6 Easy Ways to Escape Burnout
The pandemic has blurred the boundaries between work and home life, leaving us exhausted, cynical and inefficient. Sound familiar? Here’s how to reboot your year
We'll give you the good news first: surveys show that one side effect of the pandemic is that we have become more productive. But the bad news is that some experts attribute this to the longer hours many of us are working. Psychologist Herbert Freudenberger popularised the term “burnout” in the 1970s after observing overworked staffers at a health clinic in New York.
He characterised burnout – the feeling of extreme fatigue – as a response to overwhelming stress and expectations. But 2020 brought a new kind of burnout, as millions began to work from home, seemingly indefinitely. A year on, we are feeling the full effects. “The three signs of burnout are exhaustion, cynicism and inefficiency,” explains psychologist Jacinta M Jiménez, author of The Burnout Fix. “Because society tells men that they can’t be tired or inefficient, they often push through, and that exhaustion becomes anger or irritability.” Your tolerance takes a dip, and you quickly get “annoyed by your colleagues, or you insist the project you’re working on is pointless”. Burnout has also been linked to several serious health conditions, including heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes. To escape a burnout spiral, make these six sanity-saving tweaks to your routine.
Don't: Check Your Inbox From Bed. Do: Take Deep, Focused Breaths
Sure, getting a head start on work is a good intention, but it can set off your body’s stress response, says Jiménez. “Adding stressful stimuli into the mix when your cortisol levels are already high doesn’t set you up for starting your day off calm, focused and centred,” she says. As an alternative, try one minute of deep, slow breathing before getting out of bed. This hacks your nervous system to leave you feeling calmer. Otherwise, begin the day with meditation, a morning run, yoga or another soothing hobby.
Make Time for a "Commute"
Experts believe that imitating your pre-WFH habits can improve your mental health. “Through a behaviourist lens, all of the activities that constituted your pre-work routine primed your brain to begin the working day,” explains clinical psychologist Sabrina Romanoff. “They are powerful gestures of association that calibrate your mind and body to transition to work mode.” She recommends a walk around the block to prepare for the day ahead. Aim to create other similar experiences from your pre-pandemic routine, such as reading a newspaper.
Create Boundaries
Before the pandemic, the moment you left your office marked the physical end to your day. At home, you may be tempted to keep at it. Research shows that one way to combat burnout is “role compartmentalisation”: look for ways to psychologically detach from work, such as shutting down your computer at the end of your shift and changing into “play” clothes. London Business School and Cornell University researchers found that working on days off negatively affected motivation, leading to lower job satisfaction. If you must, mentally reframe work on weekends as “work time” rather than “time off”.
Make Connections, Don't Become a Recluse
Without a social working environment, staying in contact requires more effort – but it’s still important. Send a text message to a friend about playing fantasy football, or plan a working lunch with a colleague, suggests clinical psychologist Forrest Talley. “Not only will they appreciate the gesture, but you’ll feel better for having the interaction,” he says. Recognise your and others’ wins, too. “We get a feel-good hit of dopamine in our brains from celebrating wins,” explains Jake Kahana, co-founder of Caveday, an online co-working platform. Drop a message into a Slack channel at work to broadcast your success.
Rearrange Your Routine
Another side effect of lockdown is that many of us feel as if we have more time than we do, so we put off what we can. Don’t do this. Kahana recommends scheduling your most challenging tasks around the time you have your first coffee of the day. While study results vary, experts say peak mental focus is between 10am and 11am. But it’s crucial to adjust your expectations and acknowledge that productivity can drop off throughout the day. “Our brains are not machines,” says Kahana. “We can’t expect the same level of output when we continue to push ourselves all day long.”
Recharge and Reboot
“Resilience isn’t about how you endure,” says Jiménez. “It’s about how you recharge.” Unfortunately, many of us have become lazy about our leisure time. Instead of engaging in what experts describe as “true” leisure (such as going for a run), we engage in “compensatory” (having a beer) or “spill-over” leisure (phone- scrolling on the couch). “You need to focus on activities that fuel your soul and fill your capacity again,” says Jiménez. Spend time outside, or plan a workout – anything to get you moving if you’ve been indoors.
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