7 Ways to Recover from Burnout

Feeling drained as a cell phone battery? Here’s how to recharge.

• Three determinants of burnout are emotional exhaustion, reduced accomplishment, and depersonalization.
• Some problems are intractable, but often you have more ability to impact your work life than you might realize.
• Burnout can make you feel one dimensional; be sure to do things you want to do, not just more things you should do.

1. Start with your body.

This is cliché, but take care of yourself. When was the last time you ate lunch without staring at your computer or spent a night without Netflix? How much wine are you drinking after work? When was the last time you exercised? Make a decision to trade do time for shuteye, skip fast food, and work regular exercise back into your routine.

2. Pinpoint which of these six areas are causing your problems.

According to the foremost expert in the field of burnout, Dr. Christina Maslach of the University of California, Berkeley, work problems can be boiled down to six things:

1. Workload: you’re bogged down with an endless to-do list and can never catch up; it keeps coming at you like that I Love Lucy episode with the chocolates on the conveyor belt.
2. Control: or rather, lack thereof. You feel like you have no prerogative in setting or influencing duties, processes, or deadlines.
3. Rewards: You feel like you’re being exploited. There is little reward to your effort, whether in terms of finances,  or positive feedback.
4. Fairness: Your wor/homek environment is hostile or unjust.
5. Values: You work against your values, like evicting old ladies or harpooning baby whales.

Once you’ve pinpointed what’s snuffing your fire, try...

3. Look to the future.

The opposite of  burnout is something called engagement. So imagine what it would take for you to be engaged. Where would you like to be? What comes to mind when you think about a great life? How can you feel like you can have some autonomy about your life, rather than having decisions made for you?

4. Try to make a better match.

Once you’ve pinpointed the problem(s), see if you can create a better match in activities. Some problems are intractable. For that, see Tip #5. But mostly change is possible. Can you diversify your activity and responsibility? Justify hiring help? Make the case for flex time and working on YOUR NEEDS one day a week?

5. If improving your current path doesn’t work, make some big decisions.

Make some executive decisions. If making a better match doesn’t work, it might be a sign to look for another role someplace else or consider if now’s a good time to go back to the drawing board.

6. Delegate.

Hear me out on this one: By “delegate” I don’t mean reassign the part of your life you dread to just anyone. Instead, fight the feeling that you’re the only one who can handle things. Interestingly, those with a sense of over-responsibility—you think if you want something done right you have to do it yourself—are more vulnerable to burnout. And sometimes your thought might be true—sometimes you are the one in charge. But sometimes things can be delegated. If you suspect you’re a little on the over-responsible side, test out delegation and see what happens.

7. Diversify your time.

By the time we burn out, we’ve often become one-dimensional. Life whittles down to work and a workout when we’re done, which we chalk up to “taking care of ourselves” but is really just another duty. Do things you want to do, not just more things you should do. Ask yourself what you used to like to do, and then dust off your hiking boots, your madeleine pan, or your paintbrush or tool kit. And to that end, take your time off too; whether you take a few days after you finish that big work or home project or after you wrap up your current task list and before you start the next one. During your vacation, see friends, travel (small day trips are great), or at least rest: read some novels, work on your home, or play with your kids/pets. Create downtime to just be and not always do. Remember daydreaming? Try it!!