Burned Out? Take a Step Back!

Burned Out? Take a Step Back!

Today’s fast-paced culture pushes us to work hard, meet deadlines, manage work relationships, and stay connected since all of this is made possible by mobile devices. However, this workload can lead to stress and burnout, which is one reason why employers have now started to state ‘Resilience’ as one of the skills they are looking for on their job postings.

Even so, there are a lot of misconceptions when it comes to resiliency, which can lead to overworking. These misconceptions of resiliency are mostly built up from an early age. For example, some parents try to teach their children resiliency by applauding them for pulling an all-nighter to do well on school projects, an action that paints a false picture of what resilience is.

The key to resilience is to try hard and give your best shot at work, but also knowing when to stop, recharge, and refresh yourself and when to give your best shot again. Essentially, it is knowing how to work smart. Your weekends won’t be burnout free either if you spend your Friday night thinking of problems at work, discussing work over a family dinner, or falling asleep thinking of the work you’ll be doing on the weekdays.

So, our suggestion is for you to make good use of your weekends. Do what you love, cut out negative energy, and celebrate yourself for persevering through the weekend.

For Employees (on your downtime)

Your weekend should be your time for you! Weekends should be free of pressure, and revolve around what makes you feel good and recharge for the upcoming week. Here are our tips:

Do What You Love

…while ensuring a safe distance from the realm of work. While thinking about what to do to keep me refreshed on weekends, my mind was still stuck with the thought of how to make my weekend activities fall under the umbrella of ‘What Is Considered Productive?’ and so, sought activities on weekends such as workshops to improve skills related to my job.

However, I was provided with a helpful reminder that I had all of my weekdays to develop my skills on the job, and so instead decided to join classes that were related to my creative endeavors. While having your mind on productivity is great, its all well to engage in activities that revolve around what you are interested in.

Cut Out Negativity 

What our tips revolve around is your agency in making your free time what you want it to be. While we oftentimes can’t help who we have to be around during work hours, on weekends, it is entirely up to you to cultivate your circle to ensure that it is the most enjoyable for you, so make sure you try your best to be surrounded by people encourage and uplift you.

For Employers

As much as you love your job, doing something repetitively will chip away at your passion for it. That’s why our tips revolve around the concept of the responsibility of a leader in injecting novelty into a routine that can wear down on an employee’s spirit.

To combat burnout spreading among your employees, it is best to expand their sense of freedom and agency, and allow them a break from routine, letting them work to the best of their productivity styles. Here’s how:

Allow remote days:

While everyone recommends a workplace allot time for employees to work remotely, some aren’t convinced because they don’t understand the underlying principles of why a remote day works. Working remotely allows employees to add a splash of novelty into their day, by giving them a choice in where to work. Additionally, this lets workers complete tasks at their own pace, with their working style.

Passion Projects

Encourage passion projects while maintaining relevance to their main tasks. When you, an employer, support your employees’ passion projects, it signifies that you care for your workers and encourage their learning and development.

Having a great team

When people say work stresses them out, they often don’t mean the actual work, and that there’s an invisible ‘environment’ attached to the end of that complaint. As a leader, it is important to not just lead your employees towards the completion of tasks but to also focus on the teamwork and camaraderie aspects of that journey to completion.

Those are our thoughts on productivity, and we hope you spend the rest of your weekend happy and fulfilled!

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