Lassitude

Do you find it hard to concentrate?

Do you need more energy to be consistently productive?

Have you become irritable or impatient with co-workers, customers, or clients?

If you answered yes to all the questions, you might be experiencing job burnout. According to Mayo Clinic: "Burnout" isn't a medical diagnosis. Some experts think that other conditions, such as depression, are behind burnout. Researchers point out that individual factors, such as personality traits and family life, influence who experiences job burnout."

I am not a medical expert, but I am a hard-working individual. Like you and I, we have experienced job burnout once or twice. Job burnout is something that we can't just shrug our shoulders and say, "maybe I am just tired, or maybe I just need some rest, and this will go away." There is a difference between being stressed and being burnout. According to Psychology Today: "By definition, burnout is an extended period of stress that feels as though it cannot be alleviated. If stress is short-lived or tied to a specific goal, it is most likely not harmful. If the stress feels never-ending and comes with emptiness, apathy, and hopelessness, it may indicate burnout." These issues about experiencing burnout should be adequately addressed.

Last year I experienced burnout tremendously. I felt so tired that I couldn't sleep well for several days. I felt restless and susceptible to so many things. For instance, about the noises outside my house, about people only staring without any meaning, about employees who have selective hearing and are inconsiderate about our feelings, thinking that we are machines that just work without feelings, and the list can go on and on. I tried my best to hide what I was feeling at that time. However, I realized that hiding my feeling won't resolve my state of burnout. So, I decided to take control and acknowledge my condition of burnout.

I took several steps to take care of myself and ensure I could be a fully functional human being again. These are: doing something that is non-work related, doing some exercise, making some compromises, getting natural sleep, slowing down, and cutting screen time.

First, doing something non-work related. This is straightforward, stop thinking about work for at least a day or two. I tried to pick up old hobbies I had, such as relearning magic tricks, thinking about what to upgrade with my bike, perfecting my writing skills, enrolling in an online class, learning another dish to prepare for lunch, doing martial arts, and so on.

Second, do some exercise. Well, this is an essential part of our lives. To spend some time working out or exercising. I understand that we have different physical vigor, agility, or ability levels. At first, it takes a lot of free will to exercise. Two years ago, I discovered calisthenics and tried to take some push-ups, pull-ups, static movements, and core exercises. I will be honest with you I hated to do push-ups because it was so hard. I came with a body-building background, and lifting weights was easy, like just lifting a pen. But during the lockdown, I had no gym access, so I decided to find another way to stay fit and fab. I am still getting my calisthenics movement to another level, learning different types of push-ups like Hindu push-ups, pike push-ups, diamond push-ups, wide push-ups, typewriter push-ups, reverse push-ups, atlas push-ups, and so on. There are other exercises, too, with different body parts with calisthenics. It just takes a little effort compared to a dumbbell curl or dumb press.

Third, make some compromises. This was something that I asked my supervisor about, finding some ways that would make my work life easier. I got so much support and care when I had burnout. I had frequent coaching sessions to check on my health and how to help with my stats. During that time sandbox meeting was there to add some support.

Fourth, getting some natural sleep. Remember I mentioned that there were times I couldn't sleep because of so much work and so much stress? I tried to detach myself from myself and understood that I was thinking about work subconsciously. I realized that because I was attentive to my dreams at night. There were times in a plan when I was talking to an employee, and she was talking about W-4, and I felt like it was a nightmare. I woke up in the middle of the night frightened. Kidding aside, I decide to sleep, but this time I relax my mind, and I imagine a blank canvas or "tabularas" then I calm my body, allowing gravity to pull it down, and you know what? It works like magic. I woke up the following day like I was born again.

Firth, slowing down. This could be cheesy, but slowing down helped me to manage burnout. According to Mayo Clinic: Mindfulness is focusing on your breath flow and being intensely aware of what you're sensing and feeling at every moment, without interpretation or judgment. In a job setting, this practice involves facing situations with openness and patience and without judgment. I tried hard to take every task one step at a time. Never forced me to take on another job but instead allowed me to subconsciously step on the brakes of my workaholic self.

Lastly, cutting screen time. This is helpful to me; the reason is that it helped me to focus more and be attentive to my physical, mental, and spiritual needs. This is my observation about too much screen time. That prevented me from solving my problem of burnout. The reason is that it blocks my mind from focusing on relaxation vs. rest. Some of us might be amenable to that sometimes peace for us could check on Twitter, search on Facebook or watch YouTube. Which is counterintuitive, according to my experience. Because we always wanted more of those social media flat forms, therefore we never attained rest after all. Antidote, keep it short and straightforward.

"Rest. Sleep. Let your mind have the dream it deserves, and let your body have the peace it deserves." -Anonymous.