Do you recognize when you are in burnout, or heading towards burnout? To avoid letting burnout get out of hand, it is good to be skilled at recognizing your own list of signs that indicate you are approaching “the burnout danger zone.”
Based on comments from some of my clients, I have put together the following list of warning signs to watch for.
Warning signs
- Needing to sleep more
- Not feeling rested when you wake up
- Thinking you don’t have enough energy to get through the day
- Not knowing what to do during your lunch break
- Not taking a lunch break because you are too busy
- Not having enough energy to exercise
- Giving up on exercising completely
- Not being able to catch-up in your paperwork and report writing
- Wanting to give up on your paperwork and report writing
- Thinking about work too much when you’re not at the office
- Always checking your phone for work-related texts and emails in the evening and on weekends
- Having a drink more often after work
- Drinking too much in general
- Avoiding the telephone
- Not wanting to return phone calls from friends
- Falling out of contact with friends
- Not responding to email invitations
- Being impatient when you drive
- Not being able to wait in line
- Feeling impatient all the time
As a tool to help you pull out of the burnout danger zone, a useful exercise is to modify this list to create your own list of burnout warning signs so you can reference it when you know significant burnout is approaching.
— Dr. Patricia Turner, Registered Psychologist, Calgary, Alberta