7 Signs You’re Burned Out At Work [And How To Prevent It]

updated on 9/17/24 

Let’s face it, being burned out at work sucks. It’s hard to get past that miserable feeling of running out of steam, as your inspirations seem to be less moving, and your motivation slowly gets sucked away.

So, what is burned out, exactly? The definition of burnout in regard to employment is as follows:

Occupational burnout – a syndrome resulting from chronic work-related stress, with symptoms characterized by exhaustion; increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job.

In other words, burn out is the result of both personal and job-related factors which overwhelm you and affect your ability to pursue goals and achieve success.

In this article, I will help you identify if you are burnt out, and what you can do to relieve it, and ultimately, to prevent it.

Let’s get to it.

Here are 7 signs you’re burned out at work, and how to prevent it:

1. Burned out Sign # 1: Frustration from working too much

Burn out can happen in many ways. People can get burnt out from driving too much, or from moving homes too often, or from going to the gym every day and not seeing results.

It’s a mixture of having emotional fatigue, and declining mental health, which can also affect your physical well being. When these three aspects of your life become strained, over time, it can cause you to get frustrated.

Sometimes the frustration may be obvious, such as you aren’t achieving the results you’re expecting for actions you are taking. An example of this is getting burned out because you’re failing in school.

But what about the reasons that are a bit harder to identify, but still affect you greatly? For instance, being disturbed from deeply rooted trauma that negatively affects your personality.

This type of frustration could be due to shame, which is difficult to overcome, and which is one of six primary feelings associated with being frustrated.

• Anger
• Anxiety or fear
• Sadness
• Guilt
• Shame

Having an excessive amount of any of these feelings can disrupt your life, and in various ways such as causing unhealthy introversion, lack of motivation at work, and self-identity issues.

Burn out from job responsibilities

We spend 8, 9, 10 hours per day, 5 days a week working at our jobs. This is how we operate in the U.S., and frankly, it gets tiresome.

Some countries realize this labor conditioning problem, and have implemented ways to combat it. Two such are Spain and Iceland, who adopted a 4-day workweek, nationwide. Some companies in the US have also started the 4-day workweek, but it’s not the norm just yet. 

Employers still pay workers the same, and researchers found that working less increases productivity, which benefits the business, their revenue, their goals, and employees aren’t getting burnt out.

So…what if every country adopted this work schedule? Well, data suggests only good things will happen. There’s really no reason to work 50% of the week’s daylight at a place where, you’re essentially only there to make money.

What’s the use of money if you can’t enrich your life and enjoy the things you are spending it on?

It’s being STUCK in the work mentality that causes us to get burnt out.

Because when you’re in the mindset that you must do things, for most of your life, that you don’t necessarily want to do — things that aren’t fulfilling your purpose in life, it starts to wear on you.

The frustration begins to affect you in different ways. You may start to feel overworked or underappreciated, and so, you lash out at your coworkers or boss, and suddenly, you are on your manager’s bad side.

Or perhaps you’ve got bills to meet, and you simply aren’t making enough money. You don’t feel like you’re advancing in a monetary way. It’s enough to make you dislike your job, and ultimately, find a new one.

What’s the takeaway?

If you’re feeling frustrated and burnt out from work, consider that it could be due to the amount of hours you’re working. While it’s not always viable that you can work less, there are plans of action you can take to make things bearable.

Those things include: working on your own goals everyday after work, persevering through times of feeling burned out and depressed, and actively searching for a new job that will better fit your personality and desires.

2. Declining Health: Burned out mentally from repetition

How often do you change things up on a daily basis?

Do you drive the same way to work, listen to the same radio station, and even park in the same parking spot every day? Maybe you should try something new.

There’s this popular saying:

An object at rest stays at rest, and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.

Okay. So it’s Newton’s First Law of Motion. But here’s the thing: the laws of physics apply to us too, even in ways we don’t think about.

When we tend to do the same things over and over, we should expect to see the same results. In other words, if something seems off in your life, especially work-related, and you are starting to drag and feel mentally burned out, analyze your habits and routine.

It could be that something in your routine is triggering you and causing burn out.

Use micro changes to prevent getting burnt out

Change up your scenery; drive a different way to work. Instead of listening to the radio, drive in silence. Use it as an opportunity to think about what you want changed in life, and how to go about it.

This may seem silly to some, but instead of parking in the same spot every day, park somewhere else.

The idea is to disturb your environment. When you do this, change will inevitably be inflicted upon you, even in mysterious ways that you may not realize or understand.

The key to preventing burnout is to avoid repetition.

We do the SAME things every day, and it puts us into a robot-like mentality, where everything we do becomes robotic as if our destinies are being written in some factory.

Repetition can cause serious symptoms of anxiety in some people.

You’ve got to switch things up and prevent repetition at all cost. The idea is to fill your life with enriching experiences, otherwise, your body will be flooded with cortisol (the stress hormone), and this can negatively influence your mood, routines, and outlook in life.

You might start to feel fatigued after a while, and feel like you need to sleep more. This brings me to my next point:

What’s one of the biggest signs you are burnt out?

Being fatigued and tired. You’ve got to make sure you are getting at least 7+ hours of sleep per night. Otherwise, you’re guaranteed to eventually get burned out.

What’s the takeaway?

Some of the biggest signs that you are burnt out include being fatigued, having anxiety, and having repetition of things in your life.

If you’re feeling burned out lately, take a look at your schedule and routine. Are there small changes that can be made which won’t negatively impact your life? Try tweaking your day-to-day routine, and see if things get better for you.

3. You feel out of control from being burnt out

Do you ever feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day? You exercise in the morning, go to your job, get home, make dinner, and you’ve got maybe 2 or 3 hours to work on your personal things.

It can be exhausting. Not only this, but it’s enough to make you manic, and feel burnt out from life. You may have a sense of helplessness, like your time is out of your control.

There are some people who can manage, and who find comfort in such a normalized lifestyle. But, many do not. Why is this?

It’s because they measure their success not by their ability to conform to labored indoctrination, which does have its benefits like stability and security, but because they measure it by their ability to NOT conform.

These types of people are rarely satisfied with normalcy, and they define what it takes to be a genuine leader and to innovate. However, the conformers may seek simplicity in life, and so, they too, may find their own success, but by conforming to society. And there is nothing wrong with that.

What to do when you are burnt out and feeling out of control

If you find that there aren’t enough hours in the day for you to work on your own aspirations, you have a few options:

• Time block your schedule. Try using the Pomodoro Technique.
• Define your goals better, and narrow down methods of achieving them.
• Sacrifice things you do that consume your time for other tasks that will give you more fulfillment.
• Change careers. Your job may not be aligned with your long-term goals.

What’s the takeaway?

The meaning of burn out in terms of time boils down to how well you manage it. If you are having trouble fitting your most important tasks into your every day life, it will wear on you, and will eventually cause you to get burned out at work, and at home. Time management is essential to preventing burn out.

4. Less organized because you’re burned out from work

There’s nothing very fulfilling about working at a business from the time you wake up until sundown, when you’re not the one making all the money.

When you’re the CEO or owner of a successful company, you’re excited to go in, because you’re adding money to your waterfall. That equates to brand new cars, vacation homes, international travel, and much more.

But the truth is, for most of us, we don’t live those lifestyles. If you’re making under $200k per year, you are tied to your job, and your freedom is restricted by money.

This restriction can cause stress, burnout, and could lead you into living a very disorganized life. If you find your house and workspace has been getting messy lately, it could be a sign you are getting burned out at work.

What to do when burn out causes disorganization in your life:

• Trying focusing hard on what’s been stressing you out the most, lately. Remove it from the equation, if possible.
• Relax a little. Take some time out of your day and clean things up. Tidy your house, organize your work desk, recognize what you’ve become and try to correct it.
• Read advice from other people who have been in the same situation as you, and copy their coping methods. The benefits of reading other people’s wisdom are enormous.

What’s the takeaway?

If you’ve been disorganized lately, it could be one of the signs you are burnt out. Becoming aware of this is step 1 to getting back on track with your tidiness, and overcoming your burn out to live a more invigorating life.

5. Burned out symptoms: emotional exhaustion & lacking foresight

Do you want something so bad, but you feel like it’s too far out of reach?

What is it that’s holding you back? Do you feel like your dreams are too big? Have you run out of energy, and can’t continue persevering? Or maybe it’s your job that’s holding you back.

Let’s say that it’s your job holding you back, because chances are, that’s the reason. I’m making that assumption because you’re reading this article.

Getting burned out from your job is real. The struggle is real. What’s even more of a struggle is when you get so stressed out, that your smallest issues end up feeling like your biggest.

Example? You’re tired and trying to find it in you to finish writing your article on how to not get burnt out. Meanwhile, you put your 7 a.m. flight to Tokyo at risk by staying up late to finish the article.

Not publishing an article on time is not cool. But missing a scheduled flight is kind of a bigger issue.

Burned out syndrome and setting goals

Allowing your goals to interfere with more dire and imminent circumstances can be a sign of being burnt out. When you put your goals above everything, you lose your sense of priority, and you can become frustrated through disproportionate reasoning when you put off those goals.

Not seeing results from your goals can cause a lot of frustration. And it can cause you to lose inspiration, especially when you don’t get the results you’re expecting fast enough.

You’ve got to persevere, as Steve Jobs once said.

What’s even more exhausting than not achieving results from your goals, is being a member of a rigged labor system, and going to a job and putting their goals first. Then you go home, and only put half as much effort into yours.

This is, of course, by design – to feed corporate America, which stabilizes our economy, our government, lobbyists…and so on. But that’s a topic for another article.

In the end, it’s pure perseverance that will help you through it. You’ve got to push through those stages of burn out. And while you persevere, you need to cope by taking meaningful breaks, exercising, pursuing hobbies, and maintaining healthy relationships.

Always continue making dreams, and inspiring yourself by envisioning the results from when you finally accomplish your goals.

What’s the takeaway?

Getting burnt out at work by focusing on the goals of your employer can cause you to lose sight of your own. It’s important to re-cap and pursue yours every day, because it will give you some sense of accomplishment and progress. It will help you see the light at the end of the tunnel.

6. Tired of working and you’ve become a hermit

Some people go days, weeks, even months without talking to friends and family. Some of us can go years without a single word spoken.

Why is this? What is it about the essence of communication that prevents us from saying something as simple as hello to someone we haven’t spoken to in a while?

Is it that difficult to spend five seconds to shoot a quick text? Or does the difficulty come because once you start the conversation, then you’ve got to keep up with it? You have to keep up with doing it again in a few days, or weeks.

Maybe it’s easier to just not say anything at all. Sure, that will make it difficult for people to like you, but at least you’re in the clear. You don’t have to deal with anyone.

You don’t have to DEAL with anyone.

That is the problem. We have this mentality that maintaining relationships is dealing with things. You’ve got to DEAL with saying hello to grandma. She talks way too much, and once you get her on the phone, there’s no escaping.

Is it that painful to simply communicate with people?

If this is you, you should consider that failing to communicate without any real cause is one of the signs you’re burnt out. Maintaining healthy relationships is so important for our health, and not having them can have detrimental effects.

As Psychologist Dr. Fisher from Northwestern Medicine puts it:

Humans “have a compulsion for company” and “when social relationships break down or are damaged, it can have a big impact on our mental health and well-being.”

An excellent way to help prevent your burn out is to keep up with your relationships. It’s mentally straining to know that you are failing to uphold your end. Don’t be afraid to reach out to someone you haven’t talked to in a while. You may be surprised by what positive mystery doing so may bring you.

What’s the takeaway?

If you are wondering how to stop feeling burnt out, and you could use a little more laughter in your life, try reaching out to an old friend or family member. It could be someone you used to enjoy the company of, but whom you’ve lost touch with over the years.

Sometimes we get so caught up in our own ‘bubbles’ that we forget the good times we used to have. Don’t let such a simple task (and social responsibility) linger in the back of your mind and burn you out.

7. Burnt out because you feel misplaced in life

Let’s face it, we’ve all had days where we question our place in life.

Sometimes the world can make us feel misunderstood, and a bit lost. It can cause us to be inconsistent with what we want, and could even lead to us switching jobs frequently.

Everyone is different on how they can overcome this, but there is an anecdote that seems to work for many. That anecdote is making sure you take time to work on your hobbies, and that you are creative with your passions, and you follow your dreams.

Don’t allow being burnt out to prevent you from doing these things. Otherwise, if the entire world followed suit, our technological advances would seize to be.

Imagine this: there is a visionary leader somewhere in the world who has all the ideas in their head to fix society. They’re the next Bill Gates. But maybe this person is SO burned out, that they can never catch up, and so they don’t work on their visions. Their invention, or new way of living will never see light in our world, and perhaps, in all of time in our universe.

Because maybe this person will be the only one—ever—who would come up with this thing, specifically. Our world would be forever NOT changed because this person couldn’t overcome their burn out to fulfill their purpose.

Defeating burn out helps more than just the individual.

It helps all of civilization, in undefined and indirect ways.

What’s the takeaway?

If you’ve been feeling burned out lately, it might help you to take full responsibility of it and try to fix it. Remember that saying, “It takes one to know one.” Well, it takes burnout to overcome burnout. You’ve got to push yourself to the limits until you break free from this phase you are in.

Conclusion

Getting over burnout is tough. It’s usually a sign that there is something majorly wrong in your life, even if the cause is minor, like a bad habit or tiresome routine.

If you don’t like some of the things happening in your day-to-day life, or if you aren’t enjoying what you do, then it’s enough to make you frustrated with life. Because your life IS what you do.

Your life is who you are, your purpose and meaning, how enriching your experiences are, your thriving relationships, and the results from reaching your goals.

These are all things that define your life. And if these things are not going as planned, and you are not having that spark ignited inside you that pushes you forward, then over time you will eventually burn out. So you need to have a solid plan.

If you are going to work somewhere—regardless if the work brings you satisfaction, it’s important that you continue pursuing your goals. This effort will burn you out even more, but it’s a necessary part of the process.

You have to persevere. This is just a phase, and you can break out of it.

That is all, friends. Keep trying, and be patient. Good luck.

Here’s a quick recap of 7 Signs you’re burned out at work, and how to prevent it:

1. Frustrated and working too many hours.
2. Burned out mentally from repetition.
3. You feel out of control.
4. Your life is becoming less organized.
5. You’re emotionally exhausted.
6. You have become a hermit.
7. Burnt out because you feel misplaced in life.

That’s all folks! Thanks for reading.

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