Avoiding Burnout

Sometimes there are days, weeks or even months when your motivation, passion and productivity hit rock bottom. These things do happen, and they happen for a reason.

Maybe you have overstressed yourself, or maybe you overworked to the point of burning out. There is a possibility that the work that you do can only keep you engaged in a certain period before you lose concentration, and your mind starts to wonder.

The point is that there are so many reasons to get dead tired that it is hard to pinpoint the most common one.

Some people struggle with even the most basic of tasks after experiencing this awful feeling. That is why I suggest dealing with the problem even before the problem itself become too big to avoid.

Ways to avoid

As you have guessed, it is much better to avoid the situation instead of fixing it as you never know how long it could take for you to recover, plus the loss in productive time is close to 0 when you implement some safety nets.

In order to work productively and not burnout, there must be a guide developed that would both guide the way to work and when to work.

The first thing that I usually put in such guide would be the work hours.

I feel that no matter what you do, what profession you have or what you are planning to do in the future, defining the work time table is probably the most effective thing you can do.

You start at 9:00 and finish at 18:00? That is the plan of work that you can follow. The most important thing here is that you must not touch a single thing related to work before 9:00 and after 18:00. Suppose you have given yourself a timetable that should give you enough time to finish all the work that you had for the day, both urgent and continuous. You are not supposed to put extra time into it.

If for some reason, you gave yourself an adequate amount of time and you are not able to finish the work in that time slot, you are most likely doing something unproductive or useless that doesn’t really require your attention.

Also, another thing that I would recommend is either following the Pomodoro 25-5 timer or a 50-10 timer that would improve both the way you work and the way you stand on the tasks at hand. Working a lot is good, but working productively is the perfect way for both, your employer and yourself.

Also, weekends can be used as a way to catch up, but if you abuse them too much, they can be the ultimate reason you get yourself into burnout.

In order to work less and ultimately avoid burnout, you need to work more productively to see the real effect of increasing the amount of work you do while spending less time.

Break

If you, in the end, got yourself into a state of complete tiredness, the best way to get back on track is to restart your system. Restart your body and mind by taking a break from the work that you do.

Ask for a couple of days off or take a week-long holiday somewhere nice. Somewhere you could be worry-free and be in the moment. Fully relaxed.

If you are taking a break, staying home should be the last thing that you do as that is the place you spend most of your time either way. Be more creative and go outside of your comfort zone. Only then you would be able to rest truly.