11 Tips From 11 Episodes: Season 1 Finale
Hello everyone and welcome to the season 1 finale of Talk Burnout! At this point I've talked to 11 guests and learned many different ways to avoid or overcome burnout. Thank you so much for joining me along the way.
For this episode, I’m doing a recap to cover some of the most important tips we learned in this first season. Check out the tips below or listen on these sources: Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify
I would love to hear your feedback on the first season! I set up a quick survey at talkburnout.com/survey. This was my first podcast so your feedback will be very helpful to let me know what to improve.
11 Tips From 11 Episodes
Build self-awareness.
One key part to overcoming burnout is simply having the mindfulness and self-awareness to recognize when you are burnt out.
If you've been regularly listening to this podcast, you'll know that I frequently talk about the WHO's definition of burnout with my guests. The definition has three components: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization or cynicism, and lack of professional efficacy. Being aware of those components and being aware of when you feeling them will help you recognize burnout.
If you're new to mindfulness, I highly recommend the book "Wherever you go, there you are" by Jon Kabat-Zinn. That book was my introduction to meditation and mindfulness, and I still find the tips in that book useful to this day.
Write down your thoughts.
I've heard many people recommend journaling before, but I was never really any good at it. As it turns out, the trick was just to change the time when I journaled. In my interview with Diana Wu David, she recommended journaling in the morning and that trick really helped me keep a consistent practice.
I have found journaling in the morning very helpful for building the self-awareness that I mentioned in the first tip. It helps me set an intention for the day as well as deal with any lingering feelings from the previous day.
When you put your thoughts on paper or in a document, you can more easily look for those signs of burnout. You can look back and tell when you've having frequent thoughts of exhaustion or cynicism. Now, I've only been journaling for a few months now so I wouldn't call myself an expert at it, but I've found it useful so far. If you've also been struggling to consistently journal, try writing down your thoughts at different times of the day to see what works best for you.
Set Boundaries.
This was a recurring theme throughout the season, starting with the very first episode with Jenny Blake. When I say boundaries, that can refer to a couple of different things, but in this show it's usually meant the boundary between you're working and when you're not working. If you have clearly defined boundaries between your work time and your relaxation time, that will help you better avoid burnout.
Keep in mind that if you don't set a clear boundary for yourself, other people will think it's ok to call on you whenever they want. That's a clear way to lead to exhaustion.
One way to set boundaries is to use Jenny's tip of starting with baby steps. If you're currently leaving work at around 7pm, try to wrap up work with the aim of leaving at 6:45pm. Assuming you can still get the same amount of work done, you can take another baby step and leave at 6:30pm. That extra half-hour may not mean much at work, but it could mean the world to your family or your self-care.
It's also important to respect your own boundaries. When you leave work, actually leave work behind. Don't get into the habit of checking and responding to emails outside of work time. Once people start receiving responses from you outside of business hours, they may start to expect responses from you more frequently. If that happens, you'll have to work hard to re-establish your boundaries.
Manage your time.
Do you feel like you don't have enough time to do everything you want? So do most people. The truth is always going to be more work to do, no matter how much you get done. So the important thing is to manage your time to get as much done as you can within your boundaries.
I really appreciated Elizabeth Saunders' reminder that there's no one time management system that works for everyone. The important thing is to find one that lets you manage time the best for you.
I prefer to work in 90-minute chunks, where I turn off my email and any other distractions, and I focus on one task at a time.
Going off the previous tip on boundaries, when you are in your work time it's important to make sure you're managing that time effectively. That will help you feel more productive, which will help stave off burnout.
Create routines.
Another way to manage time is to create regular routines. When the going gets tough you're going to need to rely on your routines to get through the day.
I liked Chelsea B Foster's tip to look at your energy to find when your routine will be most effective. If you're not a morning person, don't try to do your important work in the morning. Save that work for the time when you feel most energized.
I think most of us can intuitively tell when our most productive times are, but if you're having trouble narrowing that down try tracking your time throughout the day. What times do you get the most work done? Do you find that you get the most work done in the morning right after your morning coffee? Or do you get most of your work done after lunch? Or maybe you're a night owl, and you're most productive when everyone else is asleep. The important thing is to find the routine that works best for you.
Look at your systems.
If you're suffering from burnout, don't think of it as a personal failure. Burnout is usually an organizational problem. Rich Sheridan talked about how his company looks at systems rather than individuals when things go wrong. In a similar way, you can look at the systems around you if you're starting to feel burnt out.
If you're regularly working to the point of exhaustion, that's the time to look at the amount of work you're expect to do and see if it's actually realistic for you to complete all that work without burning out. If it's not realistic, then it's time to take a look at all that work and figure out what can be delegated or dropped.
Now, even though burnout isn't something you caused, it is something you will have to address. If you work at a large organization you probably don't have the ability to make institution-wide changes, but that doesn't mean you're helpless. Even small things like setting your own boundaries or connecting to your coworkers can help you avoid burnout.
Find your why.
When you know why you do what you do, you can work with more energy and avoid burnout. This heavily relates to the second component of burnout - depersonalization or cynicism.
I liked Justin Jones-Fosu's advice to look for Macro Whys and Micro Whys. Your Macro Why is like a tree trunk, and it encompasses your main reason for being. It's the big picture thing that drives you and pushes you to live your best life. Your Macro Why is something you stay awake at night thinking about.
Your Micro Whys are like branches on the tree trunk, and they represent your motivation to do smaller tasks. Going to the gym may not seem very meaningful in the moment, but working out will help you stay healthy, which will allow you to keep doing your best work in the long run.
Remember that you work with humans.
This may seem like a simple tip, but in my episode with Dan Lyons, we talked about dehumanization - the concept when executives and managers forget that they actually work with people, with lives and dreams of their own. Instead, they treat people like robots or computer programs without any empathy. Nobody likes to be treated like that, and treating others that way is going to burn you out.
I also liked Monique Valcour's advice to create connections with the people you work with. You don't need to be best friends with everyone you work with, but you should treat everyone with respect and give them your full attention whenever you work with them.
Even if you don't like networking, it doesn't take a lot to treat people with kindness. That will help you avoid becoming cynical, which is one of the components of burnout.
Rely on your posse.
It's very difficult to beat burnout by yourself. But I've got a secret for you: You don't have to beat it by yourself! Whether you want to call it your team, your posse, or your success pack, you have others that you can rely on to get past burnout.
Think about everyone you work with or work for. If you work at a large organization, that could include your manager, coworkers, and direct reports. If you work for yourself, you can think about your clients and other people that support you.
I liked Anese Cavanaugh's tip of calling one person and asking what you can do for them. Serving others is a good way to build stronger connections and help you feel less isolated. Funnily enough, letting others rely on you can help you rely on others when you need them.
Don't put up with complainers.
I'm sure we've all dealt with people that complain about everything. Don't let them suck you in! When you spend too much time complaining you'll end up becoming more cynical, which will definitely burn you out.
I liked Shola Richard's advice on shutting down complainers. If someone tries to draw you into a complaining spiral, ask them what they actually plan on doing about their issue. Don't let them complain just for the sake of complaining.
Of course, I'm not suggesting that you should never complain at all, or that you should stop looking for ways to improve your job. If there's something you want to see improved, you should take action to start getting it to the place you want. Don't just complain day after day without doing anything, because that's when it can lead to burnout.
Treat yourself compassionately.
I may not know you personally, but if you're the type of the person that listens to this podcast and wants to avoid burnout, I'm sure you must be a kind person. So make sure you're kind to yourself.
I liked Charlotte Lieberman's advice to remember that we are all unfinished products and it's ok to not be perfect. Even if you are burnt out or think you are heading towards burnout, if you treat yourself with self-compassion and give yourself the space to improve, I'm sure you can get back to a healthy mindset.
You've just heard a bunch of tips to avoid burnout, but don't beat yourself up if that doesn't immediately cure your burnout. Burnout is not something that can be immediately cured anyway! Start by doing just one of the tips and keep working at it over time.
If any of my podcast episodes helped you avoid burnout, please share it with someone! Burnout is very prevalent these days, and I'm sure you can think of someone who might be approaching burnout who could use some help.