Dealing with “Burnout”: A candid exploration from a stressed-out junior

While reflecting on how my fall semester junior year is going, I noticed a pattern of what has been a theme so far: burnout. 

Despite going through personal and mental health struggles during my first two years, I always had a really good relationship with my schoolwork. It felt that despite personal problems with family and friends, I always had school as a crutch for what felt easy for me. This doesn’t mean some assignments did not kick my butt or didn’t give me stress, but it was never my main problem in life. This year, I am so grateful for all the amazing people I have in my life, and for feeling secure in my mental health. However, I find myself facing a new problem, burnt out, especially with my schoolwork.

 I wanted to write an article about how I realized I was experiencing burnout and what I did to help relieve it. I hope this helps you! 

1. Identifying the burnout 

This may seem obvious but it can be difficult to distinguish if what you are feeling is burnout or something else. For me, it took me a couple of weeks into a deep burnout phase to realize what was happening. The problem lies in the fact that stress is a normal part of college life, so it can be difficult to discern if what you are feeling is normal stress or something bigger. According to _______, symptoms of burnout can look like exhaustion, lack of motivation, lack of concentration, increased irritability, frequent illness, feelings of anxiety, and depression. 

For me, I realized how burnt out I was with school and my schedule, when it became evident in my physical health. No sleep was ever enough for me to feel rested, my diet and physical habits were no longer an important factor. Also, no matter how much I “rested” I still felt an overwhelming burden of work I should be doing. Thankfully, I had a great support system that was able to help me identify that these physical changes of exhaustion and lack of motivation could be coming from burnout. Alongside reflection and my friends, I was able to realize that I was indeed burned out. 

2. You have identified burnout, what next? 

This part is the hardest, especially since a lot of time burnout stems from outside factors that you can not control. The best thing for me, and what I recommend is when you are noticing burnout, designate a day or a weekend, to just reflect. For me, I was lucky enough to be able to go home for a weekend and spend time with my family. Getting off of campus allowed me to reconnect with myself and my body, to figure out what is stressing me out and how I can learn to deal with it. Again, not everyone has the opportunity to get off campus, but even dedicating a couple of hours to yourself can allow you to find the stem of the issue. 

After reflecting on it, I realized that the biggest problem for me was learning how to time and make sure I was incorporating “me time” daily. In the past two years, I did not have to learn to deal with stress and time management to this level, because I never had as much work as I have now. So, it was important for me to learn how to build up daily habits to avoid future burnout. That meant reevaluating how much time I spent with my friends and loved ones, and making sure I spent an hour every day just by myself. That would allow me to be able to know what has to get done for the day and feel more in control of my schedule. 

Another factor was building good habits of work, especially on the weekends. In the past, I always believed that Friday and Saturday were for relaxing. This had worked in the past, but with an increase of things to do that was no longer possible. Now, I had to incorporate working on school work on weekends, on top of just weekdays. However, this would help stop burnout, as I am not overwhelmed by schoolwork on Sunday and Monday. This also means that every day also has to come with some sort of relaxation. I can’t be either total work every day, or total realization every day. Hence, by doing a little bit of work on Saturday, I can afford to do less work on Sunday and incorporate relaxation into both days. 

By reflecting on where my burnout was coming from, I was able to come up with strategies that fit my life. Every person is different, and sometimes being burnt out means that you have to create more space in your schedule. That can lead to having to drop a club or spend less time with your friends, however, it is all worth it for you to reach peace. 

3. Practice gratitude and forgiveness every day. 

While I believe that everyone needs to come up with strategies that are personalized to their situation, practicing gratitude and forgiveness every day is a tool that anyone can incorporate into their life. 

Incorporating gratitude into my life has allowed me to shift my focus from negative thoughts to positive ones and realize how grateful I am to be in my current situation. This has allowed me to attack my responsibilities in a new light, and overall increase productivity. Gratitude can be practiced with journaling, prayer, or just daily affirmations. Finding a way to incorporate gratitude into your life can change everything. 

Another thing to keep in mind is forgiveness. When you are more busy than you have been in the past, you may not achieve all of your goals every day. I had a really hard time coming to terms with the fact that I couldn’t work out as much as I wanted or read daily. These are goals I had been able to accomplish when I had less work to do. But at the end of the day, I am at college to get an education, and school work must come first. I had to find forgiveness in myself that I could not do as much personal work on myself as I had in the past. Furthermore, when I am stressed out sometimes I fall into bad habits such as emotional crutches, such as doom scrolling or procrastinating my work. And, I have to find forgiveness in myself that I am human and will not be productive 24/7. That means that when I mess up and don’t get as much work done as I wanted, it will be okay. Every day is a new day to start anew, and starting a pattern of self-hatred will not get me anywhere except self-pity. By finding forgiveness in myself, I can recognize when I am about to fall into bad habits and stop myself, and instead relax is a way that will allow me to get more work done in the future. 

I hope these tips and honest stories from my perspective of overcoming burnout help you to recognize and stop burnout before it comes!