Our lives are filled with deadlines. The things we need to accomplish are never-ending. After we have finished filing our tax returns or submitting our projects in humanities class, we have to do another thing. If it continues as it is, then we will end up getting burnt out.
Burnout is a state of mental, emotional, and often physical exhaustion brought on by prolonged or repeated stress¹.
It is easy to get burnt out by doing tasks we don't like. It feels like you have to drag yourself into doing a certain task that is not meaningful to you. Today, I will be sharing with you two ways you can combat burnout, and continue moving forward in your journey.
Focus on the process, not the outcome.
When you focus on the process, you can see the detail of what you are doing. You can fine-tune how you work to become more efficient in what you do. It will help you understand yourself more in terms of productivity. You will know when your active hours are, and you can capitalize on that.
In this outcome-driven world, we focus on the output we produce rather than how we got there. It means people won't care if you do it yourself, or asked others to do the task for you. In school, we are more focused on grades rather than learning. This doesn't feel meaningful because sometimes you can produce an output without learning anything.
By focusing on the process, you will learn more, improve little by little, and see the meaningful progress you are making. When the time output is needed, you will produce an excellent result because you already know what to do, you just have to execute it.
Taking breaks
Taking breaks is one of the most obvious ideas when it comes to avoiding burnout. When you take breaks you will have time to breathe and rejuvenate.
I used to work out to reach a certain number of reps in my sets. I often goal to do 12 reps of push-ups for 3 sets. This looks great on paper, but the quality of the reps suffers during the latter part of the workout. Even though I didn't do the complete set of motion for the rep, I still count it because I have to reach the goal of 12 reps.
But now, I focus on doing exercise with a timer. I do quality reps within the time frame, when I'm tired, I take a few seconds to break then I continue with the workout until the time runs out. This allows me to do quality reps with the full range of motion resulting in a better overall workout. It also allows me to keep going in the long run because, in those little breaks, I get rejuvenated not only physically but mentally.
This technique can also be applied in different aspects of your life. You can work for a certain period, then take breaks when you are tired. One application of this is the Pomodoro technique. It is a time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s².
When you work, make your breaks purposeful so they can help you become more productive in what you do.
Take breaks with the intention and desire to continue so you can keep going in the long run
The work we need to do will never stop, and at some point, we will become tired. But if you focus on the process, and take breaks with the intention to continue, then you will have the drive and the energy to do what needs to be done.