How Not To Burnout

Just this last week, I recently quit a job that I thought would be the highlight of my year.

This came from a steady realisation that I have, by all means, spread myself too thin.

To be completely honest, I went into this academic year with the mindset of ‘I want to see how far I can push my limits’. I was excited about this, took it as both an experiment and a way to enhance my skills as a whole.

I started working two jobs, taking multiple classes, contributing to an online blog dedicated to teaching West Asian languages and started self-learning a new language from scratch. 

Of course, I had all my other side projects going on. As a creative person, I had to let off steam in creative outlets so academia doesn’t take up my whole life.

As it turned out, that’s exactly what happened. I was adding responsibility after responsibility to my life, which made me quickly realise I’ve hit a limit with the workload I’ve given myself.

I lost all sort of motivating myself to work (which is a big problem, depending on motivation that is), I didn’t want to go out, I didn’t give a rat’s a** about my health, or hygiene (it was a cycle of: I don’t have time to shower, I’m too stressed to care about showering, I feel bad because I hadn’t showered, and so on), I had trouble focusing and remembering information, and I was massively stressed.

I was experiencing the book definition of a burnout.

So, what’s a burnout?

The American Psychological Association’s David Ballard describes a burnout as “an extended period of time where someone experiences exhaustion and a lack of interest in things, resulting in a decline in their performance.”

I was burnout, alright. And I had to deal with it.

Even though I had some knowledge as to what I should do to slowly regain a balance in my life, I consulted with the help of Google. How not to burnout?

The most common answer: take a motherfreaking break.

There are many types of breaks we can talk about here. Firstly, you need to make downtime a daily ritual. There needs to be at least a 15 minute block of time where you’re doing absolutely nothing. Meditate, talk a walk or a nap. Just shut off your brain for some time.

Another type of break is the Zero Day. I have heard the phrase ‘no zero days’ so many times as a way of motivating you to be productive every day, and I agree that it’s such a motivating motto to live by. But my version of the zero-day doesn’t mean to get no work done at all, but rather get a different kind of work done.

This is a weekly break. One day off. That doesn’t mean you get to sit down and binge watch shows all day. (This may even worsen how you’re feeling.) It means that you’re going to take some steps back. Make a list of all the things you’ve been putting off the past week. You’ve been meaning to fold the laundry but you haven’t? Need to take a bath with some essential oil? Rearrange your close? Clean your room? These are your tasks for the day then. No work-related tasks.

Another crucial thing to practice is to start saying ‘no’. You can’t possibly do everything in the world. You’re human, you can push yourself but within a limit. Whether that means saying no to yourself when you want to start yet another project or saying no to someone asking you to do something for them when you know well enough that you can’t fit it in your schedule, start saying no. Don’t compromise your health.

Lastly, if you tend to work alone, have at least one social outing a week where you engage with people close to you. Social engagement will alleviate your stress and being surrounded by people you love will put you in a good mood. Humans are social beings after all.

There are many ways in which you can start regaining your mental balance again and keeping burnout at bay. The first step is acknowledging you're not okay, and then finding what ways work best for you.

Stay safe, kids.