Managing Burnout - The Big “B”
In our highly-stimulated lives, we must always be on the lookout for burnout, which has become increasingly widespread. For freelancers in particular, burnout should be something that you stay aware of. It’s vital to monitor your body and mind, keeping yourself in check and regularly managing yourself so as not to burn out. Create a mental or physical checklist that you can go through during your week—that is my strategy. I’d like to share a bit more about burnout and how to fight it today - with my strategy checklist at the end.
I’m certain many of you are familiar with the concept, or at least the sensation of ‘burnout’, to varying degrees. The feeling of being “burnt out”, empty, out of energy, out of focus, in a rut, not being able to carry out and fulfil tasks that seemed to be so easy just a year, a month, a week, a day ago. Arguably the worst part of burnout is the immediate snowball effect: you lose efficiency at work, which then accumulates faster and more, which then increases the workload, and leads to more burnout. It can become a vicious cycle.
In my personal experience, I’ve found that burnout comes and goes in waves; and the frequency of the waves can be spread out over a course of hours, or a course of months. Throughout the day, hormonal balance changes and sugar levels changes will also affect this. The post-lunch slump or crash is a well-known example of this. The key for myself is to monitor and distinguish between which wave I’m riding, which then helps me figure out a strategy. When I’m burnt out, the motivation to do my work and the amount of effort required to get up and actually start transforms into a mountain that I need to overcome. This is particularly cumbersome for my voice acting work, which requires active energy and effort for every minute I put in—otherwise, you can hear it!
To fight the daily lulls such as the lunch crash, I focus on the preventative side, with a few activities I can do as backups. Particularly in the summer, the post-lunch slump is pronounced. I make sure to eat enough without overeating. If I’m watching a video or episode, I make sure that it will end 10-15 minutes before I get back to work. I usually try to stretch and throw in some mobility exercises in the 5 minutes before I begin, and I make sure that as soon as I finish up my lunch break, the first thing that I do is sit at my desk, and start working. I usually leave a task for myself before I head off to lunch so that I can stay occupied as soon as I’m back and return to my workflow. Most days, this strategy works quite well, and I work through the slump effectively.
If I find that I’m still in the slump after lunch or during the day, I usually take an ‘active’ break—one that I intentionally tell myself I will make, and do something active during it. This can be to walk around the office, go outside for a breath of fresh air, or stretch for 5 minutes. If I’m still unable to focus, I will study for 10 minutes (my usual go-to is Japanese), meditate, or take a longer walk if the weather allows for it. This will take care of most of my ruts in a given week.
The important part is that if I notice I’m still not getting that motivation or discipline to get to work, I will head over to my longer-wave-burnout checklist. It might be that I’m just having an off day, but if a change of pace hasn’t worked after 30 minutes, I need to check my baseline.
This brings me to long-term or long-wave burnout.
Long-term burnout is crucial to take care of as soon as possible, and try everything that you can to prevent. This can transform into depression (if it isn’t that already), and can affect all aspects of your life—at that point, work is not a priority, but health. The most challenging part about long-term burnout is that it can sneak up on you. It’s so gradual, that many people don’t notice. But one day, you have lost the power to sit down and concentrate for even 5 minutes, and you have no idea how you got here. For me personally, I have experienced a few waves of this in the past, with one in particular being extraordinarily challenging. I am fortunate that through care and support, I can now fully say that I’ve overcome it.
As a result of my personal experience with burnout, I have a self-monitoring system and a backup system in place. I wanted to share it so that maybe those who read this blog post can avoid experiencing it in the first place.
In short, regular ‘check-ins’ with myself, and a checklist . I have 2 dates in the year where I will take time and evaluate how I am feeling, if I’m seeing any signs of burnout, stress, or anything else, and make any changes that I deem appropriate. I also use these days to see if any big decisions (like education, changes is schedule, habits, etc.) have been right for me. For me, these dates are April 14th, and November 11th, arbitrarily. On a more regular basis, I make sure to check in with myself once a week with a little ‘how we feeling?’, as a baseline. Particularly if I notice a stronger slump than usual, as I described earlier.
Onto the checklist for keeping long-wave burnout in check. I have a mental mini-checklist of general things I ask myself weekly, on the two yearly check-ins, and whenever I deem it necessary. The answers can be pretty vague, but help me determine a general direction. My short-term mental checklist consists of:
“How am I feeling right now?”
“Is this a temporary feeling, or has this been around for a while?”
“Am I feeling content with my current status quo?”
If any of the answers above seem to give me significant pause, or a negative answer, I follow-up with my physical checklist. This is also my go-to for the twice-yearly check-ins. My long-term burnout physical checklist:
“Am I feeling like the effort I’m putting in is giving me equal or positive results?”
“Is my day-to-day effort ‘worth it’ to do, or is it not?”
“Do I see the point of continuing my current routine?”
“Is the current stress level surface, mixed, or profound?” Reflect in as much detail as possible here on recent times.
“When was the last time I had a relaxing day where I fully felt relaxed?”
“Have I done something I enjoy (reading, hiking, writing, studying) recently? How recently, how much fun was it?”
Once I’ve answered these, either to myself on a regular check-in, and in writing twice a year, I evaluate them. If all is well, then I pat myself on the back and keep on going where I’m going, perhaps adding in some more notes of what I want to keep in mind for the next while. If I’m receiving indications that things are not going well, then I immediately know I have things to tackle.
Finally, I wanted to end this blog post with what actions I take if I do see myself burning out, and not just in a daily slump fashion:
Contact a friend I can trust, or talk to a complete stranger online.
I talk to a friend or someone I trust about this, or find someone through a social platform that I can vent to (usually a vent-exchange situation). I’ll either never talk to this person again, befriend them, or talk to them on occasion for this purpose.
Organise a trip to change my setting ASAP, within reason. Often a day-long hike.
This isn’t always feasible. I find the earliest availability. If I’m feeling particularly critical, I will drop everything and take a day to do this.
If possible, take time off work.
Honesty is my policy for work communication. I let my clients know when I’m burnt out—and I show them I value them and their work by taking a break until I’m able to deliver quality. I have several long-term clients that I will always be loyal to following their response to a burnout, or a stressful time period. Always have a small fund, even if it’s just the equivalent of $100, for this.
Take time to write or express.
I try my best to write regularly. It’s a good mental exercise at worst, and at best, it can be therapeutic. Poetry, prose, or anything that gets pen to paper or finger to keyboard.
Seek out professional help when critical.
I cannot stress enough how important this is. Whether you rely on family or friends, or are unable to have someone like that by your side, there are options available. For budgets, online therapy is an option as well. There is always the possibility of finding something viable for the short-term while you search for something more solid in the long term.
Thank you very much for reading. I hope that this blog post may have helped you become more aware of burnout and indicators, or given you some strategies to potentially deal with it. I hope that you stay safe, mindful, and healthy.
