Burnout Mitigation

Burnout.

The feeling of complete & utter mental / emotional exhaustion from overworking yourself. Burning the candle from both ends until the wick runs out.

If you work hard enough for long enough without the proper care, it becomes more and more likely that you, too, will burn yourself out.

You get tired, stop caring, stop trying, usually for a prolonged period of weeks or months. When we were in the final stages of launching Uptrends I think you could say I was burnt out. But these days I feel good as ever, despite working even more at times

What changed? I think a big part has been some of the habits outside of work that I’ve worked on implementing. There are still good and bad days, but taking care makes helps you keep your trendline below the burnout level.

Ultimately there is a trade-off between stress and performance. I thought of this chart. To perform at a high level is to take on a considerable amount of stress - you must challenge yourself up to the point of fatigue without going too far ‘over the hump’ to the point of exhaustion, illness, breakdown.

Recently I had a string of overly stressful days. That inspired me to think of some ways that have worked for me to avoid burnout and strike a balance. Here are some tried and true tactics for avoiding and mitigating burn out:

1. Get good sleep - above all, this is the biggest influence of burnout. If you aren’t getting 50+ hours of sleep per week you should be sleeping more

2. Go for walks - one of the leading antidepressants is to simply walk. Make a point to walk a little bit (outside, in nature!) every day. Such a high ROI

3. Spice it up - mix up the location you’re working from whenever possible. A great excuse to walk is to leave your office and work from a coffee shop.

4. Drink more water - yes… sorry to sound like your doctor.

5. Set work boundaries - pick a night (or two) each week to reserve as date night with your S/O or friends night out, stick to this without fail.

6. Keep a weekly / monthly planner - the easiest way to manage your to-dos/goals is to measure them. I keep track of mine in little notebook. Log your time spent, and break big tasks into bite-sized ones

7. Go on vacation dude (before it’s too late) - especially if you are young… plan some trips, a few weekend trips or even a full week here and there

8. Limit social media time (Clearspace) - avoid too much time online. The context switching and insta-envy are clear are soooo draining

9. Work with people you like - this may sound obvious.. but it’s not. You spend 25% of your time with your coworkers. Make sure you get along with them!

10. Limit meetings - another source of context-switching fatigue. Only take essential meetings; rarely should a meeting exceed 30min

11. Meditate & practice gratitude - be relentlessly positive, and grateful. Life is a gift, challenge is an opportunity, set daily reminders to be intentional about this

12. Call your mom - this one is obvious :-)

Your brain and body are magical. But much like a computer or v8 engine, if you don’t take good care over time, you can and will cause damage. You must be deliberate and intentional about how you take care.

Warren Buffett has a great quote along these lines. He paints a vivid picture: “imagine you're gifted one car for life. How carefully would you maintain it? Now realize: your body and mind are that car.”

What ways do you take care of yourself to mitigate burnout?

Peace,
Ramsey