Top Five tips to prevent burnout
What is burnout?
Burnout usually occurs as a result of stress in the workplace although it is possible to experience burnout in your personal life. Burnout is a combination of exhaustion and feeling emotionally drained.
Burnout can often leads to sufferers experiencing a decrease in motivation and even compassion. To read more about what causes burnout, see our previous blog .
Tips for preventing burnout
Preventing burnout needs a holistic approach and can be much more likely if there are other factors such as stress in your personal life. To prevent burnout from destabilising your life, try to follow these top five tips:
1. Maintain balance between work and the hobbies you enjoy
Remind yourself that work is only one aspect of your life and may not be the one that brings you the most joy. Keep time boundaries; finish and start on time and avoid checking messages outside of these times. Cultivate hobbies such as sports and creative activities. If you don’t currently have hobbies then try something new or go back to something you enjoyed as a child such as painting, horse riding or baking.
2. Look after yourself
Prioritise your own physical health needs. Maintain a good sleep routine with good sleep hygiene, eat well and exercise frequently. This solid foundation is helpful for good general mental health including avoiding anxiety and depression, not just for preventing burnout.
3. Notice and reflect on personality traits that might lead you down the road to burnout
If you are know to be a perfectionist, high achiever or someone who likes to be in control, then reflect on if these aspects are contributing to your poor mental health. Reflect on where these come from, with professional support if needed, and move beyond these defining how you live your life.
4. Build, maintain and prioritise relationships
Relationships are key for preventing burnout. It is important to have healthy, stable relationships outside of work to keep priorities in place. It is also important to build strong relationships at work with your peers and seniors. Peers are an important source of support when workload and stress is high. Equally, relationships with managers can be a bigger indicator of stress at work than workload itself. Make time to speak to those you work with, connect with them as people and support one another.
5. Shape your role
Finally, and perhaps most difficult to achieve is changing what can be changed. Find roles that suit your style, personality and skill set. Speak to managers about your desire to help the organisation without burning yourself out and negotiate some tasks that may be detrimental to your wellbeing. Having a sense of control and autonomy over your role can boost wellbeing
Burnout UK was founded by Dr Julie Hannan and provides online courses for people to overcome and prevent burnout. Courses are written by Psychologists and approved by the British Psychological Society. Courses help you identify stressors that you face in your work and home life that might be contributing to your burnout and reshape areas of your life which are depleting you by developing new strategies to support your recovery and strengthen your resilience and wellbeing for the future.