How To Avoid Burnout
By Paige Liston, Media and Communications Manager
With the holidays and the end of the year quickly approaching, people will all start to feel the pressure. Did I accomplish all my goals for the year? Did I do enough to meet the intentions I set for myself? How have I grown personally and professionally? Did I remember to get everyone the perfect Christmas present?!
This could lead to feeling a bit overwhelmed, and a bit burnt out. According to a Healthline article, burn out describes a severe stress condition that leads to physical, mental and emotional exhaustion. It’s worse than ordinary fatigue, as burnout makes it challenging for people to cope with stress and to handle daily responsibilities. It’s especially important to stay mindful of this feeling in your work life, as burnout in your work life can easily transfer over to your personal life, and vice versa.
So how does someone avoid this overwhelming feeling? I try to keep in mind the following tips and actions if I start to feel this way in order to establish that crucial, healthy work-life balance.
1. Focus on you and your health.
In other words, make your health the top priority here. To have the ability to focus and thrive in the workplace, you must practice healthy habits, like getting enough sleep, eating well and receiving the proper nutrition, exercising, and keeping up with social connections. If your personal life is suffering, your professional life will follow suit. If you work from home by yourself and have been sitting all day, take the time to go on a walk outside, or grab dinner with a friend for that important social interaction. This will relieve those feelings of stress and allow you to focus on something else.
2. Shift your priorities.
Everyone deals with constantly shifting deadlines at work or unexpected situations that arise. When those pop up and replace what you had originally planned to work on that day, it can feel hectic. Instead of throwing hands and thinking it’s too much work, think through what’s actually a crisis and what can wait until tomorrow. If you must move some priorities to the next day, it’s no big deal. Be flexible when it comes to your almighty to-do list.
3. Ask for help.
This can sometimes be the most challenging action to take. Asking for help can feel like a weakness, but it’s actually the opposite. Having the knowledge to know when you’re stretched thin and to delegate some of your tasks is the sign of a confident leader. If you realize that your work will not be accomplished to the best of your abilities based on your competing priorities, let your team know and see what their capacity looks like. If they have the time to give their full attention to a project that you would have raced through, it’s a much better idea to ask for assistance on a task.
4. Give yourself grace.
This is important and something I must often remind myself to do. At the end of the day, it’s crucial to realize that you’re doing the best you can at this very given moment, and that is enough. If you know you’re trying as hard as you can to meet deadlines at work, produce top results, maintain a social life, exercise, eat well, and somehow squeeze in some Christmas shopping, then that is all you can do. Grant yourself the grace that you would give to others and recognize that you’re giving it your all, and that is enough.