Nov 19, 202111 min read

13 Reasons you’re burning out and what to do about it.

Updated: Nov 26, 2021

We are constantly running in life. We're running this invisible race against each other and against the world. In this process, we tend to challenge our limitations both mentally and physically and reach a point where we burn out our energy completely and drain all our energy.

You can also check out the audio version below.

Below are 13 reasons you're burning yourselves out and the reasons behind it, and a few things you can do to avoid them.

Sense of failure and Self-doubt

These are clear signs of burnout in this generation. With the constant showcase of success stories on social media and everywhere around you, it is the most natural response to feel a sense of failure and question your own capabilities and skills. It's natural to feel that you’re not worth it or your skills are not worth anything.

In a constantly developing world, there are always going to be people who are more skilled than you, but that doesn't mean you stress yourself out and fall into the circle of self-pity and doubt your capabilities and burn yourself out. This can cause a lot of mental stress and pressure that you would put on yourself.

Avoid comparing yourself to every success story out there and try to learn and excel in your field one step at a time. Keeping your mental and physical health in check is also an important skill in this fast-paced life we live.

Not taking care of yourself

Our typical 9-5 jobs have become 24hours jobs in this WFH situation. We are constantly doing one task or the other. All of us have a ton of responsibilities that we need to tend to on a daily basis which in itself can be very stressful.

We often get busy getting our day-to-day tasks done so much that we tend to focus on ourselves and take a step back to relax and take care of our minds and bodies. We forget to eat, we forget to drink, we are addicted to junk food, we’re constantly watching one or the other digital screens. We burn out very quickly due to the amount of exposure we have to these daily tasks.

Our minds are running 24x7 thinking and planning what to do next. Take a step back, calm down, and indulge in a nice cup of coffee once in a while, take out time to pamper yourself, eat right, read a book, spend some time talking to your friends and family, if nothing works, just take a nap.

Inculcating these tiny habits into your daily routines will help reduce stress, will give you something else to do other than just functioning like a robot. Learn to take care of yourself first. You are your first priority.

Inconsistent sleep patterns

This is something a lot of us are suffering from. Due to our addiction to social media and the amount of exposure you each have to digital screens, it becomes hard to cut yourself off from this and shut down your mind and get some sleep.

Constant binge-watching, social media scrolling keep our minds up all the time. Try to manage your exposure to these things and follow a certain sleep schedule. Try some sleeping techniques to induce sleep and get a sleep pattern identified for yourself and one that fits your schedule.

It’s very important for us to get a good sleep in order to feel happy and refreshed and have the energy to perform our daily tasks. Sleep plays a very important role in our overall take on life.

Problems with setting boundaries

The idea of boundaries seems very far-fetched to a lot of us and because of this, we all lack the skills of setting boundaries with people, at work, and in life in general.

Letting people walk all over you and you feel the need to say yes to all the things others suggest in life is a very consuming habit. It ruins your peace of mind.

Always letting work spill over to your personal life has a negative impact on your family and your relationships and your mental wellbeing.

Try setting boundaries from the smallest things, you can start with letting your boss and peers know that you will not be checking emails after office hours, or can be as simple as setting up certain work hours to work and logging off after working hours to spend time with family. These tiny changes can have lasting impacts on your work life and also help in bringing back your peace of mind and giving you back your energy to focus on other aspects of life.

Not knowing when to say no

Getting stuck in the spiral of people-pleasing and sucking up a ton of us always feel the need to say yes to everything everyone suggests without considering our mental and physical state.

You don't have to say yes to a week-long trip with your friends when all you want to be doing is relaxing at home and spending some time with family, you don't have to do anything that you don't feel gives you the energy you need in life.

You can always say no when you are not feeling up to doing anything. This applies to work as well, when you already have a ton of responsibilities on your plate, you don't have to take up additional work and sacrifice your personal time just to please your boss or just the fact that you didn't know how to say no.

Practice saying no to small things. Start prioritizing yourself before anything or anyone else. Prioritize your mental and physical well-being first.

Interpersonal problems at home and work

If you're always spending all your time at work, you will have no energy by the time you get home and have no interest or energy left to spend with your family waiting for you at home. This created a lack of communication and connection between family members.

Human beings crave a sense of connection and bonding with each other and when that's lacking, any relationship can fail and cause problems. Having such problems at home and work will cause you to burn out and lose the will and courage to perform the day-to-day tasks and will lead to poor performance at work and in life in general.

Try to separate work and personal life and balance both to create a harmonious environment for yourself and your loved ones to live in and prosper.

Health problems

Burnout can happen when you're physically unwell and have health issues.

Due to constant work pressure, we often tend to neglect our health until it becomes too late to reverse the effects of bad health on our lives.

Give importance to your physical health and focus on your body and cater to its needs. Keep yourself healthy both mentally and physically to avoid burnout.

Doing work you don’t love

Many of us are in jobs that are irrelevant to our educational background. The generic engineering degrees haven't done us any good either.

There's a funny saying on the internet about engineering and Indians following our passion right, Indians don't follow their passions straight out of school, they do engineering first and then follow their passion. I think all of us are following this, somehow having an engineering degree has become a backup plan for the majority of us.

Working in a 9-5 is completely fine when you're getting one of these things from your job- good pay, work-life balance, job satisfaction. If you're getting one among the above three, I think you're doing okay in life.

The problem arises when you aren't getting any of the three things that I mentioned from your jobs or the work you do. Having this sort of dissatisfied work life takes a toll on your mind, you will hate your work, and constantly complain and dread going to work every Monday, you just can't wait to get done with work. You find no satisfaction from work.

With the majority of us spending 8-9 hrs doing something we don't love or don't enjoy is not good for our mental well-being. You start to hate your life and work and feel burned out and find no interest to do anything in life.

Rethink your job choice if you are dissatisfied with it and try to make the necessary changes for your betterment.

All work and no play

Work-life balance is an alien concept to people in 9-5 jobs working in the corporate world.

Many of us are stuck in the rat race forgetting that there's life beyond work. We dread working but still make work the center of our lives. Working smartly isn't spoken about or discussed.

Slogging at work and complaining about it over Friday night parties has become the new cool and go-to lifestyle choice for everyone. This kind of lifestyle builds up a lot of dissatisfaction and tension inside your heads and you become a ticking time bomb waiting to explode.

Instead, try limiting your work hours and put some life back into your life. Include activities that you used to enjoy doing in the past to your daily routine. I'm sure all of us have had a ton of habits or hobbies in our childhood, why not inculcate a few into your adult life too.

Schedule time to do your favorite activities with your families, friends, and kids. Don't make your life all about work, there's so much more to life than just work. Work is a means of income, that's all. It's not your life.

Not making time for your friends and family

I agree we all have to work or have jobs or run businesses to make money and be financially stable, but work shouldn't be the only thing you're living for.

You do have families and friends and maintaining a healthy relationship with them plays an important role in maintaining your mental well-being.

Human beings crave a sense of belonging and this innate need is often satisfied by our social connections with the community, our connection with people around us, building relationships and happy memories with family and loved ones. Make this a priority.

Spending just an hour with your family and loved ones will provide you with the peace of mind and happiness to keep your day going.

Unable to delegate

I feel all of us have a certain possessiveness about our work and our life. We often tend to want to do all the things in our lives by ourselves.

We're always told and taught to be self-sufficient and do all the work by ourselves, and that's what is considered hard work and success. But this kind of thinking doesn't work that well long-term.

All this added pressure of getting all things done by yourself without any help leads to mental and physical stress and this stress takes a toll on your peace of mind. Learning the skill of delegation is a very essential skill in the world we live in today.

Time is our greatest asset and delegation helps us divide work and get more things done in less time. There's no shame in asking for help or delegating or outsourcing your work. The end goal is to get things done.

Prioritize your wellbeing over having the rush of doing everything by yourself.

Your inner circle is toxic

There's a saying right, show me your friends and I'll tell you what kind of a person you are. On a similar note, the people we surround ourselves with play a major role in determining our course of actions and decisions in life.

Surrounding yourself with friends that are very demanding with no sense of boundaries often leads to very stressful and one-sided friendships.

Demanding friendships can be very time and energy-consuming and cause a lot of stress to keep up with expectations. It is very important to keep your circle of friends very small and be very particular about the kind of people you associate yourself with.

Any relationship or friendship should help you enhance your life and dreams and not suck the life out of you. Always pick your inner circle wisely.

Unclear expectations from work-life

Many of us are dissatisfied with the kind of work we do because the majority of us have no clue about our expectations from work.

You have to be clear about what you want from the work you're doing, you have to be clear whether you're doing your job for the financial aspect, or for your job satisfaction, or simply because you love doing it.

Having clear expectations set in your mind will help solve so many unresolved problems we create for ourselves at work.

When you have a sense of clarity about your expectations from work, you will have a clear understanding of how much effort you need to put into your work and how much time and energy you need to dedicate to work.

Having this information will help a lot in reducing the stress caused by performance and keeping up with people's expectations.

Always dissect and understand what your expectations are from your work and stick to them to make your life peaceful and prioritize focusing your life around the things that are really important.

Clear expectations reduce stress.

Now that we know a few things that cause burnout, let's talk about how we can deal with burnout and what to do about it.

Relax seriously

Take the concept of relaxation seriously. Stop running the rat race for a couple of hours every day and relax and connect with yourself.

Relaxation might be a different kind of non-work-related activity, something that gives you joy and happiness. You can simply rest and sleep and relax if you don't want to do any kind of activity.

You can read a book, you can sit on your balcony with a cup of coffee and look out at the sky and relax and think about nothing. Find your own version of what relaxation activity works for you and do it. Take relaxation seriously as it is much needed and you deserve it.

Non-work life

Try to build a life apart from your work.

Cultivate a few activities, make new friends, help out in your community, do anything but work.

Create chunks of personal spaces for yourself with your favorite things and enjoy being with yourself.

Create work-life balance

This is a life skill right now. If you cannot build a work-life balance, it's going to be the end of your mental health.

Create healthy work-life boundaries and balance your life. Leave work and work and be mindful when you're at home.

Create a life for yourself outside of work. Your work shouldn't be the only thing that defines you.

Unplug

Seriously unplug from the digital noise and social media.

Detach yourself from the noise of the world for an hour and be with your thoughts.

This is the best therapy you would need in the midst of the chaos of today's world.

Get good sleep

You should ideally be getting a minimum of 8 hours of sleep for your body to function normally.

Do not sacrifice your sleep to binge-watch tv shows. The shows aren't going anywhere.

They will be there when you get back the next day to watch them. Make sleep a priority as it helps in mind rejuvenation.

Get organized

The world is chaotic enough to ruin your peace of mind, do not clutter your living and working spaces.

Get your life, living conditions, work areas all organized to be more productive and visually get rid of clutter.

Out of sight, out of mind is the way to be.

Figure out boundaries and take control of your life

Prioritize things in life and delegate the things that others can do, leave work at work, be firm and vocal about your needs.

Practice self-compassion and pay attention to your needs

Be kind to yourself. Nobody is perfect.

Learn to understand that it's okay to not be perfect.

The responsibility of the world is not on your shoulders. Relax and focus on your life and your well-being.

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Thank you for taking out time to read our blog as part of Stensor- The Mind Chapter. Do remember this is coming from our experiences only. This is purely from our journey towards mental health and wellbeing. We are Architects by profession, with a design initiative part of Stensor-The Design Chapter, where we help our audience/clients design beautiful living spaces to enhance their lifestyle. If you’re looking to revamp your spaces, feel free to reach out to us via email at contact@stensor.in or Click Here to know more.