Dealing with Burnout

I’ve had to make some changes to my habits lately due to the onset of burnout. I spend a lot of my free time doing something – I’m writing this while on the train on my way to teach a class. Having done this for a while I’m used to it even though I know it’s not healthy.

My activity of choice is usually reading but is often watching DVDs (mainly instructionals). As much as possible I try to use my downtime to learn. This is great because I keep a constant stream of new ideas coming in but is bad because I rarely ‘make’ time to let my brain rest.

Recently this has been particularly bad because I’m juggling a bunch of extra things on top of my usual load of activities. After a long weekend of teaching I’m feeling like curling up and going to sleep for a few days. Not from physical tiredness but from mental tiredness.

It’s a weird feeling, I’m weary and a little fuzzy around the edges. This lack of sharpness can be a problem when I’m training because I tend to pick up knocks.

So how do I go about beating the burnout?

I’m launching a multi pronged attack that is physical and mental.

1) I have made my diet a lot healthier recently, for too long I have eaten and drunk what I could get away with due to the amount of training I did. While not massively unhealthy I did indulge my sweet tooth too much and was at the mercy of insulin and rollercoaster blood-sugar levels. I have massively increased the fruit and vegetable content of my diet and reduced the nutrient-sapping caffiene.

This means I feel fresher, more energised and recover faster becasue my body is getting the fuel it needs. Plus I'm losing weight gradually which is making me feel healthier week upon week.

2) Building upon this foundation of healthier eating practices I am engineering times in my day where I am not working. Lunchtime is no longer taken at my desk but inolves a walk out in town to get some fresh air and then I eat food brought in from home.

As well as this I make sure that I have a number of ‘screen breaks’ although these could, more accurately, be called desk breaks. If I take a few minutes every hour to get up and walk around I feel much better throughout the course of the day and am still fresh deep into the afternoon.

The single biggest method for this is to not email or phone people within the office but rater make a point of going and talking to them instead. This helps me politically a huge deal too. I’m seen as the most approachable member of my section of the company because I work to network, this relievs tension and prevents stress (another contributing factor of burnout)

3) Making my free time free. Admittedly this is the hardest of the lot. Too often I’m tempted by magazines, books, blogs, discussion boards and the like. I commute to and from work and the gym and have stopped reading while I am. I’m trying to use these times as natural ‘firebreaks’, allowing me to switch from work-coaching-home mode more effectively.

I’m away this weekend and will be doing nothing work wise, taking no books and may even do something in a leisurely fashion to shake off this burnout before it digs it’s claws in.

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