What Causes Burnout and How to Deal With It
Usually, you feel tired after a long day at work, or you need a vacation after a month’s sprint to finish a new function. Unfortunately, it is also common to feel tired all the time. Lack of enthusiasm for their work. Feel cynical and detached from what you are doing.
This post originally appeared on the RescueTime blog .
These are all symptoms of burnout , which is becoming more common as our work lives get busier, more demanding and stressful.
In this post, I’ll explain what burnout is, what causes it, and how to deal with it.
What is burnout?
The term “burnout” was coined in the 70s by Dr. Herbert Freudenberger. The term was taken from the analogy of a burned down house :
If you’ve ever seen a building burned down, you know it’s a devastating sight … bricks or concrete may remain; some kind of window outline. Indeed, the outer shell may appear to be almost intact. Only if you dare to go inside will you be amazed at the full power of desolation.
Freudenberger says that , like a burned-out house, a burned-out house may not appear so on the outside, but “its internal resources are consumed as if it were on fire, leaving a huge void inside.”
But what is burnout? Burnout can be divided into three parts , researchers say:
- Depletion
- Cynicism
- Inefficiency
Depletion of burnout can lead to the fact that you are easily frustrated, start to sleep badly, and will be more likely to get sick trying to concentrate.
In this context, cynicism is sometimes called depersonalization because it is characterized by a feeling of alienation from the people you work with and a lack of involvement in your work.
Finally, ineffectiveness refers to a lack of faith in one’s ability to do a good job and a decline in academic performance and productivity.
But how do we get into this deplorable state? It’s not as easy as overwork.
What Causes Burnout?
There is a common misconception that burnout is simply the result of working too hard or too long, according to Alexandra Michele , a science writer at the Association for Psychological Sciences.
Ultimately, Michelle writes, burnout results in the balance of deadlines, demands, work hours and other stressors exceeding reward, recognition and relaxation.
Christina Maslach, APS Fellow and Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, has been studying burnout since the 1970s. Maslach and her team identified six components of the work environment that can contribute to burnout:
- Load
- Control
- Reward
- Community
- Justice
- Values
We end up burnout when one or more of these areas of our work do not meet our needs.
This is also not uncommon. A recent study by Gallop found that 2.7 million workers in Germany report burnout symptoms. Another 2013 survey found that nearly 30% of UK HR directors surveyed believe burnout is widespread in their companies.
And the consequences are serious. Michelle says burnout is “not just a state of mind, but a state that leaves its mark on both the brain and the body.”
Burnout risks
Fatigue and lack of work engagement isn’t fun, but the risk of burnout goes deeper.
Research has shown that chronic psychosocial stress, which is common in burnout sufferers, can impair personal and social functioning, as well as suppress your cognitive skills and neuroendocrine systems. Over time, the effects of burnout can lead to problems with memory, attention, and emotional distress.
One study also showed that people with burnout may experience accelerated thinning of the anterior cerebral cortex, a part that is important for cognitive functioning. This area of the brain becomes thinner as a result of the natural aging process, but the thinning effect was more pronounced in participants who experienced burnout.
It’s not just the brain that is at risk. A study of nearly 9,000 workers found that burnout significantly increases the risk of coronary heart disease.
This all sounds pretty grim, so let’s move on to a more positive question: how to overcome burnout.
Overcoming burnout
This means you are feeling the effects of burnout or worried that you are taking risks. What can you do? Psychologists suggest finding ways to make it easier to manage your workload — delegate more, say no more, and write down what makes you feel stressed at work.
But burnout isn’t just about workload stress. To overcome burnout, you also need to find ways to relax and enjoy life again.
Focus on daily care
When you’re burned out, it’s easy to forget about taking care of yourself. You feel stressed, you have too much to do, and the last thing you have time for is taking care of yourself.
But according to Sherri Boer Carter , psychologist and author of High Octane Women: How Successful People Avoid Burnout , this is exactly what you should be doing. Carter says that when you experience burnout, it’s important to make sure you eat well, stay hydrated, exercise, and get plenty of sleep.
Carter also recommends remembering what you enjoy doing to help you relax and spending more time on these activities.
Do what you like
Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer believes burnout is caused by something simple and easy to fix: resentment about your job. Burnout is the result of work interfering with the lives of workers, according to Mayer. According to her, people “will be offended if their work makes them lose sight of what is really important to them.”
To prevent this resentment from escalating to burnout, Meyer says, it’s important to know what worries you the most and plan time for those activities.
Software developer Kent Nguyen agrees. Burnout occurs because “you can’t do what you love or what matters to you on a regular basis,” he says . In Nguyen’s case, he began to feel exhausted as he spent more time on his managerial responsibilities than writing code.
Nguyen counts periods of time spent programming as breakpoints, each of which briefly prevents burnout. He has small daily checkpoints and larger weekly and monthly checkpoints, so there are always new things to do that he loves to do. And when he misses a checkpoint, he tries to schedule another as soon as possible so that he never lingers too long without doing what he likes best.
Add something new
It might sound weird because it’s a very illogical idea, but James Sudakov, author of Picking Weak Fruit: And Other Stupid Things We Say in the Corporate World , actually added to his busy schedule to help him avoid burnout. …
Sudakov admits he had a busy schedule. Between his family responsibilities, his job, and the hours he spends writing every week, there wasn’t much wiggle room.
But Sudakov did what few of us would do – he added piano lessons to his schedule. 30 minutes a week for lessons and an hour for practice each day meant more than six hours a week of additional commitment.
But here’s the weird thing: it actually worked. This additional commitment helped Sudakov prevent burnout. The trick, he said, was to choose something that helped restore his energy. Playing the piano at night made me feel better when he fell asleep and woke up the next day. This daily rejuvenation permeated his work and made him feel better overall.
While it may seem impossible to add to your schedule or even find more time for something you already enjoy when you face burnout, taking care of yourself is a great place to start. Just focusing on sleep, proper nutrition, and a little exercise each day will help you avoid the worst burnout while you get back to normal.
Burnout Guide: What It Is And How To Deal With It | RescueTime