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Burnout can affect anyone. In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, we're sharing practical strategies to help you recognize early warning signs of burnout and build habits that support long-term well-being and career sustainability.
Recognizing the Early Signs of Burnout
Though not formally recognized as a medical condition, burnout is very real, but can be very difficult to spot. Common symptoms include:
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Persistent fatigue
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Emotional detachment
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Difficulty focusing and low motivation
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Feeling powerless and ineffective
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Irritability, disrupted sleep, or physical symptoms like headaches
Researchers have proposed different frameworks to explain how burnout develops—including models with five stages or twelve phases—and while the details vary, the pattern is the same: burnout builds gradually and becomes more severe if left unchecked.
Managing Your Workload With Intention
When you notice the symptoms of burnout, step back and evaluate how your time and energy are being spent. Determining your priorities and boundaries will help combat burnout.
Prioritize Your Tasks
If you feel on the cusp of burnout, every task might feel overwhelming. To avoid this overwhelm, a helpful step is to prioritize tasks and responsibilities! Try using the Eisenhower Matrix to help you efficiently distinguish between urgent vs. important tasks and make prioritizing easier.
Set Boundaries
Boundaries create the space needed to focus and manage your time effectively. Without them, it’s easy to lose yourself to other people’s demands.
If you’re not used to setting boundaries, try starting small. Block time for focused work, limit meetings when you can, or silence notifications during key hours.
Most importantly, don’t feel guilty. Boundaries aren’t selfish! They’re essential in shifting your responses from reactive to intentional, and in protecting the time and focus you need to do meaningful work.
Rest and Recovery Shouldn’t Be Optional
A part of burnout includes not getting enough rest and recovery between the demands on your time and energy. This is why rest, recovery, and consistent self-care should never be optional.
Redefining Rest
When we say “rest,” we don’t just mean sleep. We’re also talking about taking small breaks throughout the day to decompress.
Remember that rest is about doing something that lets your mind and body reset. Even five minutes of intentional downtime can interrupt the buildup of stress. Consistent moments of recovery woven into your day can play a big part in avoiding burnout!
Self-care is Maintenance, Not Reward
When work and life responsibilities get busy, we often push things like movement, nutrition, and social connection aside, treating them as optional rather than essential. But when we start pushing them further down the priorities list is when they matter most. Physical activity, eating a balanced diet, and connecting with other people outside of work are all crucial pieces to mental and physical wellness.
The key takeaway when it comes to rest? You don’t have to earn rest and recovery. They’re not luxuries; they’re part of how you stay well and keep going.
Final Thoughts
Even if we’re doing everything to the best of our abilities to avoid burnout, it can still happen. If it does, remember that it is not a personal failure, but it might be time for some support. Whether that means talking to a friend, reaching out to a supervisor, or seeking help from a healthcare professional, asking for support is a sign of self-awareness and strength.
We all hit limits. What matters is knowing that you don’t have to navigate them alone.
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