Jana’s workweek just started, and she just wants to go home and rest. She’s been feeling tired, unmotivated, and disengaged from the work she’s doing for a while now.
Feeling like there’s not enough time to finish everything, she’s been snapping at her coworkers left and right. She’s not used to being in a bad mood all the time and feels exhausted emotionally lately.
Jana has burnout. I’ll explain what burnout is here while giving advice on avoiding burnouts to keep your performance up.
What is Burnout?
Burnout isn’t an ‘emotional’ problem only; it is the state of mental, physical, and emotional exhaustion occurring because of intense emotional involvement or prolonged frustration and stress.
It is feeling fatigued after dedicating yourself entirely to something so emotionally draining it perturbs your physical and mental wellbeing. They usually happen when one lacks motivation or reward and isn’t taking the time to rest properly.
They often happen to people who:
- Don’t like their work or aren’t interested in the work they’re doing.
- Make themselves do tasks that they hate for an extended period of time.
- Work in a chaotic environment that’s based on fear and intimidation.
- Have work and home emergencies often.
- Aren’t recognized for their efforts despite the high-pressure environment.
Warning Signs of Burnout:
Although exhaustion can be healed by rest, having burnout isn’t just feeling overwhelmed. It is the feeling of disappointment you feel once you realize you’re running out of time and energy, not recognizing the signs early on.
One might ask if there is a way to stop burnout from happening once you’ve started overworking yourself and setting high expectations. The key is in knowing and recognizing the symptoms of burnout before they happen.
The warning signs you need to look for are:
- Your performance isn’t as good as it was without probable cause.
- Experiencing low quality of sleep.
- Not wanting to go to work or skipping work altogether.
- Getting sick quickly or having frequent headaches and backaches.
- Pulling away emotionally from people in your work environment.
- Not being recognized for your contribution at work.
- Feeling like your work doesn’t matter.
How to Avoid Burnout?
Feeling burnt out can make you feel helpless, with no ideals or hope for the future. It’s important to take care of yourself to avoid burning out.
So what can you do to steer clear of burnout? Here are my suggestions
1. Exercise regularly
An excellent way to avoid burnout is exercising: exercise has been shown to alleviate stress and help you get better sleep. In addition, training will boost your energy, motivation, and productivity levels, so it is a perfect way to prevent feeling detached from your life and will make you feel like you’re in charge of your life and choices.
2. Manage your workload
When you feel overwhelmed at work, simple tasks become a hassle, and you perceive your to-do list to be endless. Resting is part of work, as you will not be able to get anything done if you haven’t taken a break.
Try delegating tasks that can be done by other people to give yourself more time for work recovery, and become more comfortable with saying ‘no’ to overwhelming tasks that other people can do. If you’re overworked, you have a right to say no.
3. Take mental breaks
Pushing ahead with work is an admirable quality to find in people, but being busy and being overwhelmed and on your way to burning out are not the same thing.
You deserve to take time for yourself and to stop overworking yourself. Take mental breaks every few days to do activities you enjoy. Walk around in nature, read a book, listen to music you love.
Remember how crucial it is to take breaks; it will improve your performance at the end of the day.
4. Plan social activities regularly
The feeling of being stuck inside your work routine can affect your quality of life negatively.
This is why it’s imperative to plan to hang out with your friends more often: you need a space where people can support you through the emotional pain you’re going through. You need time where you can vent, where you can laugh off the tiredness.
It’s likely they might be going through something similar, so share the pain and burdens together.
The trip towards recognizing the signs of burnout and avoiding this emotional burden is long and hard. But it’s good you’re aware of the situation you might be in and that you’re trying to look for possible solutions before it gets worse.
Your life and your happiness matter, don’t give up on enjoying life if you’re feeling stuck and frustrated with it right now. It’ll eventually get better with time!