Burnout: Indicators and Resolution

Psychology Today has a timely article on Overcoming Burnout. It’s also a quick read.

Background

With the recent recession during the previous two years, my wife was releasedf from her position as a IT/Business Analyst along with a number of our friends who worked in different sectors of the Las Vegas economy. The general mood could be described as “troubled” as more of our friends faced unemployment while those who were able to retain their job faced increased workloads and uncertain working environments.

So how does this affect the rest of us who have jobs and are working harder than ever?

For the folks like myself who were able to avoid the impact of cost-cutting measures, it’s was a common occurrence to see our workload doubled. Being a workaholic, I am embarrassed to admit that relish these situations. I look forward to solving problems that others face and I see such situations as challenges (to the detriment of quality time with the family).

Considering that the recession may have a long tail, however, this may be a situation where improving a bad process just isn’t a good idea.

Solution

In bullet form, the Psychology Today article lists the action-items for identifying, addressing, and avoiding burnout. The simplest and most immediate items addresses those who may already be experiencing an overload of work or in the processes of burning out:

1. Identify the situations that is causing the most stress
2. Create one remedy that will alleviate or reduce the stress
3. Say “no” to new commitments

I highly recommend reading the rest of the article for additional insight in avoiding and preventing burnout, such as socializing outside of your network and finding a support group to share frustrations and reduce stress.

Reading through the article, I’ve made a list of the situations that are contributing a large amount of stress in my life. Similar to the principle in David Allen’s Getting Things Done method, the act of writing things down and getting them out of your head has immediately reduced the amount of anxiety that I’ve felt this morning.

As a side benefit, I now have a list of action-items that I can work on. There seems to be a sense of irony in this process, but I do admittedly feel better.

No related posts.