Here are 5 things you should know.
1. The symptoms of burnout before it causes irreparable damage to your career and/or relationships.
Burnout can sneak up on you before you know it. Particularly at risk are type-A personalities. If you find yourself experiencing any of the symptoms below, you may need to dial it back a bit with your workload or other commitments before it causes damage in your professional and/or personal life that you cannot recover from.
As Dr. Carter describes on PsychologyToday.com:
“Burnout is a state of chronic stress that leads to:
physical and emotional exhaustion
cynicism and detachment
feelings of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment
When in the throes of full-fledged burnout, you are no longer able to function effectively on a personal or professional level. However, burnout doesn’t happen suddenly. You don’t wake up one morning and all of a sudden “have burnout.” Its nature is much more insidious, creeping up on us over time like a slow leak, which makes it much harder to recognize. Still, our bodies and minds do give us warnings, and if you know what to look for, you can recognize it before it’s too late.
What are the signs of burnout?
Each of the three areas described above is characterized by certain signs and symptoms (although there is overlap in some areas). These signs and symptoms exist along a continuum. In other words, the difference between stress and burnout is a matter of degree, which means that the earlier you recognize the signs, the better able you will be to avoid burnout (IF you do something to address the symptoms when you recognize them).
Signs of physical and emotional exhaustion:
Chronic fatigue. In the early stages, you may feel a lack energy and feel tired most days. In the latter stages, you feel physically and emotionally exhausted, drained, and depleted, and you may feel a sense of dread for what lies ahead on any given day.
Insomnia. In the early stages, you may have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep one or two nights a week. In the latter stages, insomnia may turn into a persistent, nightly ordeal; as exhausted as you are, you can’t sleep.
Forgetfulness/impaired concentration and attention. Lack of focus and mild forgetfulness are early signs. Later, the problems may get to the point where you can’t get your work done and everything begins to pile up.
Physical symptoms. Physical symptoms may include chest pain, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, gastrointestinal pain, dizziness, fainting, and/or headaches (all of which should be medically assessed).
Increased illness. Because your body is depleted, your immune system becomes weakened, making you more vulnerable to infections, colds, flu, and other immune-related medical problems.
Loss of appetite. In the early stages, you may not feel hungry and may skip a few meals. In the latter stages, you may lose your appetite all together and begin to lose a significant amount of weight.
Anxiety. Early on, you may experience mild symptoms of tension, worry, and edginess. As you move closer to burnout, the anxiety may become so serious that it interferes your ability to work productively and may cause problems in your personal life.
Depression. In the early stages, you may feel mildly sad, occasionally hopeless, and you may experience feelings of guilt and worthlessness as a result. At its worst, you may feel trapped, severely depressed, and think the world would be better off without you. (If your depression is to this point, you should seek professional help immediately.)
Anger. At first, this may present as interpersonal tension and irritability. In the latter stages, this may turn into angry outbursts and serious arguments at home and in the workplace. (If anger gets to the point where it turns to thoughts or acts of violence toward family or coworkers, seek immediate professional assistance.)
Signs of Cynicism and Detachment
Loss of enjoyment. At first, loss of enjoyment may seem very mild, such as not wanting to go to work or being eager to leave. Without intervention, loss of enjoyment may extend to all areas of your life, including the time you spend with family and friends. At work, you may try to avoid projects and figure out ways to escape work all together.
Pessimism. At first, this may present itself as negative self-talk and/or move from a glass half-full to a glass-half-empty attitude. At its worst, this may move beyond how you feel about yourself and extend to trust issues with coworkers and family members and a feeling that you can’t count on anyone.
Isolation. In the early stages, this may seem like mild resistance to socializing (i.e., not wanting to go out to lunch; closing your door occasionally to keep others out). In the latter stages, you may become angry when someone speaks to you, or you may come in early or leave late to avoid interactions.
Detachment. Detachment is a general sense of feeling disconnected from others or from your environment. It can take the form of the isolative behaviors described above, and result in removing yourself emotionally and physically from your job and other responsibilities. You may call in sick often, stop returning calls and emails, or regularly come in late.
Signs of Ineffectiveness and Lack of Accomplishment
Feelings of apathy and hopelessness. This is similar to what is described in the depression and pessimism sections of this article. It presents as a general sense that nothing is going right or nothing matters. As the symptoms worsen, these feelings may become immobilizing, making it seems like “what’s the point?”
Increased irritability. Irritability often stems from feeling ineffective, unimportant, useless, and an increasing sense that you’re not able to do things as efficiently or effectively as you once did. In the early stages, this can interfere personal and professional relationships. At its worst, it can destroy relationships and careers.
Lack of productivity and poor performance. Despite long hours, chronic stress prevents you from being as productive as you once were, which often results in incomplete projects and an ever-growing to-do list. At times, it seems that as hard as you try, you can’t climb out from under the pile.”
Other helpful resources: https://www.helpguide.org/articles/stress/preventing-burnout.htm
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/high-octane-women/201104/overcoming-burnout
2. Never pay original monthly fee for SiriusXM . Ask for $30 for 6 months or $25 for 5 months deals when subscribing.
Usually, you pay $15.99 per month, without any special rates. But if you ask about a discount or a special rate they will offer you a large discount. For example, $25 for 5 months. $25 vs $79.95
3. The 2×10 method of breaking through to people who don’t like you.
It’s a technique used in education to reach “at risk” students with behavior issues but it works equally as well on adults like problematic coworkers or bad neighbors.
Simply spend 2 minutes a day for 10 days straight having a one on one conversation asking about them with nothing to do with the context of how you are connected. I.e ask the problem coworker anything about themselves that has nothing to do with work.
Works like a charm for building relationships with whom you’ve basically written off.
4. Borrowing books from UK and Irish libraries directly support the author.
You don’t have to buy a book to help!
Assuming the author is registered for Public Lending Right (https://www.plr.uk.com), which many are, they will regularly receive a cheque that correlates to how many times their books were loaned out in libraries across the country.
Many authors rely on their income from PLR to keep going, and the money they receive can be a huge boon.
The money comes from a government fund, so it’s really important to visit libraries and make sure your local MP knows you want your local library to stay open!
5. You can review all the data Google has stored on you.
https://myactivity.google.com/myactivity can be used to show your entire search history, youtube search history, location history, etc. You can also choose to delete any of the data you want.
