While our culture is slowly understanding
the importance of mental wellness, we need to take steps to manage burnout.
By Kristen
Griffin | December 25, 2019 at 10:56 AM
According to a recent University of Phoenix
survey more than half (55 percent) of employed U.S. adults say they have
experienced burnout. Of those who experienced burnout 68 percent
experienced fatigue, 65 percent experience anxiety and 48 percent experience
depression.
Feelings of burnout can be brought on by a
number of things including a heavy workload, workplace stress, caregiving and
competing demands (i.e. from personal/family life). While our culture is slowly
understanding the importance of mental wellness in the workplace, we need to
take steps to manage our burnout. If we don’t, it not only reduces our
productivity, it spills into area of our lives such as home, social and our
physical health.
Here are three key tips to help you start
working toward overcoming burnout and achieving work- life balance:
1. Change your
viewpoint on stress
Stress is neither good nor bad, it just is. It
is what we make stress mean that becomes good or bad. You get to choose. Often
times we stress over a circumstance we cannot change instead of concentrating
on thinking or feeling differently about the circumstance. We get to choose our
thoughts and feelings. Stress is the most basic kind of resilience. For many of
us, stress is a catalyst to jump-start our performance. You give stress
meaning, so you need to ask yourself what are you making stress mean in your
life? Your thoughts and feelings drive your actions.
Change your perceptions about stress. Even the
positive events in your life like a new job, participating in a sport or taking
a vacation cause a degree of stress. Stress can make you feel alive and engaged
in life or even provide a breakthrough on something you been stuck on. You can
use stress as a motivator or recognize it as a warning sign that you need to
make a change. By changing our mindset, you can control what stress means and
how you react.
2. Maximize your time.
Don’t manage it.
Are you overscheduling or overcommitting?
Remember the calendar does not overbook you, you do. Don’t manage your time,
maximize it. We should be accountable for our time, just as we are with our
money. You get the same 24 hours in a day as everyone else. How are you
choosing to spend it? If you are overcommitted and stretched thin, remember,
you allowed everything that is on your calendar to be there. Prioritize, the
main things taking up your time should be the most important things in your
life.
Be mindful of how you are maximizing your
time. Most of us think we excel at multi-tasking, but we don’t. Usually, it
leads to us being distracted and unfocused, costing us more time. You are
better off working on one task at a time. Organize your work around your energy
levels. Start your morning with your most critical work or project. Starting
the day with a sense of accomplishment makes it easier to move on to the next
thing.
3. Manage your energy.
It is not a finite resource
Time is a finite resource, energy is not.
Energy can be systemically enhanced and regularly renewed. Most of us spend
time on activities that zap our energy. By creating intentional rituals like
earlier bedtimes, workout routines and taking lunch breaks at work, we can
renew our energy and reduce burnout. Yes, they are simple ideas, but they help
you refuel and feel more positive overall.
Schedule fun! With so many things competing
for our time, fun doesn’t always schedule itself. Identify your “sweet spot”
activities and find ways to do more of the things that bring you joy. Nothing
boosts your energy like doing something you really love. For example, if
connecting with your family is important, schedule regular sit-down meals. Do
you have a passion you always wanted to pursue? Find a group in the community
that shares that passion. Make sure you understand your core values and put
your energy into those values!
If you are feeling workplace burnout, it is
important to address it. Start by using these three tips focusing on your
stress mindset, time and energy. Remember, you are aiming for progress not
perfection. It takes practice and focus to learn new rituals. Celebrating your
small successes will help you build your confidence. Once you accept that every
moment you get to choose how you feel, you will find greater work-life balance.
Kristen Griffin is vice president of student services at University of Phoenix.
In addition to leading a team at the University, the busy executive is a
certified health and life coach, fitness enthusiast who teaches yoga, and most
importantly, is a single mom raising a teenage boy. Kristen’s role at the
University is to ensure working-adult students have the services they need to
juggle school and life. She passionately believes that wellness and healthy
mindset in students and employees leads to optimal performance in the classroom
and workplace.
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