What is a Burnout? What leads to it? How can we avoid it?
Burnout is a state of physical & mental exhaustion; you’re totally wasted both ways, mentally & physically. Don’t think you’ve been over productive! You’re probably going to waste the next one or two days recovering. You just crossed your limits & your system is suffering from override. The best way to deal with burnout is to avoid suffering from one.
The reasons are pretty simple that lead you to a burnout i.e.: Over Commitment, Over Scheduling & Stress. But you never realize when you overdo yourself!
Probably by Tuesday you’re pretty much into your work; ticking off tasks on your day planner & working on schedule; so you’re high on confidence & over estimate your working capacity. So you’re like, “Bring it ON!” & then you’ve new entries getting added up to your schedule & now you’re over scheduled for the rest of the week.
Stress, most of it comes from deadlines. The best possible way to avoid stress is to start early & work with a plan. You can refer to time management & methods for handling difficult tasks to avoid getting stressed up.
That’s not it, even you if you make it till finish line on Friday evening without crossing your limits, there’s the weekend lying ahead. After a long over productive week what you decide to do is ‘party!’ And finally you cross your mental & physical limits.
“Make sure you are not telling no to yourself every time you say yes to somebody else.”
Dealing with Burnout
First step to avoid this would be to know your mental & physical limits. You should know your tipping point. Then just avoid over scheduling & committing more than you can handle.
Start stress tracking to know their pattern & effects on your body; and finally to come up with ways to deal with them. In brief it’s just noting down the reasons along with physical & mental distress it causes on a scale of 1 to 10; and how you deal with it.
Adequate & efficient sleep; have a uniform sleep cycle don’t alter it every now & then, altering it causes decrease in efficiency. Human body was originally designed for a two four hour sleep cycle; so if you’re dealing with different time zones this sleep pattern is definitely beneficial. A twenty minute nap just after fifteen minutes on lunch is the best ever afternoon power nap; you wake just as fresh as morning.
Workout! Morning workouts are the best. Instead of going for evening walk, take fifteen minute strolls once or twice a day at work; it’s your refresh option. Get a basketball or tennis session in the early morning to charge up & later in the evening a yoga session to relax your mind. Track your workout to discover your optimum workout level. Workout is to get your adrenaline running not to drain your energy so just don’t overdo.
Leisure time; it’s a need. Get a chill out session midweek, probably Wednesday evenings when you’re halfway through the week & need to sometime off. Head off to some cafe with your close ones & discuss everything except work! Don’t go to clubs & pubs, you’ll just drain your energy instead freshening up.
So by the time you master the balancing act of work & leisure, you are totally aware of your capacities and are at your optimum productivity level. You may also discover a few more schedule hacks for insane productivity.
Header Image by Abbie Bernet on Unsplash
Savvy Munshi 