Wearing my burnouter hat

Back in December 2018, I went through my first burnout. I wasn’t getting satisfaction from work and hobbies which usually work. I was constantly tired. Every responsibility or obstacle grew into a huge problem. Since then I have gone through burnout twice more. Each time it’s easier and shorter. Here I am sharing what has worked for me.

When going through my burnouts I didn’t find many resources on being a serial burnouter. There are materials about chronic burnout. But what I was facing was different. I had long periods where my life was great and then I went into the burnout state, in irregular intervals. I don’t think it was related to a specific place I was working at. And to be honest I would have the same problems wherever I worked. And I got a lot of support in my workplace back then.

I learned a few things about burnout and how to handle it when it happens the next time.

1. It’s easier to identify it is burnout every next time.
   The first time it took me a long time to understand what was happening. These things don’t happen overnight. It’s a gradual drop in overall satisfaction. You notice the things that usually make you happy are no longer enough. Sleep might be getting worse or I will be waking up early morning and can’t get to sleep again. I remember the third time it happened I was like: oh, it’s that again. I know the symptoms, I know how to deal with this. Let’s go.

2. Because I already knew the signals I was able to identify the thing earlier.
   So instead of pushing myself until I hit a wall, I was able to stop in a safe space.

3. Each burnout will be a bit different
   My first burnout got triggered because I didn’t feel I belonged in my team. This ended in therapy. The next 2 ones were more representative of my burnout dynamics.

My burnout rescue routine:

1. Workout routine
   Once I start working out everything else falls into the right place in my life. With my burnouts, I was usually getting back to the gym. Since the last one, I also tried to identify what’s the sport I would enjoy. So that I wouldn’t have to treat it only as a responsibility to my body. And I got into cycling A LOT. So now I don’t even get to the stage where I don’t have any kind of movement in my life for too long.

2. Strict work time schedules
   When I am burned out I tend to misinterpret how much I should be working because it’s not satisfying anymore. And so I work more and it’s making everything worse. One of the first things I do when I identify I am in the state again is setting guardrails on my work hours. For me, this might be 10 hours when I am before an important deadline or 6–8 hours when I can allow myself to work less. I uninstall Slack or block it outside of work time. I generally don’t have work stuff on a private laptop so I also avoid taking the work laptop home. Or I shut it somewhere out of sight.

3. Getting sleep in check I usually sleep 7–8 hours
   I start having problems sleeping when I’m very stressed or burned out so I try and make sure I get enough sleep. I will review everything I already did for the sleep setup. I make sure my phone is outside of the bedroom. I try to go to bed a lot earlier and try to read myself to sleep with something that doesn’t need too much from my brain.

4. Energizing vs. draining journal
   As Ali Levin once told me: you cannot throw stress in your body and expect it won’t have lasting consequences. Stress will always put a strain on your body. You have to figure out how to not put stress inside of your body. That’s usually triggering a response of easier said than done. And that’s how I started writing small notes on what’s energizing me and what’s draining me. I only write these down when I know something’s not right. I keep it very minimal. One to two sentences in my bullet journal. I review that after a few weeks. It usually gives me a clue on what things are draining me that I don’t even notice as a pattern. I then try to figure out what to do with those things. Until now I was usually able to work on the draining areas with someone to split the responsibility. Or I was able to delegate altogether.

5. Social media apps quarantine
   It might seem like scrolling Instagram is this one time in the day when I get chill. I’m watching cute cows and funny videos. I’d get overstimulated by the quick change of content. Even if I am not burned out I will have problems focusing longer than 30 minutes if I’m using social media a lot. I love this episode of Rich Roll talking about it.

6. Keeping healthy routines in check
   There is a list of things that are super important but will land lower on the list — maintaining healthy relationships. Making sure I eat healthy. I put them last because I don’t need to put effort into maintaining them. I’ve been focusing on healthy eating for years and it’s become easy. Relationships have always played a huge role in my life.

The last burnout I faced was a few years ago and I am sure it was not the last. But I have a strategy for managing it so I am quite prepared 😎 Lastly. There is a lot of content that can be found on the internet about burnout. This one helped me to get through the first burnout (thanks Ola!):

Emily & Amelia Nagoski, Burnout — XOXO Festival and their book. The video covers the main concepts. The book added an extra layer. Explaining it will take some time to get out of burnout as the stress cycles cumulate in the body. And it took about a month of the rescue routine to start feeling happy again.