Coolout - Burnout Blog

How Burnout Stops: A Book For Overcoming Stress And Burnout

Fri, 10 Nov 2023 12:07:15 +1030

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Today, we’re talking about a new book, written by myself, David Thorpe, titled ‘How Burnout Stops: A Practical Guide To Stress Management, Burnout Prevention and Burnout Recovery’.

Rather than this just being a sales pitch for my book, which is now available as an ebook from all ebook retailers and soon to be released as paperback, I want to discuss the purpose behind the book, and more specifically a certain way that it can be used by anyone, regardless of whether they are currently experiencing stressors and burnout, or whether there is someone in their life experiencing stress and burnout.

Namely, today I’m going to be discussing the benefit of learning about stress and burnout so that we can have fruitful discussion on the topic.

As always, please note this is general advice and is not exhaustive for every individual situation. You should seek help from a qualified professional as soon as any causes of stress or symptoms begin to feel more than what you are able to handle on your own.

Let’s start by discussing the benefits of learning about stress and burnout.

Benefits of learning about stress and burnout

There is a term ‘bibliotherapy’ which refers to using books and other materials to help us better understand and gain insight into our lives and what we are going through.

Books and reading materials are abundantly available on demand and, more than not, at affordable prices. Books certainly are not a replacement for getting dynamic help from someone such as a counsellor or therapist, but there is a wealth of information out there that can be helpful and help you identify helpful strategies for overcoming stress and burnout.

There is also a lot of unhelpful information out there, so the phrase ‘Do Your Own Research’, certainly holds true in the domain of stress and burnout. It is important to learn that there are many, many strategies out there for stress, and what has worked for one person may not be the best strategy for you. This is where, alongside bibliotherapy, it can be helpful to have a trusted friend or mentor that you can discuss the materials with.

However, another benefit for just learning about stress and burnout is getting to have those ‘a-ha’ moments. Those are the moments when you learn or identify something that you find really validates and resonates with your personal experiences. For example, recently I was reading a counselling textbook and thinking ‘Wow, there is a lot of information to retain to be the best counsellor for my clients.’ But then I turned to the next section and it talked specifically about how counsellors need to be mindful of perfectionistic tendencies. That was an ‘a-ha’ moment for me that I need to realise that I am only human, and the best I can do is study a wide array of strategies to help point clients in the right direction for achieving their desired goals.

Using the information to improve yourself

So, after we have done some learning, the best thing we can do with the information is consider what can be applied to our own lives. We will find it most pressing to make changes to our lives only when there are stressors or challenges currently present.

If we know there are challenges in our lives at the moment, we can then start considering whether there are any strategies that may be beneficial to improving our short-term coping with stressors and long-term prevention of burnout. For example, I recently learned about the importance of task prioritisation, and one way of combatting procrastination can be to actually start with the hardest tasks rather than the easiest tasks. This is something that I have started implementing in my task management system. Am I doing it perfectly every time? Definitely not, but there are projects that are not getting neglected because I was perceiving them as ‘too hard’ and not even attempting to begin them.

Using this information to discuss stress and burnout with others

The other thing that I hope How Burnout Stops will help with is starting conversations. It is not intended to be a definitive reference book on stress and burnout, really because I’m not sure such a book can possibly exist at the moment, due to all the current research and exploration going on by academics, scientists and practitioners across the globe exploring what stress and burnout is.

Instead, however, getting a basic understanding of stress and burnout means that you will have language you can use to discuss your stressors and symptoms with others. This could be your managers, supervisors with whom you would like to discuss stressors and how they are affecting you.

This could be in discussion with friends, family and mentors so that have a better understanding of what you are facing in your life at the moment.

On the other hand, you may be someone who wants to help others you believe may be experiencing stress.

Chapter 5 of the book is subtitled ‘This is how you help others who are experiencing burnout’, and includes the section ‘How do you talk to people experiencing burnout?’ I thought it might be helpful to provide an excerpt from that section now:

Here is a helpful list of actions you can take when talking to someone experiencing burnout:

Ask whether they'd like to discuss their stressors or be distracted. Different people deal with stressors in different ways, and where one person processes through talking, another may process by thinking. While talking to someone else can really help bring objective perspectives into a situation, the exact time you are engaging with the person experiencing burnout may not be the right time for them. It is entirely appropriate to ask them if they would like to discuss the perceived issues with you, or whether you can provide a distraction through conversing on a different topic. It can also be good to ask if they’d like to be followed up on to converse at a later date.

If they are open to talking, pay attention. If they decide they want to discuss their stressors with you, this is a privilege, and it is your role to actively listen and engage with them. Importantly, do not project your own experiences onto them, as every situation, even if they sound quite similar or have very similar symptoms, is possibly going to have very different factors involved. Interjecting their story with your own can invalidate and close the door to vulnerability. Instead, active listening involves you engaging back with them by showing that you have heard them and validating their feelings and emotions. After you have made sure they are validated, then you can gauge whether it is relevant to share your own experiences.

Ask before giving advice. Again, if they decide to discuss their stressors with you, it is important that you assess whether they are looking for a listening ear, in which case, engage in active listening or ask if they are looking for advice before giving it. Giving unsolicited advice, again, can be invalidating.

Concluding thoughts

And we’ll leave the excerpt there. As you can imagine, having the same language to use around what stress and burnout is can be very helpful in ensuring that you are not invalidating the person’s experience.

It may even be appropriate to discuss with the person reading a book or piece of material together and then discuss how they feel it relates to their lives. That can feel incredibly supportive for the person experiencing burnout to know that someone is going to the time and effort of investing in their recovery.

As I said at the top, ‘How Burnout Stops: A Practical Guide To Stress Management, Burnout Prevention and Burnout Recovery’ is now available as an ebook from all ebook retailers and as a paperback from Amazon.

I do hope that there will be many nuggets of helpful information and strategies in the book, for people currently experiencing stress and burnout, and for organisations and other people who are wanting to help others recover from and prevent future stress and burnout.

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At Coolout, in 2023, we're developing Stress Management, Burnout Prevention and Burnout Recovery self-led online courses, a book and doing one-on-one burnout coaching. If you want to stay up to date, you can find a newsletter subscription where you can stay up to date with new content and information about upcoming training and product releases.

Overcoming Pastor and Ministry Stress and Burnout

Fri, 10 Nov 2023 12:07:15 +1030

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Today we're talking about a profession in which there is a lot of chance of stress and burnout being experienced, and that is the area of people working in or around clergy. This includes people who are pastors, ministers or even volunteers. It includes people who are serving in some capacity where they're aiming to shepherd the spiritual lives of others.

Now, before you click away if you're not in a religious organisation, this post will still give you some insights into how burnout can affect us all, and there will certainly be some nuggets of information that I'm sure you will see can be applied to your situation even if you are not working in the clergy.

I'm not a pastor or ministry leader, I've only volunteered in the past, so for this episode I've consulted with several pastors and ministry leaders to make sure this content can be as relevant and practical as possible.

So let's start by discussing the unique-ish situation of being a pastor and in ministry.

Unique-ish situation of being a pastor

I say "unique-ish" because many of these issues can be applied to different sectors, industries, and careers. However, this list that I'm going to discuss primarily addresses stressors that often come up for pastors and those in ministry. Pastors are usually held in high regard and often face high expectations. These expectations frequently come from the people they are serving, such as the congregation. Often, people may have misaligned expectations regarding a pastor's resources.

Of the pastors I spoke to, some described being seen as a "theological vending machine," expected to have all the answers and to be available at all times to address questions. Along the same lines, people often assume that pastors are always spiritually sound. One pastor pointed out that this can inflate the pastor's ego, making them want to appear perfectly spiritual, which in turn can lead to self-imposed pressures.

This added pressure can make pastors feel like everything they say must carry significant weight. They feel they must always be "on," which can lead to fears of revealing vulnerability or imperfections. Another commonly mentioned stressor was the need to always be available, which can lead to a lack of rest. One pastor also noted that this constant availability could erode family time, as they have to attend to ministry duties.

Pastors often have to respond to various crisis situations involving grief, which can expose them to traumatic experiences. Another unique challenge they face is dealing with spiritual questioning, which can sometimes lead to self-doubt about their own faith or spiritual condition.

The challenges can be isolating, due in part to high expectations and occasional loneliness. Many pastors work in small congregations where they may not have connections with other pastors, making it hard to discuss these issues with peers.

Though not unique to ministry, this is fundamentally a people business. Pastors and ministry workers often spend their days giving to others, which can lead to social, mental, and emotional exhaustion. At the end of the day, this can make it difficult for pastors to focus on their families and get proper rest.

Finally, another unique stressor for pastors and those in ministry is the concept of spiritual guilt. They may feel compelled to give their absolute maximum effort and resources, either through self-imposed expectations or external pressures. There's a prevailing notion that everything, especially in a Christian community, should be for God, leading to guilt if one does not give their all.

So, as you can see, there are a variety of stressors that can lead to stress and burnout for those in pastoral roles and ministry.

Signs and symptoms of pastoral and ministry burnout

Now, these stressors can lead to signs and symptoms, including, as I already mentioned, exhaustion—be it mental, physical, or emotional. They can also result in a lack of enthusiasm for ministry work. Pastors might not see the value in what they're doing anymore. In some cases, this can lead to decreased patience toward members of their congregation, especially those who demand more resources. And by "resources," I mean either the pastor's time or focus.

The pastor might then start questioning their own abilities to deal with the various situations that different people bring up, as well as the business and financial aspects of running a church. Additionally, there can be real cynicism about whether these stressful situations and pressures will change in the near future.

Another symptom can be increased stress and tension with others. This could stem from, as I mentioned, a lack of patience toward those who demand more of the pastor's resources, or even from cynicism about people wanting to use the pastor as a theological vending machine, so to speak.

This can all lead to self-doubt. Regardless of where we work, we often judge ourselves for not meeting certain expectations in handling situations. This is especially problematic for pastors, as these are often self-imposed expectations that they should be able to manage all these stressors thrown at them. And as mentioned, this can even lead to a crisis of faith: questioning whether this is really what God wants them to do, or if they are doing something incorrectly and not knowing how to resolve it.

So, that's a pretty bleak list. Unfortunately, it's also a very real one. From talking to pastors, it's a prevalent list of different stressors.

Recommendations for overcoming and preventing pastoral burnout

So what can we do about it? What can pastors and ministry leaders do to overcome and prevent pastoral burnout? The first recommendation is to seek mutual support from other pastors and colleagues. It may be really helpful to get support from those who are not in the same church, or even not in the same denomination. Stress and burnout is not a denominational issue; it's a ministry issue that can be felt across denominations. Additionally, consider support from a trained mental health professional. Now, I want to address the stigma around seeking help from secular resources like counsellors. There are many practical strategies known to help stress and burnout that are not contradictory to the teachings of the Bible. So use discernment, but even secular counsellors can offer wisdom on stress and burnout prevention strategies. I'd suggest doing this in tandem with Christian mentorship. That way, you have others helping you with both practical and spiritual burdens.

Another important intervention, mentioned by several pastors, is increasing familial connection and support. Make sure you carve out time to spend with your family and get rest and renewal that way. Other practical suggestions, not necessarily unique to being a pastor, are to establish boundaries. Make sure you have a solid work-life balance and set aside time for rest. This might mean you need to turn off your phone from contact with others. Some pastors may find this notion ridiculous, thinking the congregation should be able to contact them at any time. I don't think that's necessarily true. And if your congregation does feel it's true, or has any other expectations that shouldn't be there, you need to establish realistic expectations on your resources, both with yourself and your congregation. You might need to educate your congregation on appropriate boundaries to allow you to rest and recover, especially during stressful periods.

Another key intervention is to delegate tasks where possible. A pastor only has a certain amount of resources, and there are more tasks in the church than one person can handle. So delegate tasks to other volunteers, staff members, or other pastors if there's an eldership in place. Not only that, but it's also crucial for church staff and elders to support and care for each other—spiritually, mentally, and in terms of stress, in addition to the business side. I've heard from several pastors that the business side can often be prioritised over personal lives, and it's important to ensure that doesn't happen.

Several pastors also mentioned interventions that, I'm sure they'd agree, can be helpful for anyone in a relationship with God. That is to find comfort and rest in the Lord. The Bible encourages us to trust in God's guidance, not our own. Our earthly trials are temporary compared to the eternal joy and peace promised by God. For example, Matthew 11:28-30 says, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." And then there's also 1 Peter 5:7, "Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you."

Two other aspects for churches in this context include educating the congregation to understand that pastors and ministry leaders are flawed, not perfect. They need the gospel as much as anyone else. This isn't to say the expectations for pastors shouldn't be somewhat higher than for the congregation, but it's important to recognise that pastors, believe it or not, might have their own spiritual contributors to stress. Pastors may need to seek the help of a trusted friend or mentor to identify these causes, which could range from a need for power to a need for success.

Concluding thoughts

Thank you for reading today.

My book, ‘How Burnout Stops: A Practical Guide To Stress Management, Burnout Prevention and Burnout Recovery’ is now available as an ebook from all ebook retailers and as a paperback from Amazon and from nearly everywhere you can find paperbacks.

Although the book doesn't focus on the unique nuances of being a pastor in ministry, I do hope that there will be many nuggets of helpful information and strategies in the book, for people currently experiencing stress and burnout, and for organisations and other people who are wanting to help others recover from and prevent future stress and burnout.

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How To Prevent Teacher Burnout

Fri, 10 Nov 2023 12:07:15 +1030

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Today we’re talking about stress and burnout that comes from being a teacher, and this includes everything from primary school, high school and university teaching. Regardless of the people you are teaching; there are going to be common stressors and common strategies, which we are going to discuss shortly, for overcoming these stressors and preventing burnout in the teaching profession.

I have had some experience casually teaching at the university level, but I have not for school-aged teachers, so I have made sure to do this alongside my wife, Loren, who is an experienced primary school teacher.

Stresses of being a teacher

Where does one even begin when discussing the stressors of being a teacher?

Using the definition of a stressor being a challenge, threat or demand of a teacher’s resources, we can suggest that, broadly, there are going to be many demands on a teacher’s resources, often more than the teacher has available. And here, we are talking about teacher’s resources in terms of their personal energy, focus and time.

The first demand of teacher’s resources can be their required workloads, which includes lesson planning. Some schools require that large chunks of planning for the school year be done up-front, which means weeks of high pressure and long hours for teachers trying to get the necessary paperwork done before they’ve even had a chance to teach their lessons. This workload can also increase throughout the year as lessons need to be adapted when they see how their students respond to the lessons, understandably this can frustrate teachers when they feel they’ll need to ‘redo the work’ of lesson planning again at a later date anyway.

Throughout the year, marking and assessing student work can also put a lot on a teacher’s plate. This can be highly repetitive and mentally exhausting as some schools require that every workbook page, reflection question or math equation be commented on in detail. With a classroom of 25 students and 6 – 8 lessons a day, that results in a lot of activities to mark. Many teachers feel that this isn’t the most effective way to track student progress, so this work can be unmotivating.

In some cases, the professional development required to keep your teaching certification can put an extra burden on teachers. They have a minimum number of hours that need to be completed to keep their teaching registration, and when this is left for them to find on their own it can take extra time (and sometimes money) for them to complete it.

Another challenge that teachers often face is pressure from others who are invested in the children’s education. This can include, for primary and high school-aged students, parents aren’t on the same page as teachers. Understandably, parents and teachers can have different ideas on what they feel is best for a student based on what they see from that student in the time they spend with them. This can cause tensions and conflict. Some parents can become quite confrontational and critical of teachers, and if an individual teacher doesn’t have much support from their employer it can be very stressful. Some parents can try to contact teachers at times outside of their work hours, like in the evenings, on weekends or during holidays. Sometimes parents have unreasonable expectations of what a teacher can achieve during the school day, and when they don’t see the desired outcomes for their child, will be quick to blame the teacher. This can be emotionally exhausting for teachers to deal with, especially when they have 25 or more students with sets of parents to communicate with. Often the teacher is genuinely trying to do their best for the student so it can be disheartening when that’s not appreciated.

A resource demand, specifically in the classroom, can be that teachers need to cater to a wide diversity of students with varying needs and their challenges whether that be, for example, learning needs, emotional needs, social needs, behavioural needs or support with physical access to resources. Teachers have limited time and resources, so to cater to each student’s individual needs is almost impossible. This puts a strain on teachers as they try to work out what to prioritise, how many adaptations to make to their lessons, how they can request the extra support or resources needed, and how to stay in communication with parents and school specialists to update them on each student’s progress. Particularly when it comes to behavioural needs, some students require a lot of attention, monitoring, correction and patience. Some students can be confrontational or aggressive either to other students or to the teacher, and when dealing with this behaviour every day it can be mentally exhausting and tiring. Let’s not forget that teachers are also trying to get through a set curriculum, so constant interruptions to deal with behavioural challenges can be very stressful if they see they are falling behind in the curriculum.

We also must discuss the administrative aspects of being a teacher. This can vary widely, depending on where one is teaching, and there can be significant bureaucratic challenges, changing expectations and budget cuts. Budgets are particularly relevant for U.S. teachers or Australian teachers in schools with low funding. Many teachers spend their own personal money on educational materials for their classroom which can put a strain on their personal material resources.

Another challenge can be the policies teachers need to keep up with which are in many cases outdated or impractical. Many teachers can feel as though the people putting these guidelines in place aren’t able to empathise with what the day-to-day reality of teaching is like in the classroom. Some teachers may feel that the curriculum they’re following is setting an impossible standard, yet each year they need to aim to meet that standard with each of their students.

Finally, if a teacher is working in a school with little support or unhelpful communication from leadership and/or peers, this can add to the challenges of understanding and meeting the requirements that are in place for them by the school.

Signs and symptoms of teacher stress and burnout

These demands of your resources we’ve just discussed can take you away and distract you from doing what you love most.

Most teachers begin teaching because they are passionate about education and want to help raise the next generation. Most teachers are really trying to set their students up for success in the future and are often thinking of how to best support each individual child in their care.

The most prevalent sign of burnout is exhaustion; teachers can feel burnt out when they have exhausted their physical, emotional or mental resources for dealing with the challenges in their lives.

This exhaustion can leave you feeling disheartened and unsure about your abilities to be a teacher. It can also cause you to feel cynical about the care of others around you, including other staff, school leadership and parents.

These stressors can keep you up at night and contribute to you making less-than-ideal healthy choices, which can further contribute to your tiredness.

The distractions of challenges can also lead to more frequent errors, which can, in a cycle, leave you feeling further unsure about your abilities as a teacher. Teachers may stop trying to implement the strategies that they feel will best support their students because they either don’t have the mental energy left to try new things or they’re not feeling supported in their role.

They may also find it harder to be mentally present with their students as they are distracted by their thoughts.

In many cases, sadly, teachers end up leaving the profession altogether due to burnout.

Coping with teacher stresses

So we know teachers can experience burnout from the many stressors, (again that is challenges, threats and demands) they face from doing their job, but what can we do about it? How can we cope with the stressors and prevent our burnout?

Let’s start by discussing coping with stressors.

There are a number of short-term coping strategies we can use for dealing with stress. Not every strategy will work for every person or situation, but you are the expert on what ultimately will work in your situation.

The first strategy to discuss is addressing the stressors; what exactly are the causes of the stressors in your situation? I’d recommend sitting down and actually seeing if you can write out what you feel the challenges are, and how those challenges make you feel. Sometimes it can be necessary to talk to a trusted friend or mentor about what the challenges are. Writing down the stressors can help you to better understand the quantity or severity of the stressors in your life. The next step is to identify whether addressing the stressors requires gaining some additional or different resources for handling the challenges. See if you can write down who you can talk to to acquire these resources. Again, you might need to talk to a trusted friend or mentor for help in identifying the available resources.

For example, if lesson planning is putting a strain on your resources and is causing stress, you can try to find teaching materials online to help get this task done in a more reasonable time. There are many other teachers out there who are teaching the same thing as you and have shared resources that can help. Using these resources means you don’t need to ‘reinvent the wheel’ and can get your planning done faster.

You could also consider asking another teacher who is a mentor or peer at your school to help you with your planning. Sometimes being able to sit and do some planning together can make the task less overwhelming.

From writing down the stressors, you might identify that there is no clear resource ‘solution’ to a stressor, and instead, it may require a change in your own perspective on a challenge. I know it can be really hard to gain a new perspective on a situation, and that it again, can often require discussion with an outsider to the situation, a trusted friend or mentor.

For example, if a student’s consistent behavioural challenges are causing you to be cynical about the effectiveness of your teaching or even to feel less warm towards the student, you could try- and I know this can be really hard and can take a lot of dedication on your part- consider the students’ experience. Why are they acting up? What are they trying to gain from their behavioural responses? If they are trying to gain attention, perhaps they need to know someone cares about them. If they’re trying to get out of their work, perhaps it’s because they’re really struggling with their lessons. If they simply don’t know a different way to respond and get overstimulated by their environment, perhaps they need some guidance in learning new coping strategies. Sometimes taking the time to sit and have a casual chat with the challenging student about how they’re finding school can be very helpful for giving us a new perspective.

Of course, it might be the completely wrong time to think about a new perspective on a situation. You might be lying in bed late at night, ruminating again and again about that parent who yelled at you in the meeting and said you were the worst teacher they had ever seen. Sometimes, we need to focus on overcoming our exhaustion as quickly as possible to give ourselves a chance to rest before addressing the core challenges of a stressor.

There are a few strategies that can help us overcome exhaustion through rest. If you feel there are things in your head that you can’t get out; these may be thoughts about situations that just happened, or things you are concerned about happening in the future, one strategy is to write the thoughts down, without judging yourself for having the thoughts, and set aside a specific time in the future to go through the thoughts and consider what you might need to do to deal with the thoughts. But, here, you are giving yourself permission to not dwell on your thoughts while you have a rest. If the thought comes back, you can say to yourself; ‘I don’t need to think about that, as I’ve written it down and I know I have time to think about it at say ‘6 pm tomorrow evening’.’ If you have a new thought, even if it is just a variation on the first thought, write it down as well, anytime it comes. You might inevitably have a long list, but you can give yourself permission to not think about those things until your designated time.

An additional strategy for resting may be the need to practice mindfulness, which simply means learning to focus on your immediate present environment, rather than ruminating about the past or thinking about the future. There are many different things one can focus on their environment, including the sounds around you, the sensations in your body, or your breathing. If you are attempting to focus on your environment and thoughts come up, it is important not to judge yourself for the thoughts coming up, but rather acknowledge the thoughts as just that; thoughts, and then bring your attention back to your environment.

Practically, teachers could even start a mindfulness moment or simply a quiet reflection time in their classroom. This could be just 5 minutes that you add to your daily routine where your students have time to reflect and journal or practise mindfulness and you can use that time for your personal reflections and mindfulness too.

Preventing teacher burnout

Those were a few stress-coping strategies, but how do we prevent teacher burnout? Well, ultimately the prevention of burnout experiences, and exhausting our resources, requires preventing further demands on our resources. Burnout prevention will, ultimately, depend on the sources of our challenges, threats and demands on our resources, and identifying what is required to reduce those demands on our resources; burnout prevention and burnout recovery often go hand-in-hand.

Even though, as a teacher, you work for a school and there are many students you care deeply about, you are the one responsible for your resources. You may need to consider whether there needs to be further emphasis put on your assertiveness and boundaries to help you when others, be it other teachers or leadership, are requiring more of your resources than you have to give.

As a teacher, you likely care so much about your students and want to do your job to the best of your abilities. Remember that you can serve your students best when you’re looking after yourself. If your personal resources are drained, you won’t have the capacity to offer your students the best you can. If setting some boundaries helps you to better meet your student’s needs as well as your own needs, then it’s worth it. You may even need to gently remind leadership or other staff members of this fact; having the appropriate resources to do your job will result in a better outcome for the students.

Concluding thoughts

Thank you for reading today.

We also have an online course called How Burnout Stops: The Online Course that is available for you anytime, day or night, when you need instant help with stress and burnout.

My wife Loren, who helped with this content today, creates other resources for primary school teachers, and you can find her store on TPT: Blue Sky Designs by Mrs T. If you’re a primary school teacher, I guarantee you’ll find some really helpful resources there for many aspects from lesson planning to student activities. Also, for more teaching tips and discussion, check out: mrstmusings.com, facebook.com/blueskydesignsbymrst

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How To Recover From Academic Burnout

Mon, 17 Jul 2023 13:16:06 +0930

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Today we’re talking about academic burnout, including burnout when completing high school, university, or college.

Defining Academic Burnout

Academic burnout is going to be different for different people. In most cases, academic burnout comes around from the pressure that someone feels to achieve certain grades or a certain outcome, like submitting that thesis. This pressure to achieve may come from yourself. You may perceive or know that in order to continue towards your long-term goals, you need to achieve a certain level of grades. It may be the pressure you put on yourself because your study and grades are part of your identity; you want to be seen by others as successful in your actions.

This pressure can come from others, such as parents, teachers, lecturers or even friends. This pressure can be overt, such as parents or teachers saying, ‘You better achieve As if you want to get anywhere in life’. The pressure can also be subtle, coming from others, such as friends saying things like ‘You succeed in everything you do.’ or ‘You’ll definitely get Dux’. We know they mean well and say these things as encouragement, but these messages can cause us to feel pressure to perform, meet their expectations and not disappoint others.

Symptoms of Academic Burnout

Academic burnout can leave you feeling absolutely drained, both emotionally from the exhaustion of constantly worrying about you academic achievements. It can also leave you feeling physically exhausted, either due to lack of sleep or healthy lifestyle choices due to preoccupation with academics, or even not having a healthy life-study balance; staying up late and studying rather than resting. For some, academic pressures lead to them working harder and harder in their studies, spending countless hours studying for that test or writing that paper.

For others, however, the academic pressures actually lead to procrastination and not working on what they should be working on. This can be from a fear of failure, or simply avoidance of work. If you’ve been in this situation, as I certainly have been, this can lead to a spiral of shame and guilt of not doing the work that you know you should be doing, which leads to more coping through procrastination. For me this was watching TV shows and going for walks, which lead to further guilt and shame.

Ultimately, academic burnout can leave you feeling helpless, hopeless and ineffective. Self-doubt can creep in from every angle about your skills and abilities to do the simplest academic tasks. If you’re investigating academic burnout, it’s likely you’re experiencing it right now, and instead of more about what academic burnout is, you’d much rather find out how to stop experiencing it, so let’s discuss that now.

Recovering from Academic Burnout

Recovering from burnout is going to look different for each person, but I’ve got some overall tips that will help almost anyone on the path to recovery from academic burnout.

An important tip for recovering from academic burnout is to get support. Surround yourself with friends, family, other students and advisors or mentors who will validate your anxieties and self-doubts. When I say those who will ‘validate’ you, I’m talking about people who won’t say things like ‘There’s life other than your study’ and ‘Cheer up, there’s a world out there even if you fail’. I’m sure you’ve probably heard those things before and can agree that they didn’t leave you feeling heard or supported. Ask your school or university if they have counselling services available.

Recovering: Identifying Sources of Stress

Firstly, we need to identify exactly what the source of stress is for your academic burnout. I like to talk about barriers; what is the barrier that stands between you and your goals? These barriers are the things that are most likely the stressors in your situation.

For many experiencing Academic burnout, the barrier is going to be some form of self-doubt. As we’ve already discussed, this self-doubt can be caused by numerous external pressures, but also internal pressures. Also, again, there can be a cycle between academic burnout and self-doubt. We need to break this cycle.

Getting really practical here, find something to write with and write down any self-doubts you have about your academic performance. For me, it was a doubt that I could successfully complete a thesis. Then comes the part that often requires a lot more thought: See if you can write down why you have that self-doubt. For example, for me, it was because I kept getting negative feedback on my thesis progress from my supervisors. For you, it may be that there is a specific subject that you are really struggling to commit to memory for an exam. It may even be you failed something in the past. It may be that you are seeing fellow students around you succeed around you and are worried you’ll be compared to them by others.

Once you have written down these reasons for self-doubt, we then need to work on challenging these negative thoughts. Oftentimes, this will require the help of a trusted friend, teacher or parent who you know will be able to validate you in your burnout. So, again by example, for me and my self-doubt that came from the negative feedback, I needed to challenge myself that previous negative feedback did not necessarily mean future negative feedback. I also needed to challenge the thought by assessing to what extent their feedback was subjective, based on their experiences, rather than objective opinions on what was ‘correct’ and ‘incorrect’ in my thesis.

Recovering: The 'Why' Behind Project Management to Combat Academic Burnout

The second tip for academic burnout recovery is project management. I’m sure you’ve heard from someone else the necessity of project management when you are working on large tasks like a thesis or studying for tests and exams, but hear me out, because I want to tell you the why behind the management: It helps you to not do study.

By having your study realistically project managed, and I’ll tell you a simple way to do this in a moment, you’ll see that there is only a finite quantity of things you can do to reach your goal. Once you have your goals in your calendar, here is the real kicker; don’t do more than you have scheduled. Once you have completed everything scheduled for the day, you can give yourself permission to stop studying, because you know you will have the rest of your goals and tasks nearly scheduled and ready to go!

So, how to project manage your study:

Write your goals. Your goals are real, tangible, measurable things. So ‘Get good grades in biology’ is not the sort of goal we are looking for. The goal here would be ‘complete assignment 1’, ‘complete assignment 2’, ‘complete exam’ etc.
Once you’ve got these big goals, you need to break them down into smaller goals. For example, for ‘assignment 1’, first task could be ‘read assignment instructions’, second task could be ‘set out assignment document format’, third task could be ‘write introduction’. The smaller the goal the better, because when you complete a goal, you can tick that goal off your list and notice that you have succeeded in something towards your bigger goal.
Once you have all your goals, next step is to try and estimate how long each goal would take, and yes, this does take practice and may require readjustments if your estimates are off, and then assign it time in your calendar. Here, the tip is you will nearly always underestimate how long a task will take. It’s human nature to do so. So don’t feel your calendar to the brim but make sure you have flexible time between tasks.

Preventing Academic Burnout

So that’s some tips on recovering from academic burnout. How about preventing burnout in the future? And by the future, I’m talking not only about next year if you are starting a new course, but I’m also talking about… tomorrow. Firstly, have a look at the recovery tips we already discussed. All of those things; uncovering self doubt; project management and getting support; are going to be incredibly helpful for avoiding academic burnout.

The other really helpful thing you can do it start identifying your own personal goals and values. What exactly are you hoping to achieve through your academic achievements? Is achieving a great score really necessary for that goal? For me, I started with wanting to write the best thesis ever. I soon realised, however, that there were no differences, outside the university walls, for achieving a perfect thesis over a great thesis, especially when it was a non-graded pass.

Your situation, however, may be you are required to get a certain grade in order to get into the next course. Therefore, you really do value getting that high grade. In this case, you may need to consider how much you value other hobbies, such as gaming or TV or time on your phone, and whether you need to create some healthy habits around these other things that could eat into your study. Again, get project management happening so that you have clear time to do these hobbies, but establishing boundaries so the balance is not out between work and play is important for avoiding unneeded stress in the future.

Also on this topic, consider learning to be mindful about what you are doing so that you can have these boundaries between work and play or work and rest. This essentially means learning to be ‘in the moment’ when you are trying to do other things so that your mind isn’t constantly thinking about your study when you are trying to do other things in your personal life.

This isn’t necessarily about yoga or breathing exercises, but rather focusing your attention n on your immediate surroundings. Next time you feel yourself thinking over and over again about your study, pick something in your environment to focus on. It could be the sound of birds, someone else’s voice or even the feeling of the wind. Focus on it for as long as you need. If you notice your mind start to drift away and start thinking about study, don’t get upset with yourself or disheartened or judge yourself for not being able to be in the moment, but rather acknowledge the thought as a thought and try to bring your focus back to your environment. This might take some doing, but really, by doing this, you are practising being in the moment, rather than thinking and thinking about things in the past or things coming up in the future about your university, college or high school work.

Concluding Thoughts on Academic Burnout

Thank you and I hope there was something helpful in there for you today to help you overcome and avoid academic burnout. I’ve experienced it personally, it sucks, but there are ways to stop experiencing it.

Best studies to anyone out there finishing a thesis, paper or studying for their tests and exams.

Stay Connected with Coolout

Thank you, and I hope there was something helpful in there for you today. At Coolout, in 2023, we're developing Stress Management, Burnout Prevention and Burnout Recovery self-led online courses, a book and doing one-on-one burnout coaching. If you want to stay up to date, you can find a newsletter subscription where you can stay up to date with new content and information about upcoming training and product releases.

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Meaning of 'Burnt Out'

Wed, 14 Jun 2023 11:27:47 +0930

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Today, we're discussing what it means to be ‘burnt out’. Please note this is general advice and is not exhaustive for every individual situation. You should seek help from a qualified professional as soon as any causes of stress or symptoms begin to feel more than what you can handle on your own.

Defining ‘Burnt Out’

What does being ‘burnt out’ mean? At its core, burnout is a response to a stressor, which can come from many different sources. A very common one is work stressors, whether they be people, tasks, or responsibilities with a lot of boundaries preventing you from completing those tasks. Stressors can also come from life, such as family stressors or situations where you need to care for other people. There can be many stressors in that too.

Understanding Stressors and Their Role in Burnout

The important thing to point out here is that stress can come from many sources, and what's stressful for one person may not necessarily be stressful for another person. That's because a stressor, in itself, a source of stress, can be defined as anything that signals danger or requires a call to action. For example, a stressor may be a difficult co-worker. For some people, this can cause great anxiety as they go about their day at work, but for other people, a difficult co-worker may instead be seen as simply a call to action, something that they need to address, whether that be confronting the difficult co-worker over a specific issue or talking to management or a supervisor. So, for that person, that cause of stress may be less prevalent than for the other person.

Common Symptoms of Burnout

Now, importantly, many definitions of being burnt out define burnout by the symptoms, and there can be a lot of symptoms. One of the most common ones to discuss is exhaustion, being physically, mentally, or emotionally exhausted, which can be a result of dwelling on stress and not being able to find a way out of it. Every person's symptom of burnout will be different to the next person to some extent. It will depend on the individual's temperament, their experiences, and the specific stressor.

Case Studies: Different Perspectives on Burnout

So, I've got some examples. Let's say we've got James. James is in conflict with his supervisor at work. He may feel anxious about judgments from other people. He may feel a sense of inefficacy or inefficiency about what he does. He may even be anxious about his future career prospects if he perceives that the supervisor could be a barrier to him moving forward in his career. James may also feel physical exhaustion simply from being kept up at night, having insomnia, worrying about how this conflict will result in further barriers. And James might also feel anxiety about going to work or interacting with the supervisor or manager. So, there are a lot of symptoms that I just listed here, but we can conclude that James, in conflict with his supervisor, is feeling these negative symptoms, suggesting that he is feeling burnt out.

Another example is Laurie, who perceives that there is no recognition for her achievements at work. Some people in their work really don't care about achievements, whereas for other people, such as Laurie, this may lead to them feeling resentment towards supervision or leadership for the lack of recognition of what they've achieved. They may also feel a sense of anxiety about being compared to others who may have achieved more or less than her. Because of this, Laurie may actually have reduced productivity and procrastinate tasks because she might figure, well, if no one's going to recognize me for what I've done, what's the point of doing it? Another symptom could be her distraction with careers. She could spend her time job searching or be so focused on the achievements that she's not getting. Another symptom is that she could simply be cynical about the value of her work. If she has no recognition that what she's achieving actually means anything, she might figure, again, why am I doing this?

So, from these two examples, James and Laurie, we see two different stressors resulting in two different sets of symptoms of burnout. So, what it means to be burnt out to one person may be different to another, given the symptoms they've experienced. And that can really lead to difficult conversations of, well, are you actually burnt out? Because you don't have similar symptoms to those I've seen in other people who have been burnt out.

Okay, so we've discussed what it means to be burnt out, but what can we do to help us no longer be burnt out? Now, recovery solutions will depend on the stressor, different stressors and even different people require different solutions.

Addressing Conflict at Work: James's Recovery Path

So, let's go back to our examples. We have James, who is feeling in conflict with his supervisor. One of his symptoms was feeling anxious about going to work and interacting with this supervisor. James may need to practice or pursue training, increasing his skills and confidence in conflict management and resolution. I'd hope that his organisation would have some form of mediation resources available, perhaps from human resources support. It might be necessary for James to practice and learn mindfulness to help him have a rest from processing this conflict with the supervisor. He may also need to seek emotional support, whether it's informal or formal through a qualified professional, if he feels that he's unable to process through the conflict.

Dealing with Lack of Recognition: Laurie's Recovery Path

What about Laurie, who feels that there is no recognition for her achievements? As we discussed, she may feel resentment towards leadership for her lack of recognition, and she may need to learn or practice identifying that her recognized achievements are not necessarily an accurate representation of her knowledge, skills, or experience. She might need to recognize that each of her achievements, large or small, needs to be acknowledged by herself and she might need to learn to celebrate her own achievements. She might need to also identify that the lack of achievement recognition may simply be due to a lack of communication or misunderstanding about the achievements of her tasks. If she believes this is the case, she might need to communicate her achievements to her supervisor in the context of how it relates to the tasks, roles, and organizational goals. She could go to her supervisor and say, "One of our goals was to increase the number of sign-ups this month and I believe we've done that."

Concluding Thoughts on ‘Burnt out’ meaning

So to wrap it up, what it means to be burnt out is that there are symptoms in our lives to which we need to pay careful attention and consider solutions that not only address the symptoms but also the stressors to prevent feeling burnt out in the future. Often we can do this by taking some time to think through the best solutions to the given stresses, but sometimes we need the help of a trusted friend or professional guide to help us identify the true stresses and come up with informed solutions.

Stay Connected with Coolout

Thank you, and I hope there was something helpful in there for you today. At Coolout, in 2023, we're building stress management, burnout prevention, and burnout recovery self-led online courses, a book, organisational and individual training, and also doing one-on-one burnout coaching. If you want to stay up to date, you can find a newsletter subscription where you can stay up to date with new content and information about upcoming training and product releases.

Coolout's stress management and burnout prevention solutions

My organisation needs burnout help >

I need more burnout help >