Feeling the Burn…out, but how can I prevent it?

Our effort is never lost, just transferred into other interest and sources. For this reason, when we feel burned out we tend to transfer our attention from high effort activities into low effort activities. The problem is that most times these low effort activities come at the cost of large amounts of time with little to no value. For example, if you are feeling burned out from work or school, you might elect to watch one of your favorite tv shows. While watching one episode might not take up too much time, binge watching an entire series is a substantial amount of time and effort. How is binge watching a show effort you ask? Think about it this way, over time you are investing effort into remember the characters’ names, the important plot points of the show, storylines, and possibly even connections to other shows. All of this takes effort, but it’s just over the hours you are watching the show. All this is to say that even when you feel burned out, you are still using effort. Burnout if left uncheck, can take up valuable effort and time. That is why this week, I want to share some of the techniques that I use to manage burnout.

1: Creating a Routine

Have you ever completed a repetitive task even when you were burned out? If you have then you already know the benefit of a routine. As an example, every Thursday night, write and record a series called Black Academia This Week, and last Thursday I was not feeling 100% up to the task. I was packing to travel early Friday morning, I started writing later than usual, and I just felt drained from the work week. Currently, I do not have a lot of readers or people watching the series and I could have easily missed a week having it go unnoticed. Last week what drove me to complete it was not so much about about me powering through it, but it was about maintaining my routine. I committed to producing a segment for every Friday and that is important to me regardless of how many people see it. Setting a routine creates a “I committed to this, and now let’s get it done” mentality. That mentality is always valuable when burnout occurs, because it keeps you moving toward task completion.

As I was writing this, I was reminded of this Ted Talk, Try something new for 30 days by Matt Cutts. If you haven’t seen it then I recommend you watch it, basically the main concept is trying something new for 30 days is a benefit to your life. In the Ted Talk, Matt mentions that to create a 50,000 word book in 30 days only takes around 1600 words a day. He mentioned his routine was to make sure that he wrote 1600, before going to sleep. His routine held him accountable, let a routine do the same for you.

2: Transition between logical and creative thinking

Switching between logical thinking and creative thinking prevents me from feeling burned out, but I still am completing high effort activities. For example, if I am making a t-shirt design, I am thinking about my color scheme, fonts, placement, and various other artistic skills. At work and school, I am typically required to think very logically, so taking a break to think creatively prevents me from feeling burned out. Typically, I will spend about 1-2 hours in the creative zone, and then I will go back to the logical zone. My brain gets a break from logical thinking, and I get to come out of my creative period with something tangible. This blog post is something tangible from one of my creative periods, because it gets me into abstract thinking. Abstract in the sense of what lived experience can I share that will add value to you, and your life. Often after these periods of creativity and then moving back to logical thinking, I am more energized about getting my logical work done. It allows me to deal with burnout in a way, that still is a benefit to my life versus wasted time.

In writing this, I am reminded of another Ted Talk, How to get better at things you care about by Eduardo Briceño. If you haven’t see this one, Eduardo talks about the benefit we receive from switching between the learning zone and the performing zone. He mentions that those who spend more time in the learning zone tend to continue to get better, while those that do not eventually plateau. I was reminded of this Ted Talk, because switching to my creative side does not come natural to me. I am a highly logical thinker so when I enter my creative zone, I am automatically placed in the learning zone. As it relates to me being in the learning zone for my blog, I am working on skills that make me a better writer. Meaning that my blog helps me with school (essays, writing assignments), and work (emails, technical documents).

3: Rest Days

I know, I have discussed this one in my last blog post, but I want to double down on it. Our mind, body, and spirit need rest. If you have been around most body builders you will hear them talk about a cheat day. A cheat day is a scenario in which for 1 day, they are able to eat whatever they want versus their routine meal. This small break in the routine allows them to power through the other 6 days of the week. This example is a break for the body, but our minds need the same type of rest. When we rest our minds for a day we come back more creative and energized. The idea for this blog post was actually created during a day of rest. While I did not start writing, I did have the idea of what I wanted to write, come to my mind. Taking the time to rest allows us to come into the week a little bit fresher. While a day of rest is a day of low effort, the difference is it is a planned day of low effort. Think about it this way, if you planned to be on vacation, you were already planning not to work correct? So if no work is done those days then, it is not a detriment to you because it was planned. The same concept applies to the day of rest, you plan to take a break and as long as you are consistent during the week, you earned the day to rest. If you have not started this already after reading the last blog post, I would recommend you try it in a 30 day period.

Summary

Burnout is going to happen, it’s unavoidable. What we can do is try to mitigate it as much as possible by being strategic with our actions. Avoid being burned out with a routine. Switch your brain to a subject that energizes you and then come back to the work you were doing. Give your brain a rest for a day and let it recover as you come back into the week. Overall, these 3 techniques I use are strategies for planning for burnout rather then allowing it to take hold whenever it wants.