How I Stay Out of Burnout
Recently I waded my way out of burnout from eleven years of pushing myself too hard and chronic pain. A coworker was recently asking me how I cope with burnout, a high volume workload, and feeling like one is underperforming. So here are my tips on getting out and staying out of burnout.
First, dear Reader, hugs, empathy and understanding of all the feels of burnout. Second, fuck the world that makes people work so hard and the economics and culture that make that be necessary and/or normalized. Onward:
I go hard on self care in proportion to going hard on work. I’ve slowly shifted to self care being my priority.
Stop working when you notice you’re stressed. The moment you notice you have too much to do is the exact moment you need to stop working. Rest, in whatever way is available to you in that moment. Then from a more relaxed state of mind, think about what’s most important and do that. This is a cycle thing, getting used to it has helped me be wayyyyy more effective at all of my gigs, and less stressed/drowning.
It seems to me that people who are good at what they do often feel they’re underperforming. It took me a long time to shake that out of my system, get less perfectionistic and also find ways to care less. I’ve only recently become better able to separate myself from working. That cuts out one layer of stress, it’s a mental or heart shift of “you know what, none of this matters enough to hurt myself over.”
With certain roles, context switching at work is a big mental load. I try to take breaks between each context, sometimes literally I curl up in a ball, or go for a walk, or lay down. That helps too. It takes an attitude of “fuck this” or “that can wait” to be able to get myself to pause like that.
Going in an infrared sauna twice per week is like a magic key for me to stay relaxed amidst my high-pressure jobs. Otherwise I tend to veer into “to-do list attack mode”, then it’s hard to climb down and chill. Gyms and tanning salons sometimes have saunas with a monthly membership.
Regular massage. I go every two weeks because being at the computer makes my shoulders really tense (no matter how perfect my ergonomic desk setup is). I’ll write a whole separate article or video series on the exercises I do to combat computer tension. But if you work at a computer and struggle with tense shoulders, a standing desk and a split and tented keyboard help reduce the inward-curving tendency that puts strain on your upper traps, pecs, and rhomboids etc. I use a Keyboardio keyboard, spread pretty far apart.
Non. computer. hobbies.
Exercising most days, cardio and strength and stretching. I was not able to exercise for ten years due to a back injury, which was a big part of my burnout. I went hard for 3 years on advocating for myself with my healthcare/insurance, and spending all spare money I had, to address that. That was the first thing I had to tackle before I could unwind anything else.
I still have chronic pain, and I’ve had to adjust my work — what I do for work and making sure I work from home, so I can accommodate my physical challenges. If you work at an office, I don’t think it’s outrageous to ask for a naproom so you can lay down — some offices have a zenspace. You could even request for a small enclosed area to be built in the breakroom or if there is additional unused deskspace somewhere. I’ve found that I really need to lay down to let my spine relax and nervous system reset throughout the day. Even before I had back problems, this would have been really helpful. If you can get a lay down place at your office, I would be surprised if it doesn’t shift your whole office culture in a good way.
Therapy for a year helped me unpack my non-physical traumas. I was having a lot of additional stress while working from past communication trauma from domestic and online abuse. The therapist helped me work through reprogramming myself to recognize those were no longer real and present dangers to me, so that I could communicate clearly and directly with the situation at hand. We’ve all got past traumas and ongoing collective ones. Somatic presencing helped me a lot too. For me that’s simply rubbing my hands on my thighs if I notice getting triggered. Closing my eyes and reminding myself I’m safe now. That small action helped me a ton. It shortcircuited that memory stress loop and cut out a huge volume of my stress in a very short period of time. I hear EMDR is also really good for thorny PTSD stuff. It’s increasingly common for therapists to be trained in it.
Getting off of coffee and caffeine. It took me 10 tries over 3 years to get there. Tips: DLPA (DL-phenylalanine) helps with the headaches and the emotional withdrawals. It’s an amino acid. I was not able to get off of coffee until I adequately addressed the physical pain and emotional stress that was why I was using it to ignore everything and hammer through my work day. For me coffee was a drug abuse thing, I mean no shaming to people who drink it.
Ok that’s it for now. There’s a lot more I could go into around being physically ok while working at a computer. I have a large basket full of physical therapy tools that looks like the toy bin for a large dog. I use them all and they all help. There’s specific stretches I do to reverse computer posture. But frequently walking away from my desk has been the most helpful. We are not physically evolved to stare at a glowing flat plane at a fixed distance in one position all day!
That reminds me of one last tip: UNINSTALL ALL SOCIAL MEDIA FROM YOUR PHONE. All of it. If you at all can. Finis.
Turn your sloth up. Love,
Magenta
About Mage: Like this article? I write about coding, arts, and the economy at magewrites.com. Collectively I organize with Bloom Network, a global network of local community networks building food, culture, and economic power together. Follow us and join forces :D
