Burnout is defined as a ‘state of vital exhaustion’. You feel like you have run a marathon in a wet fur coat. The demands of work, which sometimes seem unreasonable, are compounded by long sedentary days spent in front of screens.
Here’s some warning signs:
Burnout Sign #1: Increased cynicism and pessimism
This varies from apathy (doom scrolling instead of working), to sarcasm: this job would be better without customers.
Burnout Sign #2: You feel out of control
You are overwhelmed by your workload and think that you will never get everything done. You can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. Sometimes you have so much to do you don’t know where to start.
Burnout Sign #3: You lose patience
Everyone winds you up – traffic, people, clients, business partners, friends, family. You over-react to the slightest hint of criticism or rejection. People comment that you seem more irritable than usual.
Burnout Sign #4: Warning aches, pains, illness
The body keeps the score, so listen to it. As well as feeling shattered, you may take longer to recover, struggle to sleep, lose your appetite, have body aches or recurring headaches.
The consequences of continuing like this are clear: damage to your career and relationships and a chronic impact on your physical and mental health.
Depression vs burnout
Could you be depressed rather than burnt out? A depressed person will take their black dog with them wherever they go. Burnout is confined to work. Get away from it all and your energy and mood will be restored. The negativity returns when you log back on.
Steps to recover and take better care of yourself:
1. Health comes first. You can’t outrun a poor lifestyle. It will catch up eventually. At least 20% of the food and drink we consume is used by our brains and this rises to 30% when we are concentrating. You get your car serviced regularly and fuel it properly: how well do you take care of yourself?
2. You have enough time. There are 168 hours in a week. Reading or exercising for an hour a day would only take up seven of those. Where does your time disappear to? Up to 1900 the world’s knowledge doubled every hundred years. Now it doubles daily. That’s where our time goes: on distracting content. Which apps should you delete?
3. Roll with the punches. Don’t waste energy stressing about things that you can’t do anything about. A flexible attitude keeps you resilient. Life doesn’t always work out how we expect it to. It isn’t fair. Change your plan. Know what’s your problem and what isn’t. You are responsible for your behaviour, but not other people’s (unless they are your small children, obviously).
4. Keep going. Research shows that we are happiest and most motivated when we make steady progress towards our goals. That’s all it takes: incremental steps. Don’t beat yourself up if you feel that you aren’t progressing quickly enough. Just do your best and show up. Consistency matters more than speed. Scheduling regular planning time will help you feel more in control.
5. Take yourself seriously. Act like a high performer in the role you are in now or aspire to next. Figure out the main priorities of your role and focus your energy just on those. Don’t try to please everyone, just the people with real impact. Set boundaries and chose favours carefully. Decline curveballs if they don’t benefit you. Again, it’s not your job to fix everyone else’s problems.
6.Soar with eagles, don’t scratch with turkeys. We are the sum of the people we hang out with; mood is contagious. Spend more time with people who make you feel energised and good about yourself.
7. Focus on what you’ve got, not what you haven’t. Pause to acknowledge your achievements. You will have more to be happy about than you might first think. You are reading this so you are obviously committed to your development. That’s a big tick already.
8. Get high on work. Do one task at once and do it well. Block out time for flow (read The Crazy Busy Cure to find out how). Enjoy the dopamine hit of using your brain and accomplishing something meaningful.
Feel free to share this with anyone who needs it.