😓 Burnout: Why it happens?
And how to fix it | Wisdom Letter 260
Look around, everyone you know is going through burnout right now, or has been through it in the past. At least that’s what it feels like.
Burnout seems to be one of the silent epidemics of our time.
Its not just stress, its not just overworking, its not just overwhelm.
Its a bit more than all those combined.
Here’s what I’ve found about burnout -
Symptoms -
Emotional Exhaustion - can’t handle another thing on your plate.
Depersonalisation or Cynicism - short fuse! Angry at everyone around you.
Personal Ineffectiveness - feels impossible to do what really matters
No modern phenomenon - happens since industrial revolution.
Why it happens?
Increase workload
Values mismatch - What you do is not what you signed up for
Sense of unfairness - community breakdown around you
Sense of reward - no intrinsic rewards, only extrinsic + unfairness = Burnout!
Treatment
Take good care of yourself
Structural changes at work
More alignment with what you want to do, and what you actually do
De-identify from your work
Take a sabbatical ?
Cal Newport and Andrew Huberman expand on the reasons for burnout in this video -
And this video from Big Think digs deeper into symptoms and possible fixes -
Great video from Psych2Go about how to deal with burnout -
How I’ve dealt with burnout
I’ve been through burnout at different stages of my career.
Here are 3 strategies that helped me avoid burnout:
Schedule non negotiable self care
Outsource lower-value tasks when possible
Established clear boundaries between work and family
I expanded on each point in this LinkedIn post a while back.
🤗 How can we help?
Whenever you’re ready, here’s how we can help you -
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That’s it for today.
See you next week 👋
We’ll be back with more interesting notes, highlights and curations.
Cheers,
Ayush & Aditi