Let’s walk through the stages of a burn out at work and you see if they sound familiar:

First you have all this adrenaline and motivation to get all your work done and get on top of it. Then you feel it slowly fade away but too slowly to notice exactly when. Next thing you know, you can’t find any energy for work, and you feel terrible about it.

That’s what we call a workplace burnout. You’re not “just being lazy” (as your boss might say), you’re experiencing the result of a build-up of stress and it’s completely normal. But how much better would it be to not experience this at all? To not let your workload, get the better of you? That’s why I’ve noted down some healthy habits you can start exercising to help you prevent your burnout!

Recognise what causes you to burnout

Evaluating yourself can be really difficult especially during stressful scenarios such as at work or leading up to a burnout but that’s why it’s the most important step. There’s many different ways of trying to recognise what causes you to burnout; you could look back at previous times you’ve burnt out and try to pinpoint when it started, or you could get a colleague to tell you when they notice you behaving differently. Whatever method you use, once you figure out what’s causing you to burn out, you’re one step closer to preventing it.

Prioritise your tasks

One of the healthy habits I recommend you use, regardless of whether you get burnt out easily or not, is to prioritise your tasks. Colour code them, order them, label them - whatever works for you. This way, you can visualise which tasks are more important and get them done before it’s too late and you start spending way too long on them because next thing you know, all your tasks are way past the deadline, and you’ve got about 20 passive aggressive emails. Sheesh!

Every time you get a new task, think about how it might clash with your other deadlines and work out a sensible time to get to it.

Create a timetable 

Be it of your day, week or even month – creating a timetable that you can actually stick to goes a long way. You could choose to set whole days for yourself and whole days to get work done or you could do a bit of both – again whatever works for you. Of course, it’s not just about creating the timetable though. You have to stick to it so make sure it’s realistic and not something you’re going to dread following.

This way, when new events or meetings come up, you can easily see where you have time for it rather than adding it onto your day and then realising you didn’t even have time for it.

Take some time for yourself

Maybe even after adapting these habits, you find yourself still burning out or getting stressed from work. That’s when you know you need a break!

If you’ve got “annual leave days” left, use it and take the time to relax and re energise.

If, like many of us, you’ve used up all your holidays into the first month of the year, use time after work or on the weekends to do the things that calm you down. Whether it's cooking, cleaning, meditating or even having some friends over, allowing yourself to do something different to your everyday routine once in a while helps more than you’d think.

Start incorporating healthy habits into your daily life and see how everyday becomes a little bit easier than the day before.

Give yourself time to yourself!

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