Burnout Prevention: Give Yourself a Break
In the 5th post in my series on burnout and self-advocacy, I explain how advocating for your own downtime — to yourself and others — can enable you to work hard and achieve your goals without burning out.
Rest is NOT an Optional Extra
Burnout is caused by prolonged and excessive stress, often as a result of working very hard without time to rest or reflect. You can reduce your chances of burning out by giving yourself permission to prioritize regular breaks.
Having the right set of self-advocacy tools and the confidence to use them makes it easier to refuse time-swallowing activities, like meetings where you’re not really needed. With adequate rest and processing time you can self-advocate and plan your career progression.
Here are some tips to help you fit in the re-charging time you need.
Follow Your Heart
In one day alone your heart beats 100,000 times. If you live to a ripe old age, it will beat around 2.5 billion times. How does it keep this up for so many years?
Heart cells are packed with organelles that enable it to make more energy than other types of muscle cell. Then, between each contraction, your heart muscle takes a quick break.
If you want to keep working at high intensity, you must also maintain your energy levels and take regular breaks. I don’t mean by spending two weeks in Hawaii twice a year (although I can definitely endorse that!). I mean by taking the same microbreak approach as your heart.
We all know we should do this, but making it happen is another thing entirely. Here are some ideas…
Rest At Your Desk
Trying to manage a dozen ideas and tasks at once makes an overwhelming traffic jam in your head. If you are worried about losing these thoughts, quickly write them down in a list, and then do this 5 second exercise:
If you have a little longer than 5 seconds, try this 4 minute mental vacation:
Other ways to take a quick break include:
Walking to the furthest restroom
Using the stairs instead of the elevator (if you can)
Eating lunch anywhere else than at your desk
Taking a deep break and counting to 5
Write yourself a little post-it reminder to take a guit-free microbreak whenever you can.
Rest Between Meetings
Based on my own experience and from coaching people struggling with burnout, intensely heavy meeting cultures are one of the main culprits.
When you run from meeting to meeting you don’t have time to refuel and provide your body and brain with the energy you need to process what was discussed.
When your day is full of meetings you don’t have time for work; you end up working in the evenings when you should be resting after work.
What can you do about this? At the beginning of each week or day, review your calendar and step back from meetings you don’t need to attend. Try and block out 15 or 30 minutes between meetings so you can review your notes and process the conversation.
If your organization has a ‘no meeting’ day, be part of the solution by gently pushing back on meetings that day — sometimes it just takes one person to speak up. If you are a manager, lead by example and enforce the rule.
Rest Between Work Days
Most of us, myself included, will admit our work and home lives are not adequately separate. We know they should be, but we also work with global teams and have days full of meetings and no time except the evening in which to do the work.
Yes, workloads are intense, but be honest with yourself; do you ever put something off during the day because you know you’ll be able to do it in the evening? Do you wait until late at night to send strategic emails?
If so, you might be able to give yourself a more restful evening by setting yourself a rule or boundary preventing yourself from working, say, after 7pm. Watch the clock and stick to the rule.
Rest Well At Night
When you work long hours, it’s natural to want to claw back a little time for yourself. Unfortunately too often we end up doing that late at night, binging Netflix or social media in a vain attempt to wind down and get some control.
The knock on effect is feeling tired the next day because we didn’t get enough sleep. You may struggle to get started in the morning, you end up finishing your work in the evening, and you start the cycle again the next day.
Finishing work early enough in the evening to give you time to wind down and having a nighttime routine can bring bedtime forward, allowing you to get enough sleep, feel refreshed in the morning, and get your work done efficiently. Give yourself the gift of an early night whenever you can. You deserve it.
Alcohol and recreational drugs may feel as if they help you to sleep, but evidence suggests they interfere with your natural sleep patterns, making you feel more tired the next day. Instead, try a sleep meditation.
But I Don’t Have Time!!
If you don’t have time for a break, you really need a break. Taking regular breaks maintains your energy and enables you to keep going. In fact, breaks aren’t optional, they are essential to your success.
There is a concept in Ayurveda called Ojas, which is very similar to vitality. Ojas is the honey that holds everything together. If you don’t have enough vitality, you won’t be able to handle the demands of work and self-advocacy.
One way to recharge is through play. As children we play all the time, but as adults, we get further and further away from it. That’s a huge shame because play is a time when we truly relax. Whether you are shooting hoops in the park or playing board games with friends, play is a chance to take your mind off your work completely. Your ojas will thank you for it.
Conclusion
Taking a break isn’t a luxury, it is an essential task. If you don’t have time to take a break, you need a break. Savour your breaks and remind yourself to be in the moment, not thinking about the work you should be doing or feeling guilty for indulging yourself.
Encourage colleagues, friends and family to take breaks too. Create a culture around you of taking time off as an investment in your happiness and career.
