How do you prevent burnout?
Heyo guys,
Long story short, I'm a college student in his final semester right now. I've gone through many different phases of my college life between not being sure of my future, wanting to take advantage of my last point in life of youth, trying to grow up and learn to be a competent adult at home, trying to grow up and learn to be a competent adult in the workforce, and everything else in between. Right now, I'm coming off of a summer where I took 9 credits and managed to get As in all three classes while also feeling very accomplished that I felt I've taken many valuable skills and lessons away from those classes.
At the moment, I am taking 18 credits for this Fall semester, sitting at six classes and I'm finally happy that I'm able to be taking a lot of productive and worthwhile classes in my major. I love all of my classes and professors so far and I'm very eager to learn and continue developing myself to be the person I want to be. However, my concern is the heavy burnout that I feel is imminent within a few weeks to a month, as I'm already beginning to feel it come on within the last two weeks.
How do I deal with this or prevent it? How do you personally handle situations where you uphold a lot of responsibility to yourself and you want to keep in top form? Personal stories, experiences, advice, and all of the above are welcome.
I'm definitely not an expert and can't speak to any experiences or suggestions but my own.
Whenever the topic of "burnout" comes up, I always fall back to asking "why?". Why are you feeling the risk of burning out? Usually it's because people feel like they don't have enough time to get everything done that they want to complete. Why do you feel like you must get those things done? Are certain items on your todo list actually "must-do", or just "I'd-like-to-do"? Why? Are deadlines flexible? What happens if you don't get this one or two or three things done? What do you "lose", or "miss"? Why? Can you commit to doing less things? Why?
This seemingly child-like approach of constantly asking "why" helps me counter burnout and stress in the best way I've found so far: Prioritization. We all want to do more things than we have hours in the day to actually do. But when you really ask yourself why something is a priority for you, then you'll find that there are only a few things on your todo list that you actually must do. Remember that if everything is a priority, then nothing is actually a priority.
Focusing your energy into these things, and re-prioritizing your list whenever you learn something new or something changes (e.g. that deadline has moved) means that you'll get your tasks done well, rather than be distracted and possibly miss the mark on those things that are really important.
Thanks for your comment--it means a lot.
I find myself feeling overwhelmed every time I go to check off an item or add an item to my planner list. I become worried about skipping readings from the textbook because I fear that I may be missing on crucial information that could help develop my skills and myself further. I suppose it's the concern of falling behind and thinking of the idea of letting things like that pile up is...pressuring.
I do like the idea of re-prioritization and studying flexibility, however. I would look at most of my checkboxes as equal value because I had the mentality that I wanted to get all of them done by the end of the week. In the end, it's not realistic or feasible without sacrificing sleep or running on low brainpower. I'll try and focus on what I consider most important first and tackle the smaller things later, I suppose.
This is something I've dealt with a lot - to do lists. I was all about breaking tasks down and listing everything because I thought the organization would prevent me from missing things and that having smaller tasks that I could check off would motivate me. In the last couple years I decided this was not the case, and in fact the opposite was happening.
I started doing this with travel. I use to be really worried about leaving something behind when I left a hotel room or packed up from camping, and had an exhaustive list of everything. I would double check under beds, in drawers I never used and such. Now, I have a list of "must haves", like my passport, phone, camera. Everything else, I just accept that I might have forgotten it, and it's not a big deal.
You sound like you're doing well in school already, so clearly you know how to study. I would say, trust that. Let go of the to do list. Of course, still keep a list of your deadlines and such. Generally speaking, you can't skip core concepts without noticing, so if you skipped a reading here or there and can move forward without issue, the info in it was probably not that critical. If it catches you on an assignment or quiz, you'll know to go back to it.
I burned out junior year of high school because of the course load and other activities... still trying to recover 12 years later. I never found a way to prevent burnout because it just kept piling on and didn't stop.
Thanks for sharing. So how do you feel now, 12 years later? What are your energy levels? How is your motivation or self-actualization? Where do you feel fulfilled within your life, be it large or small?
If you could manage to shake off your burnout, what would be the first thing you'd do with your newfound energy?
The most exhausting but fulfilling aspect of my life is my 7 month son. He's in pain from teething these days, which means full, uninterrupted nights of sleep are rare, but his unconditional excitement to see me when I wake him up or when I walk in the door is unlike any feeling I've felt in my entire life. Parenting is definitely a roller coaster of energy levels. That said, I never woke up feeling fully rested after a night of sleep before I became a dad. There was always this baseline level of fatigue I couldn't shake. I've since started messing with my REM cycles to wake up when it's most conducive to - that's helped a little bit but isn't a perfect solution.
My motivation is pretty low. I don't mind my job and actually like a lot about it, but the only things that truly motivate me are my son and my hobbies/passions. Even then, motivation has been better in the past. My job doesn't bring me enough meaningfulness to have me busting ass every workday - it's more of a situation where I'm complacent doing B grade work for 35 hours/week to fund a comfortable personal life that allows me to spend a lot of time with my son compared to most working dads.
If I could shake off the burnout and feel the motivation, enthusiasm, and energy of my youth, I don't know what I would do. Probably bust my ass outside of work hours to pursue a job that compensates me just as well but is more closely related to one of my passions. No idea what that would be, but I at least have well-defined passions/hobbies aside from my job that I've had the funds and free time to cultivate to an extent that makes me feel quite happy. I wish I could spend my whole life cultivating those and other interests rather than having to decide on one that gets 1/3 of every week in the form of a job. Sadly, haven't found anyone who will pay me to do that!
I actually had a conversation with myself about this morning about this. Lately, I have kind of dreaded going into work. Which I told myself if I ever start to look at it like that I need to readjust my mindset.
This is the first job where I'm treated well, and I really like what I do. I will have been there for years in January. Lately I have been overworked and kind of juggling things because I took on another person's job on top of my own when they left.
I'd like to take some time off but I need to catch up on a lot of things so it just isn't the best time. So I just stopped myself and said, look this is a good job you said if you ever started to look at it like this you need to address it because if you keep going on with that mindset you're going to be miserable. So I just completely shifted my mindset. I just said look at it positively, it's not a hard job, you're very lucky and you actually like what you do. You know it could be worse, just go to work.
And that works for me. Just saying, hey - think positive - have a positive mindset. And I just put it out of my mind and accepted the day was happening.
Thanks for sharing your story. It's funny how we both were thinking about burnout and managed to cross paths today.
I love your reminder about positivity. Mostly because I've been highly eager within my classes and with being able to have the potential of taking so much out of them. The fear of losing it all might be what drives me insane, but I should remember that I took them because they bring me joy to the opportunities I have presented to me. I suppose it's the little things like that which help us reminder to keep moving. And a little bit of positivity can really be what pushes us to move forward in a fulfilling way.
When I am at my largest risk of burnout, it’s because I haven’t engaged in any kind of recharging rituals because I have convinced myself to give them up for other priorities. They must be sacred cows for me. I have to see friends. There has to be a time to unwind.
Can’t say anything about your situation directly because we all different, but maybe that can help.
Thanks, Bucky. I appreciate it!
I haven't even had time to speak often in the Slack for a while either, nor have I touched video games for a good amount of time. Perhaps I need a change of pace for a bit.
I burned out for a time about a decade ago.
The first thing I did was make a spreadsheet with some columns for
PrioritiesandResponsibilities. I then made a master list of all of the shit I did each day over the course of a week or two. From there I broke everything down into these two columns. It was tough, but I found that there were a lot of things I felt I needed to do that I didn't.I cut down on individual socializing a bit and opted to host dinner parties on a regular basis to maintain those relationships during that time. Twice a year I'd throw big parties that captured everybody. Its not for everybody, but I love to cook and host.
Anyway, its tough being in school. You don't need to make a sheet or anything, but look for ways you can bulk tasks (either individually or with reliable friends), and then use any free time to be bored so your mind can recharge.
By bulking: you could get a system with a friend where once or twice a week you cook for two. If it works with your schedules, this can free up an hour or two per week.
The main thing that prevents burnout is downtime. Avoid defaulting to computer games, casual internetting, watching TV / movies, or whatever. These things are still great -- but just make sure that you have downtime in the mix.
Overall, I guess I approach my days like seasons -- Winter = sleep, Spring = a strong morning ritual / prep for the day, Summer = high priority commitments, Fall = winding down and focusing on pleasurable things. The division won't be equal, but try to get all four in.
It's not exactly what you asked, but in college I used a tactic you shouldn't use: try to be as perfect as possible at the start of the semester so that when I inevitably hit burnout by the end of the semester I had some leeway to fuck up. (I saw burnout as inevitable because of my chronic illness, but it still wasn't a good way to approach my workload.)
One thing I found helpful was to split up tasks over the course of a week. Did I want to study for a test? Okay, I'd review 2 chapters per day (for example), instead of all of them the day before. Splitting up the giant task of "study everything for this test" gave me more manageable pieces to tackle and spread out the load.
What is your sleep like?
I make sure every day I schedule something that is purely fun for me, not productive at all. While I'm doing it I try to be fully in the moment.
I feel you on this. I graduate in december. Currently I'm taking 16 credit hours and working about 33 hours a week at my internship. The thing that has kept me from getting too overwhelmed so far is trying to only think about one week at a time. When I think about doing this an entire semester I get stressed out and scared that I can't do it. Instead I think about being successful this week. I know if I keep this up I'll make it through to the end. Keep pushing, you're almost to the finish line and you will be proud of yourself once you get there