How to Save Yourself From Burnout Before It’s Too Late
My 3-step realistic guide to beating burnout.
This is the 22nd edition of The Essence.
Burnout can turn your life upside down. I’ve experienced that first-hand.
American researcher, Herbert Freudenberg, observed that the burned-out worker looks, acts, and feels depressed.
I was exactly that. I had always been enthusiastic about working out, eating well, and living healthier. But when I was burned out, I couldn’t care much. I couldn’t care much about my work too, relationships, and everything else. I was also losing my writing passion and losing my mind along with it. I was getting more distant from my interests.
If you’re feeling somewhat similar, follow this guide to save yourself from burnout before it’s too late.
Many people, as I have done, only deal with the symptoms of burnout. They sit the loudest alarms to wake themselves up. But they don’t search for the causes of their lack of energy. They don’t fix the roots of the issue. They only look for quick self-help hacks.
I couldn’t save myself from burnout until I dealt with the causes of my burnout. Don’t treat the symptoms, as the saying goes, treat the causes.
1. Slow down to recognize the burnout symptoms
According to the World Health Organization, occupational burnout symptoms are a mix of feelings of energy exhaustion, and increased alienation from work, and reduced professional performance.
Emotional exhaustion. This includes brain fog or feeling on edge, fatigued, and mentally drained.
Reduced performance. Emotional exhaustion comes with difficulty focusing, being more forgetful, and losing passion. All those lead to reduced performance.
Troubled sleep. In his research, Freudenberg recognized sleeplessness as one of the symptoms of burnout. And when your motivation diminishes, it gets difficult to get up on time, and you may end up oversleeping.
Loss of interest. When I was burned out, I doubted my passion for writing and felt quite distanced from work. The more distant you are from your interests, the closer you are to burnout.
Slow down and examine yourself. Do you suffer from sleeplessness, feel mentally drained, or losing your interest in work, relationships, or hobbies?
If you’re suffering from any or some of these symptoms, don’t try to treat them. Instead, search for their causes, and fix them.
2. Search for the causes of your burnout
Those are the most notable causes of burnout:
Incredible time pressure. Time pressure leads to stress, and stress leads to burnout. Before I was burned out, I used to put myself under incredible time pressure.
Incredible workload. An incredible workload usually leads to incredible time pressure. And we know what the latter leads to.
Overworking. An incredible workload often leads to overworking. And regularly overworking could damage your physical and mental health, leading to burnout.
Losing track of purpose. Before my burnout period, I lost track of my purpose. I felt hollow, confused, and not finding enough reasons to get up every morning.
Not having a healthy lifestyle. Before I was burned out, I neglected my diet, sleep, and my exercise routine.
You can’t sustain a productive life for long without regular exercising, enough sleep, eating well, and living a healthy lifestyle.
3. Treat the causes of your burnout
The average person will try and treat the symptoms. He will try to deal with his energy exhaustion by meditating, journaling, or any self-help hack. He will over-pressure himself to perform better at work, not knowing that this grows the issue.
I succeeded for a while by dealing with the symptoms. But I was only delaying the inevitable. I was surfing away from the burnout wave, which was only growing, getting bigger and scarier. Then eventually, I was caught by the burnout wave. I was lost for at least long weeks. I couldn’t return to shore until I’ve dealt with my burnout’s causes.
Why are you so time pressured?
Is it from your job, or is it self-imposed?
If it is because of a high-demanding job, it might be time to look for another. If it’s because of an ultra-demanding boss, try to have a respectful talk with this boss or supervisors.
If it’s self-imposed, have a conversation with yourself. You may be setting overly ambitious goals, pressuring yourself, and possibly overworking.
Get clarity or reconnect with your purpose
When you feel hollow, like a robot performing not so meaningful tasks, you can’t escape burnout. You could only delay it. But that’s not a wise choice.
You need a clear meaningful purpose to keep going. As attributed to Nietzsche, he who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.
Get clarity on your purpose, your short-term and long-term goals, and your grand vision.
Try to spend more time practicing your passion or hobbies. And if possible, start a side hustle you’re passionate about, because not doing what you like often contributes strongly to burnout.
Learn to disconnect from work.
According to research about the strategies to prevent burnout, individuals create boundaries between work and non-work domains to experience less work-family and family-work conflicts by actively detaching from work.
In an article he wrote for Investopedia, Sean Bryant wrote:
“To function at peak efficiency in your work, you need regular periods of relaxation in order to recharge your batteries.”
Robots need to recharge. Humans do too.
Make health a top priority in your life.
Not exercising, sleeping enough, or disregarding your health, in general, have radical consequences. One of them is fatigue and stress, which leads to burnout.
The less healthy your body is the weaker your body, and the softer your mind. You’ll be more easily angered, stressed, and overwhelmed, leading you to inevitable burnout.
The opposite also stands to be true. The stronger your body is, the tougher your mind. Excellent athletes are top performs, handle adversity better than most of us, and rarely experience burnout. Why? They have built tough mindsets. How? By performing hard tasks regularly, mainly working out.
In conclusion
Burnout is almost inevitable when you are super time-pressured, having an incredible workload, living a not-so-healthy diet, and losing track of your purpose.
Sadly, many people waste their time and effort treating the symptoms of burnout. They try to surf away from the burnout wave. But the wave only keeps growing. And eventually, it catches up, swallowing them.
Don’t be like them. Try to live a healthy lifestyle by eating well, sleeping enough and early, and exercising regularly. Try to not over pressure yourself and avoid overworking. Learn to disconnect from work. When your workday finishes, note the unfinished tasks and leave them for tomorrow. And don’t waste your downtime by hours of news or social media, leaving yourself more stressed out.
The faster you deal with burnout causes, the faster you could save yourself from burnout.
I wrote this piece around August 2021. You can find the original here.
Thanks for reading and until next time,
Mohammed