3 Ways to Prevent a Burnout

From WebMD: “Burnout is?a form of exhaustion caused by constantly feeling swamped”.?

Once you get it, it can kill your overall motivation and energy, even if the direct cause of the burnout is removed. Once you’re in it, you can take a break for example, and still feel like crap for months on end. Recovery from a burnout is no joke.

Disclaimer, I’m not a doctor nor a psychologist, but I’ve been a manager for 10 years, and I’ve consulted, mentored and coached leaders and teams for the past 8 years. I’ve been in a burnout, seen people get into it, through it, out of it, helped them with it.?

So here are my 3 practical tips for avoiding a burnout.

Stress vs Pressure: Take Control

Burnout is not caused simply by the volume of work. There are people who have an extremely high workload, they’re tired, but they’re not in a burnout. And there are people whose absolute workload doesn’t seem huge when looked at from the outside, but they’re in a burnout.?

One key difference is control:?How much do you feel that you are in control of your work?

• Are you in touch with your motivation? Do you know why you work so hard?
• Are you in (some) control of your schedule? Do you have a time management system of some sort so you have some predictability over your work and it doesn’t feel like it’s always a surprise and "one more thing” you weren’t expecting??
• Do you have a good relationship with the people who give you the work (your manager, clients etc) so you don’t feel unreasonable pressure about their reactions when something doesn’t go according to plan?
• Do you have the communication and negotiation skills to negotiate your work, the deadlines, say no when you have to etc??

The more “No” answers above, the more you are at risk of burnout.?

I can work for 12 hours a day for my own company, doing things I like, knowing why they’re important to me, and being in control of my schedule. I will be tired, but not stressed, and not burned out.?

But the same exact work done for an abusive boss, with constantly changing priorities, without the ability and the skills to say no, without understanding the bigger picture, that would be 10 times harder.?

The actual work is the same, but my/your relationship with it would be very different.?

So, what can you do?

1. Organize your time as best you can. Implement some kind of personal time management system.
2. Learn to negotiate and communicate. Discuss deadlines. Negotiate priorities. Suggest alternative approaches. Delegate. Say no.
3. As much as you can influence it, work with decent, reasonable people. It makes such a difference. Bad managers are a bigger reason for burnout than high workload in itself (not that I’m advocating for excessive workload, just putting it in context).

Inability to Mentally Checkout

Thinking and worrying about work when you’re not actually working, after work is done, during the weekends etc, is even more stressful than thinking and worrying about it while you’re at work. For better or worse, when you’re during work hours, you can actually do something about the things that concern you.?

But when you’re still worrying about work while you’re reading, playing a game, or running, or cooking or watching a movie or whatever, the feeling of powerlessness is increased by worrying about something you’re not even in the position to do something about right now. Not to mention you’re also not able to focus on whatever you’re doing. It’s a lose-lose situation.?

It is lack of control and powerlessness which is the root cause of burnout, and the inability to mentally checkout is one more way to feel powerless.

So, what can you do?

1. This is going to be driven by habits. It’s about the little things that you do, every day, to mentally checkout from work when work is done.
2. Close your computer/phone fully when it’s done. Disable notifications, put it on mute, put it to the side.
3. Don’t use your work computer/phone for personal activities so as to not be tempted to also check work news.
4. When you’re done for the day, be 100% done. No “I’ll check one more thing later on”.

Sometimes, in some positions, you can't fully disconnect yourself, you have to remain available for emergencies. Ok, but that should be through calls and text only (emails and chat are never that urgent or they would be a call or a text), and from a limited number of people who you trust to only call/text if really urgent. In other words, if the phone rings, ok, but at least you’re not constantly checking your emails.

Self Confidence and Humility

On a more fundamental level, the core reasons why people end up losing control and messing up their relationship with work are three:

1. They have no choice. That’s the only job they can get and the job sucks. If that’s the case, do your best to improve your situation as soon as possible. Make the best of what you have, improve your skills, look for better opportunities.?
2. They lack self confidence.?
3. They lack humility.?

Let’s explore 2 and 3 in more detail.?

They lack Self Confidence.

They feel they need to make everyone happy all the time, say yes all the time, overdeliver all the time, never let anyone down ever no matter the circumstances. They think the only reason people value them is because they’re always “there", available. This kind of lack of self confidence is preventing them from saying no to some things, from negotiating deadlines, from managing their time and stopping from work at a reasonable time.?

Deep down, frequently without realizing it, they think that if they set some boundaries everyone will stop respecting and needing them.?

Lack of Humility.

Lack of humility is when people feel like they’re always needed. Everything reaches them, their opinion is required for a million different things, they’re in too many projects, too many loops, too many calls.?

Now, some times, these people frequently end up like this because they’re actually very good and effective, but still, they sometimes also end up like this because they couldn’t set any boundaries, and now, they’re needed everywhere, because they’ve allowed themselves, through their excessive tendency to say yes and their perfectionism, to be needed everywhere.?

Some other times, they’re not actually needed, but they insert themselves in it artificially, through bureaucratic means, for corporate politics reasons.?

But even being needed for legitimate reasons, there’s two levels of being needed:

• On one level, you might be needed right now, right here, because they can’t do it without you.?
• But you would’t be needed if you spent some time to delegate and teach some of the people around you to do at least some things without your involvement and your approval.

And even when there’s no way for you to extract yourself out of some situations without a loss in performance for the company, make sure you’re aligned with your own motivation. Ask yourself, is this your company? What are you doing all this for? If you have an answer, whatever that answer may be, if it’s good enough for you, awesome. If not, you’ve got a motivation problem and you can ignore it for a while by just going with the flow, but when it will catch-up to you, that stuff hurts. You’ll suddenly feel very alone and foolish, like “why I am doing all this?”

Just to be clear

As always, I’m not telling you to do or not to do something. I’m not telling you hard work is bad, or that it’s good, or how much work you should do.?

I am a huge believer in individual responsibility and you making whatever decisions are right for you, whatever those decisions may be. Nobody else’s got to like them.

I’m just trying to explain how I think burnouts happen and what can be done to prevent them, that’s all.