Avoiding Workplace Burnout

Many employees are "not engaged" or are "actively disengaged" from their jobs worldwide. On average, burnt out employees outnumber the engaged employees 2 to 1. Traditional theories teach us that burnout is caused by working too many hours or enduring too much stress, but that's a gross oversimplification of the matter. Not every person feels overwhelmed at the thought of delving into an inbox 96 new emails deep, and some people actually rely on pressure at work to perform at a high level.

First, figure out which kind of burnout you have.
Burnout comes in three different types, and each one needs a different solution:

Overload: The employee who works toward success until exhaustion. These individuals might try to cope with their stress by complaining about the organizational hierarchy at work, feeling as though it imposes limits on their goals and ambitions. That coping strategy seems to lead to a stress overload and a tendency to throw in the towel.
Lack of Development: These under-challenged workers tend to manage stress by distancing themselves from work, a strategy that leads to depersonalization and cynicism - a harbinger for burning out and packing up shop.
Neglect: The employee who seems to give up in the face of stress. Even though these individuals want to achieve a certain goal, they lack the motivation to plow through barriers to get to it.




Next, cut down and start saying "no." Every "yes" you say adds another thing on your plate and takes more energy away from you, and your creativity.
Also, give up on getting motivated.
With real burnout mode, you're too exhausted to stay positive.


Then, make downtime a daily ritual. To help relieve pressure, schedule daily blocks of downtime to refuel your brain and well-being. It can be anything from meditation to a nap, a walk, or simply turning off the wifi for a while.


Next, stop being a perfectionist; start satisficing. Trying to maximize every task and squeeze every drop of productivity is a recipe for exhaustion and procrastination. Set yourself boundaries for acceptable work and stick to them.


Track your progress every day.
Keeping track allows you to see exactly how much is on your plate, not only day-to-day, but consistently over time.


Finally, break projects into bite-sized pieces. Taking a task on in one entire lump can be exhausting and provide little room for rest in between. Breaking up your projects into set chunks with their own deadlines provides a much healthier, and easier, way of completing a large project.