel whatever you’re feeling. Seeing a really competent psychotherapist can be all you need to sort these feelings into manageable little piles. Sometimes, constant feelings of anxiety or discontent have deeper causes that should be addressed by a professional.