Understanding and Navigating Burnout

Have you ever looked at your to-do list and thought to yourself, ‘I cannot do this anymore’? Have you found yourself feeling exhausted, depleted, unmotivated and unable to move forward with work? If yes, you may be experiencing symptoms of burnout, and you’re not alone. 

Burnout is a relatively new concept and was coined by Herbert Freudenberger in his book, Burnout: The High Cost of High Achievement. He believed that burnout is the extinction of motivation or incentive, which negatively impacts the ability to produce desired results. Others have defined it as a state of emotional, mental and physical exhaustion as a result of prolonged stress. 

Though burnout is often associated with one’s role in the workforce, it is important to note that it can be experienced in other life areas. For example, a student who is in the 12th grade, and juggling academics, entrance prep and co-curricular activities may lose interest in all those areas or find it difficult to focus on any of them. A parent who looks after their household and raises their children while keeping up with their job may experience severe fatigue and symptoms of burnout. This goes to show that the lack of balance and downtime in our lives can lead anybody down the road to burnout. 

Someone who is burnt out may feel drained by stress and find themselves unable to cope with simple daily tasks. They may feel cynical about and avoid their work. But as mentioned earlier, burnout is not solely mental and can often manifest itself in the form of physical symptoms such as fatigue and weakness, headaches, and altered sleep and eating patterns. 

In recent times, hustle culture has been found to accelerate burnout among individuals. The mentality that one must work all day every day to succeed leads to one overworking without giving their mind and body rest. Moreover, with people showing off their every win on social media, we become prone to comparing ourselves with others. This compels many to push themselves beyond their limits. All of this leads to chronic stress, and eventually for some, to burnout. 

COVID-19 has also been found to be a reason for burnout among many essential workers. Other reasons one may experience burnout include feeling unheard or lack of communication, unrealistic or unreasonable expectations, reduced work-life balance and not practising self-care.

So, how can you prevent or overcome burnout? One way to mitigate burnout is to communicate with those around you and clearly express your concerns. This would help you set boundaries, manage expectations and also find support from loved ones. Prioritising tasks and avoiding multitasking could help you not feel frazzled by a long list of tasks and chores. As Herbert Freudenberger’s book title suggested, sometimes being a high achiever may cost you. So trying to keep perfectionism at bay and establishing a distance between time devoted to work, loved ones and yourself can help. The American Psychological Association also suggests practising mindfulness (whatever it may mean to you), keeping yourself physically active and allocating time for activities or hobbies you love. Because at the end of the day, you cannot savour your success if you are tired, stressed and burnt out. As Audre Lorde said, 'Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation.'

NOTE: This article was originally written for The Mind Garden.