All You Need to Know About Exhaustion
Photo by Fred Mouniguet on Unsplash
The World Health Organization recently updated their definition of burnout to consist of three components. In this 3-part series, I am going to do a deep dive into each component to teach you all you need to know about burnout!
The first component of burnout is "feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion". This is the feeling when you leave work completely drained and unable to work any more. Many people think about exhaustion when they think about burnout, which makes this a natural fit for the first component.
There are many different factors that can lead to exhaustion. Some of the more common factors, according to healthline, include:
Working a high pressure job, such as being a doctor or nurse. The more pressure you feel at work the more quickly your energy will get drained.
Having a high workload. Naturally, the more you work the more likely you are to feel exhausted.
Difficulties outside of work (such as a divorce or chronic illness). If your life outside of work also causes you great stress that can quickly lead to exhaustion.
How can you overcome exhaustion?
Recharge outside of work. Actually take vacations and don't look at email outside of work.
Set boundaries at work. There's no shame in wanting to go home at 5pm.
Clean up your workload. Are there any tasks that you still do that can be delegated or dropped entirely?
There are many books about dealing with exhaustion. Here are some of my favorite books related to exhaustion:
It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson - This book is full of practical advice for keeping your workload reasonable.
Essentialism by Greg McKeown - This classic book helped me cut through the clutter and nail down the important things in life.
Great at Work by Morten Hansen - The "Do Less, Then Obsess" method helped me focus on the important things.
Is there anything else you want to know about exhaustion? Do you think I missed something? Feel free to email me and let me know.