These are my top tips to prevent burnout. I also provide background information on how and why burnout occurs.
Why you’re so exhausted
Burnout does not happen overnight. It’s possible to feel as though you have just been burned out. You may feel like you have just “woken up” to the fact that you are burned out. Burnout is a condition that results from unmanaged, chronic workplace stress. This definition hints at how and why it happens.
The Burnout Cycle: What Causes Burnout
Two main ingredients of burnout are stress and a toxic workplace. How do these ingredients come together to create burnout?
It is a feedback loop that I call The Burnout Cycle.
Encounter Work Stressors
There are many stressors that can affect your work life, such as conflict with coworkers, poor leadership or the sheer volume of work.
Feel the “Fight or flight” Stress Response in Your Body
These stressors can trigger a stress response within your body. This could be increased heart rate and blood pressure, sweat production or shallow breathing. This is the “fight or flee” response that you may have been taught in school. This is meant to help you deal with stressors in your life.
Poor Coping
You don’t have the resources necessary to manage stressors at work or the stress response that follows.
Burnout can result from work stress
Unmanaged stress can have an additive effect, as shown in the Burnout Cycle diagram. Although I cannot tell you how many times this feedback loop is required for burnout, I can tell that you can keep going through it without stopping it.
Every day you are in a toxic workplace, deal with stressors, feel stressed, and can’t manage it, you get worse and closer to burnout.
How to Stop Burnout [5 Tips]
Pay attention to your body’s signals of stress.
Your body will hold onto unmanaged stress. It will let you know when you are near burnout and when you have already reached it. Stress can often be a cause of physical symptoms that cannot be explained.
Identify your current stressors at work and determine what you can do to reduce them.
Work is likely to cause your burnout. It’s important that you understand what stressors can be changed. Prioritize the things you can control and get rid of them first.
Get additional support at work as well as at home.
You can find out if your workplace has a union and/or contact Human Resources. Tell your loved ones what’s going on so they can help you. Therapy is a professional service that allows you to share your thoughts without feeling like a burden.
Take a look at how effective your stress-coping strategies are.
Your stress is a constant part of your daily life. If you don’t manage your stress effectively, your stress level will only increase. Think about how stress has been managed (what you do at home when you are not working), and make changes. You can give credit to yourself for the things that you do already help.
You must ensure that you are taking care of the basics: diet, sleep, and exercise.
These are your lifelines. This is something you’ve probably had in your head since childhood. However, as an adult trying to make a living, you might have forgotten how important these things really are. If you aren’t getting enough sleep, it is something you need to fix. Bad sleep can have a negative impact on every aspect of your life.
