How Do You Know If You Have a Case of Burnout?

Burnout can strike anyone. It can really weave its way into your daily life. How do you know when you are a candidate? What can you do to overcome burnout?

First, be honest with yourself. To discover if you have a case of burnout, keep track of your daily activities. How much time you spend on each task? What is there about your activities that make you happy, what doesn't, and why? Focus especially on what you don't like. If you are doing something you really enjoy, it's rare to suffer burnout no matter how much time you spend at it. Write it all down if necessary.

Look for signs of burnout at your workplace. This is perhaps the most common place to find it. As you identify the things you don't like consider alternatives at the same time. The very act of looking forward to something different may well be a good part of the cure you need.

Who actually likes their commute to work? Few people do. A hectic commute causes burnout in its own right and also sets the stage for burnout at work because you arrive there in the wrong frame of mind. Try replacing your music or news programming with and audio book. Anything will do, from a novel to a how-to book.

The cause of Burnout at home may be that you arrived home already burned out from your bad day at work and your miserable commute home. Sometimes it's too much to recover from even when you have no additional stress from your home life. Then too, your home life may be adding to your burnout state of mind. This almost always means relationship issues. Again, don't try to fool your self. Be honest with yourself to be sure, but also be honest with your family members. Communicate your feelings. They may be in the same or similar boat and open communications may alleviate some of the stress for all of you.

If you are a workout junkie you have almost certainly experienced burnout as some time. If you do about the same thing each day, perhaps you ought to change your routine just a little. Change what exercises you do and where you do them.

Just because you are less than thrilled with each and every aspect of your life does not mean you must automatically end up as a burnout case. Start with an honest assessment of what you do and do not like about your day-to-day activities. Sometimes it only takes small changes to head off that burnout.