Does anyone else feel like their burn-out cycle is shorter?

It used to take me about 2 years of grind before I hit a burn-out phase where I needed to do some serious recuperating.

It feels like I'm at 3 months now, or even less. I've already spoken to my wife about building quarterly mini-vacations into my schedule just to keep my energy up.

And by burn-out, I mean you're at the point that every single ball you are juggling can drop and you get fired and almost see that as a blessing.

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Yes, because covid put all of your balls inside your house and made us responsible for everything at one time

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We weren't meant to grind like this: hours and responsibilities grow, escapes and outlets are fewer, and 24/7 news/media stories are mostly depressing/disheartening. Good on you to recognize the challenge before burnout is irreparable.

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I honestly thought my last round of burn-out in November had done me in. It was the worst I've ever had in my professional life. Took some time off and it helped, but also put me on a journey of values and purpose.

I THOUGHT that some of the preventative steps I've been taking would help, and they have. Things like taking frequent walks during the day to get some blood flowing and get outside the house. Connecting with people is still hard because of the various states of lock down.

But here I am again. Hit the wall hard today. :-/

3 months? 2 years? I can barely stand 2 weeks.

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I can see myself hitting that soon. :( I'm sorry you're already there.

100% agree! I am with you.

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And the worst part is, I love my job, the work I do, the company, the people I work with.

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Thank you. I have a vacation schedule starting next Saturday. I had thought that just having that on the calendar would give me the oomph to get there, but I hit a serious wall today.

Definitely a deflater of self-esteem to not being able to make it a week to vacation. :(

I'm sure the vacation will give me a recharge though.

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Does anyone have tips or tricks for trying to avoid this burnout?

I do have a professional responsibility that I know is contributing to it and have a plan to start working on that next month.

But other than taking frequent walks, spending some time outdoors, getting the occasional exercise in, spending time with family, what do you do to avoid the crash-and-burn type burnout?

I know that we have cycles of great performance to less than great performance, and a trend of being on top of things and being not on top of things. Everything is a cycle.

What I'm trying to figure out is how to avoid the serious dip of crashing during a burn-out. Being exhausted is one thing, not caring about the consequences anymore, for me, is where a personal line has been crossed and some kind of "emergency routine" needs to get put in place.

Does anyone have something like that? Like an "oh shit, things are bad, I need to do x, y, and z to make sure everything doesn't come crashing down" type of routine or actions?

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following!

I don’t have tips for you other than the stuff you know (exercise! eat healthy! sleep!) but I went though burnout (like weeks of medical leave, couldn’t function at all).

It takes a LONG time to rebuild all of your mental strength. It’s like a health bar in a video game. You start at 100hp, at 20 you’re crippled and can’t function. You can work on increasing your total health, but it takes a lot of time / work to level up. In the meanwhile, if you go down to below 20, and then somehow recover and recoup a bit, it doesn’t mean you’re at 100. You’re probably just at half, and it so your next burnout phase isn’t that far off. And every time you go below 20, you lose 5 max health. So yeah. Build in regular good habits like vacation, because it can get worse and worse.

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I love your gaming analogy! And it definitely makes sense. I hadn't thought about it like that, where when you "regain your health" it doesn't mean you're back to 100.

Thank you for that.

This past year has been the hardest for me. Getting fired would be a blessing honestly

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It's truly sad and completely understandable to hear that.

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