By Staff Writer: Caitlin Daugherty
Every person in education or work has felt the psychological concept of burnout. After a couple of months of a particularly difficult class or a daunting project at your job, you can feel symptoms of being exhausted both physically and mentally. You might feel unmotivated towards your goals and emotionally frayed. You might even begin to harbor feelings of resentment towards yourself and others. These are massive signs that you are in the middle of burnout.
Burnout affects everyone at different times and at different levels of stress. Some are so busy with work that they don’t even realize that they are burning out until they are done. Others feel the effects of burnout at the beginning of a stressful project or after a very hard exam. Do not feel ashamed of yourself if you find that you are experiencing burnout at a seemingly random time in your life. Resiliency varies from person to person, and what matters is how you help yourself through burnout.
There are many ways to make it out of burnout without negatively affecting your work or academic performance. The first step to take is to establish a better work life or school life balance. A big reason why you are burning out is because you do not have an established boundary between your work life and your personal life. Taking more time to relax and unwind after work is crucial to mental health.
The second step would be to establish a frequent break schedule while you work. The pomodoro method is a fantastic way to do this. The method is as follows: a 25-minute working period followed by a 5-minute break, do these three or four times then you will be allowed to have a 15-minute break. Do this in sets of 5 and you will be able to complete whatever task at hand in a mentally healthy and more productive way.
Finally, do not be afraid to seek therapy when school and work becomes too much for you to handle. There is no shame in having a safe place to discuss how your responsibilities are weighing on you. If therapy is not an option for you, then having close friends or family that you can confide in can be helpful as well.