Ways How To Overcome Burnout

What to look for?

Symptoms

• Exhaustion - feeling low, trouble sleeping, which results in fatigue. You feel mentally and physically drained. Headaches, loss of appetite and insomnia may occur.

• Lack of motivation - it affects your personal life and relationships. You tend to engage and do less.

• Task management - simple everyday tasks become harder and harder to do. This may occur due to a lack of motivation. You tend to start skipping those tasks.

• Cynicism - feeling like no matter what you do, nothing changes or improves. You start feeling numb and distancing yourself from others.

Mister Bob

Seems pretty easy to spot right? Now let’s take Bob as an example.

He works at an office. Everything felt fine in his new job until he got a promotion. The want to do more to feel worthy of this promotion starts sliding in. He receives a task, rolls up his sleeves and gets to workin’. A similar task to this one would’ve taken about a week to get done before, but now Bob feels the need for fulfilment. He checks every single detail, fixes it, finds something more, fixes that. This task with this “New Bob” got done in approximately two weeks. Yay!

Another task rolls in, Bobbie begins working. Colleagues notice him overworking and offer their help; this man throws a quick “No, thank you”, thinking that they would be a burden and wouldn’t do the job correctly. Office working hours come to an end, does Bob travel home alone? No, he has his companion “Taskie”. Now, the time that was used for reading books, cooking meals, calling his mom - gets used to perfecting his companion. Leisure and homemade food get thrown out the window. Who needs them anyway?

If you think that his beauty sleep wasn’t affected, you’re wrong. Now Bob gets about five hours of sleep. He doesn’t notice, but this takes a toll on his work. Small, little mistakes, but big, heated arguments. Friends and family feel neglected. Bob feels like they’re unsupportive, so he stops communicating. After this task was done, another came in. This time, Bob feels something different. He doesn’t feel a meaning anymore.

He wakes up, gets ready, goes to work, works, comes back home, works, throws a frozen pizza in the oven, works, eats, works, gets unready, and goes to bed.

This cycle has been going on for about a month and a half. Everything seemed fine until he started making mistakes at work. The meaning of work became worthless. Something you thought was so important now seems like a thing you don’t know how to do.

What happened to Bob?

Bob reached burnout. And just when doing things like doing the dishes, making his bed or doing the laundry seemed like an impossible thing, he realised that. His days all felt the same. He cut off the people around him, only making it worse.

At least he realised what had happened to him; some don’t. Lots of people don’t get a happily ever after.

Now, what should Bob do?

Way to recovery

He did his research. Got ready for an 8-hour nap and went to bed (quality sleep). The next morning, feeling so much better, he pulled out his journal and wrote everything he felt. Went to work. Got another task. Cold sweat started dripping down his back. Is this Bob’s downfall? No. He excused himself for 15 minutes, went to a quiet place and meditated. He managed his stress and returned.

Office working hours again came to an end. Everyone was packing up to leave. Remember “Taskie”? Yeah, he was packing his stuff too, only this time, Bob set his boundaries and left “Taskie” at work.

Mister Bob made dinner. Steak with mashed potatoes. Mmm, yum. Called his mom, cleaned up the apartment a bit, did some self-care - read a book and took a shower.

Bob finally got his spark back. He and life had a meaning now.

What to look for

How you can spot it in your life? It can start like this:

You feel the need to fulfil demands. Perfectionism can be used as a tool. You want every detail to be perfect. Trying to get everything done as soon as possible by yourself, because you think that that’s the only way everything will be done right. Leisure is put aside, messing up your relationships with people close to you. Small mistakes start rolling in. Sleep deficiency makes you feel irritated. Conflicts with coworkers, friends, family - all feel like a burden - and then you begin to cut yourself off from others. You become meaningless. Work is the only thing that makes you feel worthy, but everything you do seems to fail. Exhaustion kicks in, making you feel in despair. Because job was your life’s meaning, but not being able to do anything properly, your life feels meaningless.

How to overcome

First, start with getting quality sleep. It may seem like it doesn’t matter that much, but sleep deficiency may cause the feeling of fatigue. Set boundaries for yourself. Define your work and personal hours. Communicate them with your colleagues, friends and family; they can help with supporting you. Practise self-care. People experiencing burnout tend to neglect their needs and wants. A short “bubble bath” evening is a great start. Manage your stress. There are a lot of ways to do it. Find what works for you. Meditation, yoga, journaling, or even exercising could be one of them.

To sum up

Burnout can look and feel like depression; only the former is treated very easily.

Don’t overwork yourself. Work is very important, but your mental and physical health is worth way more. It’s worth the most.

Remember that burnout can be experienced not only by you but by people around you, too. Look out for each other.

Even if you do overwork yourself, at least once a week, incorporate some leisure. Do everything in your way to surpass burnout.

Good luck.

“It’s true that rest makes us more productive, ultimately, and if that’s an argument that helps you persuade your boss to give you more flexibility, awesome. But we think rest matters not because it makes you more productive, but because it makes you happier and healthier, less grumpy, and more creative. We think rest matters because you matter. You are not here to be “productive.” You are here to be you, to engage with your Something Larger, to move through the world with confidence and joy. And to do that, you require rest.” - Emily Nagoski; Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle