How to Deal With Burnout From Work

By Nukhba Khan

I BURNED OUT AND HIT ROCK BOTTOM

I was obsessed with being busy, and it was self-imposed. I felt shame if I was not constantly doing something productive and it stemmed from this deep fear of failure. The fear that I will get left behind and not climb the corporate ladder fast enough. I made myself believe that I had no choice but to work hard and hustle constantly.

This thirst for climbing the corporate ladder had repercussions. Because I was laser-focused on giving everything to my career, I gave little priority to my well-being and self-care. Which, over time, resulted in me feeling the many symptoms of burnout.

But I gave myself no choice but to keep pushing more. I had to keep going to stay ahead of the competition. I had to keep going to make sure my job stayed secure by outperforming my job expectations. The pressure was real. And this pressure eventually caught up to me and broke me. I was exhausted both emotionally and physically.

It felt like life was rushing past me, and I just couldn't keep up.

I felt like I was starting to fall and fall fast.

It felt like a daily struggle to keep myself afloat.

I felt utterly burned out from work, and I felt ashamed.

I had hit rock bottom.

But I still refused to ask for help. I guess there was guilt or maybe pride or maybe shame. But God had a better plan for me, and sent my guardian angel, my sister, who saw my broken state under the facade I was putting up that 'I am okay.' With her help (and I can't tell you what a relief it felt to have someone by my side at this point), we created my burnout recovery plan.

Yes, burnout can exhaust your soul, and I never want to feel that way again. And I never want anyone to go through what I went through. And that is why I want to share with you:

The key signs of burnout
My burnout recovery plan that I created and executed.
And now, how I make sure to avoid all forms of burnout.

If you feel any signs of burnout, I want to really push you and encourage you to take action now. At the end of the day, it is your responsibility to take care of yourself and protect yourself from burnout.

BURNOUT SIGNS

You feel exhausted, both emotionally and physically.
You feel a lack of motivation in both your personal and professional life; you don't feel enthusiastic about anything, especially around fun things to do in your personal time.
You feel frustrated. And experience more negative emotions than positive emotions.
You are becoming cynical about things both at work and home.
You are starting to feel ineffective at work; your productivity is starting to tank.
You mostly feel down and depressed and have not felt joy in a long time.
You are constantly stressed, and your attention focuses only on the negative things in life.
You are no longer taking care of yourself, and you are indulging more and more in unhealthy coping strategies. I.e., binge tv watching, eating unhealthy, excessive drinking, etc.
You think of work even when you are not at work. You find yourself lost in work thoughts constantly.
You are easily irritated, and everything seems to get under your skin. You are irritable with your co-workers, friends, family, children, and maybe even your pets.

BURNOUT RECOVERY

Here is the recovery plan that I formulated for myself:

1: DON'T SUFFER IN SILENCE

Ask for support. The shame you feel around asking for help is only in your head and is doing you no good. Asking for support from your manager (or even loved ones) is the responsible thing to do!

It shows you care and want to do the job well.

The earlier you can bring up the issue of feeling exhausted and tired with your current work overload, the more likely you'll be able to counter your burnout before it's too late.

Here is how you can prepare for the conversation:⁠

Make it About Quality: Write out all the projects and the action items within each project that you are currently working on. From this extensive list, pick what you can REALISTICALLY work on for the week or month and ensure delivering high-quality work. And communicate that to your boss.⁠

Be Ready With Solutions: When you go to your boss with a problem, in this case, workload, have your solution in mind! Let your manager know what exactly is getting in your way of producing quality work, and then present 2-3 solutions to address this issue. This will help to make you look dedicated and committed to putting your best work forward!⁠

Be Upfront about Deadlines: Always have your project list handy, i.e., a list of projects you are currently working on. This list will help when your boss asks for new commitments, and you can bring up your project list and see if priorities need to be shuffled around!⁠

Approach your boss with the intention of partnering with them to help you do quality work!⁠. It does not make you look weak or lazy. It makes you look the exact opposite – A COMMITTED EMPLOYEE

2: IT'S TIME TO TAKE RELAXATION SERIOUSLY

When you feel burned out, it's hard to remember what makes you happy and relaxed or what you truly enjoy doing. You just don't care or are too exhausted to care about doing happy things. But it's about survival now.

So if you can - immediately take time off, clear your schedule, and dedicate a few days for R&R. But if you can't do that because you have to pay the bills and take care of your children, then take a day off. Come on; you can make that happen!
And then on your day off you just have to do two things:

Relax
Create a list of the things that bring you joy and make you happy. And strategize how you can get some of these back in your life.

3: BUILD AND IMPLEMENT A SELF-CARE REGIMEN, PRONTO!

These are the five self-care actions I started executing religiously, with zero excuses.

I forced myself to make time for physical activity every day - extremely important to do!
I started spending more time with loved ones, planned once-a-week outings with friends, and dedicated time with family on weekends.
I carved out space for 'ME' time in the mornings. I started with ten minutes of journaling and meditation/ yoga, which was heavenly for improving my relaxation.
I started taking my bedtime seriously and made sure I was getting the right amount of sleep each night.
I started looking after my diet and eating more nutritious meals at proper times.

There you have it, 3 actionable steps that can help you recover from your mental & physical burnout.

I admit that sometimes these were hard to do, especially in the beginning. But you have to push through the resistance. I promise it gets easier.

PREVENTION OF BURNOUT FROM WORK

Now that you know some ways to recover from burnout, the next thing to start thinking about is how you can avoid burning out from work in the future. Here are 3 different strategies that I have adopted to safeguard myself from future potential burnout.

1: Stop obsessing about being productive all the time.

It's become so common for us to feel guilty about taking time off or even considering the idea of not doing some office work on the weekend. Do you constantly feel like you should be doing something productive with your time all the time? If yes, then you might be suffering from what's called "PRODUCTIVITY SHAME."

Productivity shaming ourselves creates this constant need to be doing 'productive' things and feeling guilty when we are not making the best use of our time. And this shame stops us from ever feeling like we've done enough. It's like at the end of a busy and tiring day, you still have this guilt that the day wasn't productive, and you should have done more. This constant need to be doing things is a massive culprit for causing burnout.

You have to allow yourself to do relaxing and unproductive things.
You are allowed to do things that are "unproductive."
You don't have to feel shame or guilt when you sit back and relax.

It's actually necessary to do and will increase your productivity when you are back at work.

ACTION STEP:

Plan your guilt-free unproductive time for the week. It could be 20 mins every day or maybe 2 hours on the weekend. And then make sure you spend that time relaxing, playing, and enjoying, without the guilt!

2: Know Your Limits

We get into the habit of telling ourselves to push a little more, a little more, and then a little more, which can cause us to crash and burn. If you want to avoid burnout, it's critical to be realistic about your limited resources, i.e., time and energy. You have to have a clear and realistic picture of what you can actually get done in a day.

ACTION STEP:

Start tracking the list of things you can actually get done in a day. It will help you to:

Better understand how much you can accomplish in a day.
Get more practical about how much workload you can take on.
Stop blaming yourself that you are behind on work because you are slow or lazy

3: Set boundaries and learn how to say 'No.'

We all know how difficult it is to push back and say no at work. But once you know your limits (from previous step 2, it becomes easier to set boundaries at work. Part of boundary setting is to learn to push back when you are getting overburdened at the office. You have to start being selective on projects and tasks. So the next time a big project is coming your way, push the pause button to think and plan things through.

ACTION STEP:

Take a moment to understand all the things that will be required of you on this new project.
Look at your current project list and ask yourself do you have the time and energy for the additional project.
Next, consider if this project will be valuable for your career growth and development:
- If yes, discuss work prioritization with your boss and see if you can shuffle priorities around to continue doing quality work.
- If not, discuss with your boss that taking on additional workload will impact other deadlines. And work together with your boss on how you can plan your projects more efficiently.

Pushing back to prevent burnout does not make you look weak or lazy. It makes you look the exact opposite – A responsible employee!

Final thoughts on burnout from work

I know from experience that when you are burned out or heading towards burnout, it can feel like a soul-crushing experience. That feeling of exhaustion, constant stress, and growing isolation from loved ones, can leave us feeling that staying afloat is the hardest thing to do. I know. I have been there.

If you feel the pressure of burnout, the most important takeaway I have for you is to seek help and support from someone you love and trust. I found that one person, my sister, who held my hand, supported me in dealing with burnout. Having that little support in my corner took away that feeling of the burden of doing it myself when I felt beat.

I encourage you to put aside the ego and reach out for help. You've got this, and I am rooting for you.

P.S. If you are looking for guided steps on how to beat burnout and show up at work more relaxed and happy, then be sure to join this FREE WORKSHOP on HOW TO AVOID BURNOUT AT WORK.

IN THIS ONE-HOUR WORKSHOP YOU WILL LEARN:

Tips on how to recover from exhaustion and overwhelm, so you get back the motivation for work and finally remove the dread.
Exercises to build a personalized plan to take better care of yourself, avoid burnout, and feel more relaxed.
Techniques on how to unplug & unwind so you can consistently have improved energy levels and more positive moods in your day-to-day.