How to Keep From Burning Out

Things have become really tough and hec­tic lately at the office. The good thing about work­ing for my present com­pany is that there are a lot of new things to learn and new projects to do. It’s good for some­one like me who always wants some vari­ety in my life, but it can get pretty hec­tic. Burn out is a real pos­si­bil­ity if I go at my present pace for long peri­ods of time. This arti­cle from BNET is just what the doc­tor ordered for me at this point in my pro­fes­sional career.

http://​blogs​.bnet​.com/​t​e​a​m​w​o​r​k​/​?​p​=​1​0​2​6​&​a​m​p​;​t​a​g​=​n​l​.​e​713

Your clients are clam­or­ing, your staff is surly, the dead­lines are loom­ing and the pres­sure has never been higher. Some days, just get­ting out of bed in the morn­ing requires a major effort, and you’re get­ting short-tempered and stressed out.

What’s going on? It could just be a tem­po­rary thing, or you could be head­ing down the road to burnout.

What can you do? Plenty, actu­ally, and all of it is good advice even if you’re not on the verge of a break­down. Pick some or all of these tips to get your men­tal health back on track and rekin­dle your enthu­si­asm for your work.

* Get plenty of sleep. And that means qual­ity sleep — no cat­naps in the office to make up for all-night work ses­sions. Skip the late-night TV and turn in at a rea­son­able hour so you start each day fully charged.

* Take breaks. Turn off your cell phone, step away from your com­puter, and give your­self reg­u­lar 5– to 10-minute breathers. If you can, take a quick walk (or drink a glass of water or cup of tea) out­side; the nat­ural light will help reju­ve­nate you.

* Exer­cise. Yes, I know it’s hard to squeeze into an already packed day, but I’m not nec­es­sar­ily talk­ing about a 90-minute gym extrav­a­ganza here. Just adding a brisk walk around the block at lunchtime can help. Take the stairs instead of the ele­va­tor, park at the far end of the lot, bike to work instead of drive…every lit­tle bit helps.

* Eat bet­ter. Skip the vend­ing machines and fast food and eat a real lunch and healthy snacks. Fruit and nuts make energy-dense, nutri­ent rich snacks. Stock your desk with gra­nola bars and dried fruit and stash cut veg­gies in the fridge. In a pinch, a whole-wheat bagel smeared with peanut but­ter is quick and bet­ter for you than a Big Mac. The bet­ter nutri­tion will help keep your body and brain oper­at­ing at opti­mum levels.

* Don’t skip lunch. Speak­ing of eat­ing, one mis­take busy pro­fes­sion­als often make is work­ing straight through the lunch hour. Seems like you’re being more pro­duc­tive, but you’ll see dimin­ish­ing returns if you’re hun­gry or tired. That lunch break is there to nour­ish both your body and mind. Even if you can only spare 20 min­utes, use them every day to change your focus.

* Take your PTO. Take a mental-health day to get grounded, spend a long week­end in the coun­try, or use that hard-earned vaca­tion time. You don’t have to go some­where exotic to enjoy the break; even stay­ing home and put­ter­ing around the house can help you reset from the stresses of the office.

* Say no. If you’re over­bur­dened, there’s no harm in telling some­one that you just can’t accom­mo­date another request at the moment. That counts on the home front, too.

* And if all else fails…consult a pro­fes­sional. Your HR depart­ment might be able to pro­vide you free or low-cost coun­sel­ing to help you deal with work stress; if not, sched­ul­ing some time with a psy­chol­o­gist can help you learn tech­niques for han­dling your stress better.

How else can you pre­vent burnout? Share your sug­ges­tions in the com­ments section!