Doubt Being Burnout Resistant: Your WFH Survival Guide

Do you get the feeling of sleeping endlessly to overcome your Zoom fatigue? Well, most of us do. The pandemic has caused us to work endlessly, but from home. Majority of us are working from home and are somehow managing to balance between our work-life and personal life.

Some are working extra hours, on week-offs and are even trying to prioritize work before their mental health. This way they suffer from burn out till the point that they reach the habitual burn out phase, the last phase in the degree of burnout. Not just office going people, but even students face burn out due to excessive screen exposure, unlimited assignments and back to back classes.

“Burnout” is a relatively new term, first coined in 1974 by Herbert Freudenberger, in his book, Burnout: The High Cost of High Achievement. He originally defined burnout as, “the extinction of motivation or incentive, especially where one’s devotion to a cause or relationship fails to produce the desired results.”

In simpler words, if you feel exhausted, you start hating your work to the point that you no longer find yourself capable. Burnout is a serious mental health issue but largely ignored by us all. It can have long term detrimental effects on your mental health. Hence, it is necessary to identify it as early as possible.

A check on your mental health

10 subtle signs your mental health is suffering

You’re more irritable than usual.
You notice changes in your eating.
You feel ‘tired’ for no apparent reason.
You’ve lost interest in things you used to enjoy.
You find yourself isolating more than usual.
You notice an increase in your alcohol/drug use.
You have difficulty sleeping or have a hard time getting out of bed.
You’re experiencing more pain, headaches, digestive issues or other bodily issues.
You notice yourself having more mood swings or ‘are not feeling yourself’ lately.
You’re feeling an increased need to control things around you (and likewise become frustrated because things don’t go your way).

Remember this the next time you work from home

Work From Home can be fantastic AND can also do damage to your mental health and wellbeing. The WFH schedule might be very different than you had in mind. How can you handle it well? Remember the “3 B’s”:

1. Boundaries

It’s important to set and maintain healthy boundaries with family & friends which can be difficult, especially in a wfh environment. But it is essential that you prioritize your well-being over any sense of obligation. Love and boundaries CAN coexist! It’s not wise to shrink yourself or ignore your own needs to accommodate any person/request. Saying NO is your self-care superpower. Saying NO allows you to say YES to the right things! When you don’t feel comfortable attending any events at this time, you can simply thank and say that the event doesn’t lie within your comfort zone and that you will celebrate when things feel right.

2. Be KIND to yourself

As a first step to being kinder to yourself, avoid comparison. It’s a total waste of your time and energy. Don’t trivialize your existence into a number on a scale, a size, a relationship status, numbers of followers, or a certain income. You are more than any of these things! Embrace your uniqueness and your journey, and celebrate all that you’ve managed to do during this WFH time period.

3. Balance

Seeking balance is essential, yet it can be so difficult to many of us during this time. Here are a few ways you can practice balance in your WFH schedule:

– Indulgence. You can indulge yourself and enjoy good food AND balance that with practicing intuitive eating – listening to your body’s cues and honoring when you feel hungry by not ignoring those messages.

– Maintaining habits. It’s a good thing to give yourself permission to rest AND balance that by not letting go of every single good habit you cultivated previously while working in the office. Instead of totally dropping your habits in WFH, try doing a modified version. Remember it’s important to embrace taking time for rest, so don’t beat yourself up for slowing down!

– Give AND take. This is a beautiful thought while WFH where giving and generosity come to the forefront of many people’s minds. But don’t give until the point of exhaustion! If you’re helping your kids or doing your assignments, cooking all day, and generally running around like a chicken with your head cut off, balance that by remembering to receive. Be willing to receive help, kindness from others, and opportunities to slow down.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure

In today’s demanding world, burnout can feel inevitable. So what are you doing to prevent it? Instead of hoping burnout never happens to you, how about engaging practices that you know will help you stay balanced?

After all, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Preventative health is the best kind. It requires us to look out for our future-selves and not override our self-care today. Preventative actions are part of what happens when we move from survive to thrive. It’s okay to start with one small action or step – that way it’s less overwhelming!

Why not try one of the following?

Check-In. Self-assessment is important. You can’t prevent burnout if you don’t see the signs that it’s imminent. Do a wellness self-assessment regularly and check for signs that your body is trying to give you.

Journal. Journaling helps us take time to connect with ourselves and therefore increases self-awareness. Journaling is best when it’s done as a regular habit, ideally every day. You can simply write 3 sentences reflecting on your thoughts and feelings that day.

Ask for accountability. Sometimes others can see us better than we can see ourselves. Leaning on your community to speak up when they see burnout behavior is a healthy way to look out for things that you may not notice until it’s too late!

Listen to your feelings. Using your feelings as a guide is extremely important to prevent burnout. Maintain a feelings chart and track down at the end of the day what feelings came up for you.

Be flexible. Maintaining habits is great but it’s also important not to be too rigid. Allow your expectations to change based on circumstances occasionally. Be reasonable, and most importantly, be kind to yourself the way you would be to a friend.

A wish for your peace

Here are 5 reminders to help you foster your peace around your WFH schedule :

Give yourself permission to rest, eat, and enjoy the small pleasures. Enjoy your morning coffee, it’s flavor and texture or even your favorite episodes from the FRIENDS. C’mon, you’re not a robot!
It’s always two ways. While you spread love and happiness to people around, remember that you equally deserve that. Give yourself permission to step away from people who don’t promote peace in your life.
Experiences are more memorable than things. Try to spend your energy and focus on cultivating experiences instead of accumulating stuff.
Focus on what you do have, not what you don’t. When you take time to focus on what you have, you stop a scarcity mentality in its tracks.
There’s always someone to help. Helping others has the added benefit of increasing your sense of well-being. Find someone to encourage, to help out in some small way, or just to pray for or sending loving thoughts to.

If you’re in a good place, remember to check in with your loved ones; sometimes just a simple question can give someone the permission they need to open up and get support. A simple “How are you doing?” can go a long way. It never hurts to check in with people often and to remind them that you care and they are on your radar.