7 Tips For Preventing Burnout

Burnout is something that is experienced by many individuals from students with a course overload, to the frontline employee who has no autonomy and feels unappreciated or the high level executives feeling the pressure to do everything. It’s a state of being emotionally drained which often comes from trying to give more of ourselves than we have to give. Though the symptoms are usually progressive, they can also be sudden, and fall into 4 major categories

Behavioral- Decrease in efficiency, reduced capacity to cope, dreading work.

Interpersonal- Withdrawing from friends and loved ones, lack of enjoyment or participation in life affirming activities.

Physical- Increased presence of insomnia or sleeping too much. Feeling fatigued or always getting sick.

Emotional/Mental- Hyper-irritability or depression, feelings of emptiness or helplessness.

Of-course these are only a few examples of the wide array of symptoms that one can experience. One of the most prevalent symptoms is the change in thought and attitude toward the job. The job you once loved becomes a dreaded enemy. The passion you had about starting your business feels more like an inescapable burden. Before you get to this point there are a few things that you can do to prevent it.

1. Self-care is the first and most effective way to prevent burnout. Self-care is the simple process of taking the time to attend to your personal needs (including physical, emotional and social needs). Take care of your body, from going to the doctor to eating right and working out. You have to make sure that you are physically and mentally able to work to ensure maximum efficiency. By giving yourself a break and participating in life-affirming activities you save the stress and time it would take to deal with burnout.
2. Have a life. No matter how much you enjoy your job, it can’t be all that you are. You must take time to have a life outside of work that involves people with whom you can just be yourself, where the expectation is simply that you are there as a you. Participate in life affirming activities. Go to a ballgame, attend a musical or just run in the rain. Maintain a balanced life where you have time to have fun and be serious because the body and mind need both. Do the things to get your blood pumping and remind you that you are alive.
3. Keep a strong social/ emotional support system. Surrounding yourself with positive and supportive people helps keep you in that state as well. Humans are social beings. We need social interaction with our peers and even more interactions with those who keep our spirits up. When the pressures or frustrations of work start to become overwhelming those are the people you can turn to for temporarily relief while you figure out your next step or just to help you figure out how you want to move forward. When the work loads get heavy and schedules get overloaded, people have a tendency to cut out more of the leisure activities and socializing. Doing that is a great disservice to your wellbeing. When you feel you have no time to socialize, find time to reap the benefits a good support network.
4. Learn to prioritize and schedule. The feeling of having to do too much at once is a stressor that can make work seem more overwhelming and a result more tasking. Being able to prioritize responsibilities and allotting time to address individual tasks makes projects more manageable, thus less stressful. Setting aside time to attend to particular tasks gives you a plan of action, which is also very effective in decreasing work-related stress.
5. Address conflicts between your values and responsibilities. If you find yourself in a situation where your professional duties conflict with values and/or professional code of ethics don’t mumble about it under your breath. Doing something that conflicts with your values takes a heavy mental and physical toll. It’s like trying to keep your head above water while swimming upstream against heavy currents. You can do it for a while but eventually your body gives out. If you find that your responsibilities are in conflict with your core values, take the time to figure out an acceptable resolution for you, and present it to those with the authority to accept such adjustments. Whether that is your clients as a business owner or your managers as an employee, you have to address it with the ones who can make the change happen. Complaining to coworkers or friends only remind you how wrong things are. This information should be shared with friends and coworkers mainly in the context of having them help you brainstorm and come up with a solution.
6. Be valuable, but not invaluable or valueless. You don’t have to be all for the job. When I find clients doing this, I often use the gruesome example that if they died today, the organization would begin working to replace them tomorrow. This is not to devalue the person, but simply remind them of the reality. You want to be great at what you do. You can even be the best at you do. It’s when you try to take on everything that it becomes a problem. As you attempt to take on every duty professionally, you reduce the time that you have to replenish the energy being exerted. It’s great to apply yourself. Going above and beyond the call of duty can lead to great career advancements. Making yourself carry the weight of an entire organization however places you on the fast track to burnout. There is a balance and you must find it. Even when you are building your own business, don’t put the pressure of being the one and only on your shoulders. You can still be there for your clients and provide optimal service without having to be everything to them.
7. Choose autonomy over authority. Much like being the one who does everything, being the only one who makes every decision can also weigh heavily on you. Focus on the decisions at your pay grade. If you are a department director and have an office manager, let the office manager worry about ordering the office supplies (you can still put in a request for you preferred pens). Empowering your team to make decisions within the scope of their responsibility frees you from having to take on that responsibility. Delegate tasks and allow your team to take ownership. This also helps strengthen your team because autonomy is necessary at all levels of the organization. It allows people to be individuals who think for themselves instead of mechanical pieces of the organizational machine. This also allows them to feel like valued members of the organization. When your team has ownership of their projects and responsibilities, they are more productive and happier employees who will rely on you less and are less demanding on your time.

 

I’m just saying though…

Dream Big… Live Bigger…

DrJudiC

www.DrJudiC.com