How to Avoid Burnout
Here are the 8 things that people with the lowest risk of burnout have in common.
How many of these strategies are part of your life today?
1. When they are at work, they work very hard - they are driven high performers.
2. They’ve learned their lesson - they used to work in unhealthy ways, stepped back and made changes to create a sustainable approach to work.
3. They’ve accepted they won’t get everything done - they used to pride themselves on doing it all, now they’ve learned to let this go and focus on prioritising and doing all they can.
4. They have a ritual to help them switch from work to personal mode - this includes certain activities, mantras and visualisations.
5. They have set clear boundaries between work and home - they don’t think about or do any work at home.
6. Their life isn't just work - they enjoy various hobbies and interests that draw them into states of flow and absorption (e.g. dancing, running, volunteering). These are often ‘opposite worlds’, with nothing in common with their day job.
7. They have a ‘phone strategy’ - they are digital minimalists. Their phone is out of sight at home and they don’t check it until the morning.
8. They keep work in perspective - they know that work and jobs are impermanent and they are careful not to fuse their identity to their role.
With many struggling with feeling overloaded, unable to switch off and without healthy boundaries between work and home, hopefully the above will help to see where effective changes can be made.
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I find number 2 interesting - it appears as if the ones with least burnout risk have either experienced it or come very close to it in the past. So if you’re reading this thinking ‘I don’t need to follow any of this advice, I’m doing fine’, then maybe you might benefit from this the most.
I also think number 8 can make a huge difference - many clients I speak to are so attached to work that they have little sense of identity outside of their career. This was a big factor in my life as well.
A question I often ask is ‘Who would you be without your career?’
This often leads to silence and some quiet reflection. These insights can lead to significant change.
This is why coaching is a great way to create a sustainable and balanced life without compromising on high performance.
(Thank you Nick Petrie for this excellent research. Please follow him for more research on leadership and the workplace).
