How to Recover from Burnout

You know it in your bones: you’re burned out. You look back on the times you felt vibrant, curious, engaged, and they seem alien to you. Now, you’re slogging through the workday. And it’s hollowing you out inside. You’re not alone:

• 66% of workers in America are dealing with some form of burnout according to a recent study.
• 76% of respondents to another study said that workplace stress has led to depression or anxiety.
• 36% of participants in yet another study said their organizations weren’t doing anything at all to address employee burnout.

So now it’s time to make a change. It’s time to figure out how to recover from burnout. And right now, we’ll say there is hope — recovering from burnout is absolutely possible. There’s a lot to talk about here, so let’s dive in

What is burnout?

What causes burnout?

If you want to know how to deal with burnout, the first step is to know how it occurs in the first place. There are three main categories under which most of the work-based causes fall:

1. Unreasonable expectations

This is the big one when it comes to burnout. Within this category, there are two key contributors:

Excessive workload

There’s only so much that can be expected of a person in a single day. When you are asked to deliver more than can be reasonably expected of you, you’re essentially set up to fail. When you don’t meet the unreachable goal, your self-esteem might begin to erode, and as a result, your belief in your self-efficacy will also plummet. As you keep getting assigned more than a person can handle, this can lead to a downward spiral for your mental (and physical) health. But this aspect is tied closely to the next contributor:

Unrealistic deadlines

Now, having a lot to do isn’t always a bad thing. The main way it can lead to burnout is when it’s combined with deadlines under which the work is clearly unfeasible. Combined, these factors will force you to either constantly exceed your capacity for work tasks or fall short. We talked about the realities of falling short in the previous entry, but exceeding your limits to keep up with work will also leave you little time or energy to do anything other than work and recover. By overcommitting to work, you don’t allow yourself to have a life outside of the office, and a flattening of your experience to work and sleep will rob you of key sources of value that human beings need to stay mentally and physically healthy.

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2. Chaos

We’re not talking about Brownian motion or anything like that. Here, we mean chaos that is endemic to how a company operates. Within this, burnout can be caused in two typical ways:

Willful ambiguity

Sometimes, there’s room for people being people, and within a company’s day-to-day, a certain low level of ambiguity is normal. However, when you know there’s something expected of you, but you can’t find out what it is or when you need to deliver it even after repeatedly asking, this can lead to burnout. A lack of clarity in the expectations for your role will have you trying to establish a sense of efficacy by working on projects you hope will be the right ones. But you’ll never know if what you’re doing will actually satisfy the requirements that weren’t ever communicated. That will leave you feeling powerless. And that ties into the next element here:

Lack of control

You can’t have a sense of efficacy in your job if you don’t know that the tasks you’re taking on are even the ones you’re supposed to be doing. But there’s more to this, too. If you don't have any say in your schedule, decisions that directly impact your work, or how you go about completing the tasks that are clear, this can fuel a sense of powerlessness, and that can morph into entrenched professional cynicism, one of the symptoms of burnout (but more on that later).

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3. Toxicity

It’s hard to describe workplace toxicity as anything but sinister. It doesn’t allow an organization to thrive, and is a prime driver of mental strain at work. Here are some burnout causes that fall within this category:

Unhealthy work relationships

You need to trust your boss. You need to trust your colleagues. But in toxic environments where your supervisor refuses to support you or where you’re in regular conflict with your coworkers (and this can go as far as to include bullying), you’re not going to be able to feel a sense of security in your position. Without that, you might end up in a state of hypervigilance, during which the human fight-or-flight response is always on. That’s going to drain your mental resources — fast.

Unfair treatment

This takes many different forms, but all of them are toxic in their own way. You might end up witnessing a small cadre of favorites consistently singled out for praise, promotion, and celebration not because of their merits, but because they’re close to the higher-ups. You might see that policies are enforced arbitrarily and inconsistently, creating an environment in which some people need to follow rules while others can flout them as they choose. You might even get paid less than someone else who does the same role. When a company treats you unfairly, it breaks the social contract between you and the business, and this can lead to resentment and (understandable) disengagement from the workplace. An arbitrary doling out of rewards and punishments destroys your sense of self-efficacy, leading to burnout.

Beyond the workplace

One thing we should note here, though, is that while burnout typically arises from workplace issues, that's not the whole story. Personal factors and circumstances might also lead to burnout even in a job that, under other conditions, might not. 

For example, if something happens with your family that demands more of your time, you might find yourself burning out by trying to tend to both intense family matters and a demanding career.

In addition, if you’re a people pleaser, i.e., you find it hard to say no to additional tasks, or if you’re a perfectionist, these qualities can set you up for a higher likelihood of burning out. In these situations, you might take on more tasks than are reasonable or set a standard for yourself that is potentially unrealistic.

Burnout symptoms and signs of burnout at work

We’ve all been tired, but not all of us have experienced burnout. So if you’re asking, “What does burnout feel like?” to get a sense of whether what you’re going through qualifies, here’s a list of burnout symptoms you can check against. If you’re experiencing the preponderance of these symptoms, you’re likely dealing with burnout:

Exhaustion

Again, we don’t mean just tired. With burnout, you feel drained to the point of being emotionally (and even sometimes physically — more on that later) incapable of handling day-to-day tasks that you used to manage without issue. Importantly, this can also be a sign of depression, though, so it might be worthwhile to consult a mental health professional.

Disengagement

Like we mentioned above, you feel cynical and frustrated about your work and so you detach from it. You feel that efforts to make a change, efforts you might have already attempted, are futile, so you give into distancing yourself from your work and your colleagues out of a sense of numb despair.

Diminished functioning

When you have burnout, your performance suffers, and not just at work. Sure, you might find yourself making mistakes on the job that you might not have made previously. But burnout can also manifest as forgetfulness, concentration issues, and brain fog that affect functioning beyond your office. That means that signs of burnout in life can also be good indications that something’s not quite right at work. If you find yourself struggling to watch your favorite show, forgetting important appointments, or feeling unable to even come up with a weekly meal plan, you might have burnout.

Physical manifestations

Stress is a corporeal response. When you feel stressed, your adrenal glands produce cortisol. This is a physical action, so it naturally won’t just lead to mental symptoms. A new propensity to illness, body or headaches, loss of appetite, insomnia, and new digestive system issues can all be physical manifestations of burnout (and this is not to mention the exhaustion we’ve already been talking about).

The 5 burnout recovery stages

We know the symptoms. Now it’s time to get on the road to overcoming burnout. So here’s a guide, but instead of giving you a series of commands, we’re going to make things more palpable by breaking down each stage into the questions you’ll likely be asking yourself.

Stage 1: Recognition

How do I know if I’m really burned out or just tired or stressed?

To know if you’re burned out as opposed to tired or stressed, go through the symptoms we listed above. At a fundamental level, acute stress and tiredness differ from the chronic strain experienced in burnout. To identify real burnout, answer these questions:

• Are you having physical symptoms? 
• Is this a situation that’s lasted over an extended period of time? 
• Are you regularly struggling to keep up with normal duties because of stress or exhaustion? 

If your answer to most of these questions is yes, then you’re likely experiencing burnout.

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How can I stop feeling like a failure for not being able to handle it?

To stop feeling like a failure for “not being able to handle” burnout, you will benefit from a change in context. In fact, this is a pernicious part of burnout that we haven’t mentioned yet, so it’s good to get into it here: shame and self-recrimination often come with burnout. When we’re burned out, we feel like we should just be tougher, smarter, quicker, etc., and that self-improvement is our way out. 

This is a trap. Burnout is a result of unhealthy systems and practices, not a personal failing. To fight this self-criticism, you can practice self-compassion by writing down three things you did well that day before you go to bed, or you can reconnect with your support network to see that you are valuable beyond your economic productivity. Once again, we will also recommend seeking help from a mental health professional.

Stage 2: Relief

What can I do right now to feel less exhausted?

The first thing you can do right now to feel less exhausted is to disconnect. Temporarily turn off notifications on your devices so that you won’t be tempted to return to the environment that’s burning you out. 

With some space reclaimed, find time for mindfulness practices such as simple deep breathing exercises or seated or walking meditation. If active mindfulness is beyond you, then use that space to recharge however makes sense for you. 

Listen to part of a podcast that has nothing to do with work. Play some music that tethers you to moments of joy. Or just take a seat somewhere quiet and have a snack. The most important thing is to intentionally disconnect from work and reengage in something else (and we don’t mean mindlessly scrolling through social media).

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How can I stop bringing work stress home?

To stop bringing work stress home, one thing you can try is committing to something outside work such as a hobby or intentional time spent with friends and family. When you dedicate time and effort to achieving things outside your workplace, you reconnect effort to outcome, which can ground you. In addition, you might try exercising after work, which has been proven to reduce stress levels. 

However, in more severe situations, these recommendations might not be easy to follow through on. So to get things going, it’s crucial to start by setting firm boundaries, our next topic:

Stage 3: Boundaries

How do I set boundaries at work without guilt?

To set boundaries at work without guilt, remind yourself that this is a job, not your life. In fact, setting boundaries is one of the key ways to recover from burnout. Remove work accounts from your personal devices. Leave your laptop at the office. If your coworkers get frustrated that they can’t reach you in your off hours, remind them that they have your full work day to get in touch. 

Also, don’t forget that you aren’t the custodian of your coworkers, and if they message you when you’re not at work, you aren’t required to respond. There are healthy ways of doing things, and adhering to what keeps you on an even keel is better for you and ultimately better for the company.

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What habits or routines will help me recover from burnout?

Habits such as exercising, journaling, and keeping a consistent sleep schedule can all help you recover from burnout. We included this under boundaries to remind you that boundaries are an action to stop a negative action. Don’t get us wrong, that’s extremely valuable, but putting an end to what’s causing burnout is the first step. You then need to actively engage in habits that bring you energy. You stop the harm. Then you start the healing.

Start with establishing a bedtime routine that includes putting away devices for an hour before you get in bed. Aim to keep the timing for this fairly consistent throughout the week. During this hour, you might also consider journaling, and one good practice to start with if you’re new to it is to start each entry with the three things you’re grateful for that day: a good meal prepared by your partner, nice weather, an interesting conversation — it really can be anything. And, of course, we’ve been mentioning this, but we’ll say it again: the science does say that daily exercise helps, too. It doesn’t have to be intensive, but just get moving.

Stage 4: Direction

Should I quit my job, or can I actually recover while staying?

You don’t need to quit your job to recover from burnout, but navigating how to recover from burnout while still working can be difficult. It will require that you set boundaries as described above, prioritize healthy habits like good sleep and eating well, and work up the gumption and clarity to stand up to corporate tendencies to encroach on your personal time. 

Practice saying no. If you implement the advice as described throughout this article, you might find that you can redirect corporate inertia in a healthier direction — often, work culture is less a result of malice than it is of absentmindedness.

However, and this is big, if all your efforts to carve out healthier habits for yourself at work end up failing, it might be worthwhile to consider quitting.

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What’s the best way to talk to my boss or colleagues about burnout?

To talk to your boss or colleagues about burnout, the first step is thorough preparation. In fact, this preparation might even start out by talking to colleagues you trust in a more informal setting before bringing your concerns to your boss. Sharing your concerns with fellow team members might allow them to open up about burnout they might be feeling but concealing. If it turns out burnout is endemic in the team, collectively addressing the issue can make a conversation with your boss more impactful.

Once you and your team have had the private conversation, gather evidence pointing to burnout and cater your arguments to the information that resonates with your boss: data on productivity, sick days taken as a result of increased stress, etc. Then point to the specific practices at work that are leading to burnout. Importantly, do not frame this as an accusation of mismanagement. Blame might cause your boss to shut down, which would be unproductive for the conversation. Finally, offer solutions such as extending deadlines or hiring more people who can alleviate the high workload.

In dire situations, it might be worthwhile to include an HR representative or your boss’s manager on the call.

Stage 5: Reconnection

How do I find motivation again when I feel so empty?

To rediscover motivation, make sure you’ve started with recovery as described above. Then, start small. Instead of only finding professional value in achieving the big milestones, refocus to celebrate the small, even tiny, achievements that build to that milestone.

Be sure to track these achievements. This will give you proof that your work matters, and by reconnecting work to outcomes, you will build a system by which you will both rebuild your sense of professional impact and prevent burnout from returning. The more proof you have of your effectiveness, the more efficacious you will feel, and it will launch a virtuous cycle.

Those are the immediate ways to reconnect, but you might also consider going for additional learning via a conference, workshop, or class. You can choose to rediscover what got you into your professional field in the first place, or you can go for something entirely new and unrelated. You might find that a new pursuit ends up giving you a new perspective on the area you burned out on.

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How long does it take to recover from burnout?

Recovery from burnout can take anywhere from a few weeks to over a year depending on the severity. In mild cases, self-care, small lifestyle changes, and some weeks off to rest and recuperate might be all that’s needed. But if you’ve noticed signs of extreme burnout in yourself, you may need therapy that might include a recommendation to get on medication. In addition, some versions of burnout might even require medical intervention and core changes to your work and life. This all can take over a year.

Burnout recovery plans

With all that said, if you want to know how to get out of burnout with a quick glance, we have three different plans, each slightly different based on your specific situation. Consider them a distillation of all the above.

Recovering from burnout without quitting your job

1. Acknowledge and recognize burnout

If you have the symptoms, don’t kick yourself about them, and accept that something needs to be done.

Actions you can take:

• Make your symptoms concrete by writing them down in as much specificity as possible, i.e., “Over the past three months, I have had to work 12-hour days as well as during the weekend to keep up with work tasks.”
• To gain more context, make a two-column list, one section titled “Before” and the other titled “Now” in which you compare your behavior, performance, and mental health from before you started burning out with your current state.
• Verify that you have burnout with something as simple as an online burnout quiz or seek the opinion of a licensed mental health professional. The details you tease out in your writing from the steps above will help here.

2. Distance yourself from stressors

If you can’t cut stressful situations or people out of your life, seek to minimize interaction.

Actions you can take:

• Take as much vacation as you can and take that time off. Set your out-of-office autoreply on your email and snooze any messenger notifications. You’re not to do any work for as long as you’re on vacation.
• Back at work, start taking private note of your main stressors. In a professional environment where burnout is endemic, there will likely be a few main things draining you. Spend some time to spot them and then come up with a strategy to minimize exposure: delegation, reassignment, and assistance from management may all help.
• Set a reminder on your phone to take regular breaks at work. Constant labor isn’t the solution to burnout. Take a short walk outside or, if that’s untenable, even allocating two minutes to close your eyes and recenter yourself can help.

3. Engage in self-care

Start the healing process. Sleep and eat well, exercise (even lightly), and do the things you like that relax you.

Actions you can take:

• Reestablish a consistent sleep schedule. The body recovers best at rest, so aim to get seven to nine hours of sleep a night. Then, do your absolute best not to stray from this rhythm. A consistent bedtime routine without devices will help here.
• Reintroduce joy. Burnout steals your energy and your time. If you used to spend hours practicing an instrument, maybe just carve out ten minutes to get back in the swing of things. However you can bend your arc back towards joy, do it.
• Get moving. We’ll say it again: exercise helps. Experiment with different forms of exercise — ultimate frisbee, hiking, swimming. Find what works for you and dive in.

4. Reaffirm boundaries and reexamine priorities

Something wasn’t working; maybe you overemphasized work and lost sight of the importance of life outside the office. Build new priorities as well as the boundaries to protect them.

Actions you can take:

• Remove all work-related apps or accounts from your personal devices.
• Establish and stick to specific, strict schedules, making sure to communicate these routines clearly and consistently, e.g., “I am unavailable after 5 p.m.”
• Write out a list of your actual priorities. Burnout can scramble your sense of values over time by forcing work to be your main concern. But people do not exist to be creators of economic value. Reconnect to the aspects of your life that fuel you, and allocate your newfound time to those things.

5. Initiate small, consistent changes at work

Drastic change will be difficult, but slowly adjust your work realities to be healthier.

Actions you can take:

• Go for micro-changes. If you’re deep in an unhealthy professional setup, massive sudden change might be unrealistic, but if you’re spending too long at work, for example, start leaving fifteen minutes earlier progressively each week until you’re back on a normal schedule.
• Once a week, carve out time to identify a task you can delegate, automate, or eliminate.
• When wrapping up work, in one consistent document made into sections for each day, write down the things you accomplished that day. This’ll force you to realize that you haven’t just been spinning your wheels.

6. Integrate preventative activities into your everyday life

Make sure to continue to actively make time for friends and family, for exercise, and for the things that bring you joy. This will prevent burnout from returning.

Actions you can take:

• Establish an interruption ritual to demarcate a separation between work time and personal time. This can be a walk, changing from work clothes to relaxation clothes, or having a snack.
• Rebuild your personal weekly routine to include one social interaction (e.g., lunch with a friend), regular movement (a daily run, say), and time for creative or relaxing activities (engaging in a hobby, for example).
• Make your friends and family your own board of advisors and check in with them every two weeks or every month to see if they have noticed your previous unhealthy habits creeping back in.

Recovering from job burnout with a career switch

1. Recognize the need for a change

If your career is unsalvageable, allow yourself to adjust to that reality with self-compassion and understanding and accept that you need to make the change.

Actions you can take:

• Finish the sentence: “This career will be worth it if…” If, for you, that sentence ends with a core change to the work itself, accept that that’s a major sign you need to move on.
• Visualize yourself in this career in five years. Then in 10. If that fills you with a sense of dread, allow that deep trepidation to guide your decision.
• Write a retrospective on your career as if you’ve achieved the transformation you want. This will help you start moving to a place of acceptance for making the change you need.

2. Take stock of your career and skills

What knowledge and skills did you gain as part of the career you’re switching from? Figure out which ones are most relevant to other industries.

Actions you can take:

• Write out your regular tasks from the past two years. From that, derive your typical responsibilities as well as the knowledge and skills you’ve needed to gain/apply. Compare those qualifications to what’s listed in LinkedIn job listings for the career you think you’d like to have to see which ones are transferable.
• Get curious with your friends, mentors, and trusted colleagues. Ask them what they’ve noticed you’re particularly good at to build out a picture of how others see your core competencies.
• Find out what moves you by reflecting on your previous career to see what tasks energized you and which ones drained you. Form a thematic link among the energizing tasks to see what has fueled you professionally.

3. Build out new professional goals

Determine the types of work you’re looking for — both in terms of what you want to do at work and how you want your job to influence your life beyond the office. Research industries and roles that fit your new priorities.

Actions you can take:

• Get on YouTube. No joke — dive into day-in-the-life videos for careers you think you might want. Then, check out relevant Reddit threads or Medium articles describing what the work you’re curious about is actually like.
• Compose a list of must-haves. Location, salary, and work-life balance might all be relevant here, but balance is probably the one you’ll most want to pursue, considering you’re coming from a draining role. Then, compose your list of nice-to-haves such as training, mentorship programs, and a flat hierarchy.
• Get active on LinkedIn and chat with people in industries or roles you’re curious about to uncover the realities of that career path. Make sure that your professional goals align with the day-to-day these people experience.

4. Upskill or reskill

If you find that you’re eager to go into an industry that requires additional expertise you lack, consider gaining additional training.

Actions you can take:

• Through the job description comparisons and conversations mentioned above, also discover the gaps that you have in your skills or knowledge.
• Start learning with free or low-cost options. YouTube is once again a great place to start.
• See if you need something more serious and career-focused based on your own personal timeline. If you want a career change that’s backed by industry-seasoned professionals and a money-back guarantee, consider a bootcamp.

5. Network and apply

Polish up your resume, cover letters, and portfolio to fit the new path you’re pursuing. Reach out to people in your target industries or companies to see if they can help connect you to new opportunities or give you advice.

Actions you can take:

• Build your story. You’re going to be asked why you’re making the pivot, so having a compelling, confident, logical story about your choices will help sell you as an employee even in a totally new field.
• Start posting on social media — especially LinkedIn. Crucially, also comment on other people’s posts on LinkedIn. The more you engage across the platform, the more visible you are.
• Send friendly notes out across your network (and we mean your whole network — fellow alumni, former colleagues, and friends of friends) seeing if they could offer any help or guidance. Many people find their jobs not through their close friends, but through acquaintances.

6. Verify

Once you land your new position, make sure it meets the goals you were aiming for in the first place.

Actions you can take:

• Ninety days after you land your new career, take a real look at your new position. Does it truly align with the new goals and values you developed? Make sure you give the change grace, though — starting something totally new will incur growing pains.
• Each Sunday night, write out what you’re feeling about the upcoming week. A small wistfulness about the weekend ending is totally normal. Deep dread isn’t.
• If signs of toxicity come up, note them down. If it gets to a state you’re no longer comfortable with, remind yourself you made the change once, and you can do it again.

Recovering from non-work-related emotional burnout

1. Accept the burnout

Realize that even in non-work contexts, burnout can still occur, and validate the reality of your experience.

Actions you can take:

• Name it, and don’t shy away from the “burnout” label because it seems too attached to work. Burnout can come from caregiving, activism, interpersonal relationships, and numerous other places in which we expend emotional labor.
• Connect with others doing similar work, even in online spaces. You’ll likely find others going through similar experiences, and they can validate your burnout.
• Mentally (or even in a note on your phone) track your responses to occurrences that would have previously evoked a sense of compassion in you. If you find yourself feeling numb or uninterested in the preponderance of these situations, you’re likely feeling emotional burnout.

2. Minimize contact with stressors

Identify the sources of burnout and distance yourself from them to give yourself space to heal.

Actions you can take:

• Make a list of all the things you believe are leading to your burnout. Reflect on them and rate them as the most impactful to least impactful on your mental health. This will help you zero in on the main contributors you need to handle.
• Reduce your commitment if possible. Caring for a sick relative? Ask someone to come and help out while you take time off to recharge. Volunteering for a cause you care about? Step away temporarily. It’ll be better for you as well as the people and causes you care about.
• Start to build boundaries around unavoidable stressors such as family obligations. Be specific about how long and how frequently you can engage, if possible. If not, look for additional resources that can help you protect your time.

3. Recharge

Engage in the activities that center you and bring you calm to begin the process of recovery.

Actions you can take:

• Do the things that are low-impact but pleasurable. Go for walks. Listen to music. Read that fun mystery novel. Take a bath.
• Clean your space if it is messy and consider bringing in some pleasant scents from diffusers or candles. Bringing order to a space can make you feel more in control of your environment generally, which can help boost a sense of self-efficacy.
• Schedule unstructured time and keep it holy. Give yourself as much time as you can to allow yourself to pursue whatever you want to within those hours. It can be as complex as starting a new hobby or as simple as playing that video game you’ve played millions of times. Let yourself follow your whims for a bit.

4. Get curious

Using whatever method works best for you — therapy, journaling, conversation with a trusted person — uncover the roots of your burnout.

Actions you can take:

• We know this isn’t possible for everyone, but we recommend having a mental health professional help out in this stage, so do try your best to find one. They can help you discover the underlying structures leading to burnout that you yourself might not be able to unearth.
• Journal using one of these questions to guide your writing: What about this situation ended up depleting me? What expectations did I have? What were my needs and which were left unmet?
• Makle your internal dialogue external. Any time you have a thought about yourself, write it down. How many of them are helpful? How many of them are compassionate? If you find the list looking grim, we’ll once again encourage you to look into getting professional help for your mental health.

5. Reengage

Bit by bit, return to the contexts that used to burn you out (but only the required ones) with new awareness and discover other, new avenues of engagement to broaden the palate of value you can draw on.

Actions you can take:

• Before you commit to anything, even the things you previously did, ask yourself if you have capacity, if it aligns with your values, and whether you’re feeling a genuine interest in it or if you’d just be saying yes out of obligation.
• If you decide to come back to previous non-obligatory commitments, do so with limitations on time, task amount, or task scope. Only when you’re comfortable with it should you relax those limitations, and you might not relax them at all
• Get your friends and family to introduce you to their interests and hobbies to diversify your sources of meaning. A multifarious well of meaning keeps one aspect of your life from being all-consuming.

6. Practice resilience

Ensure you maintain safeguards for your mental health such as boundaries and routines that promote a healthy lifestyle to prevent burnout from returning.

Actions you can take:

• Develop a personal system of red flags that burnout is coming back. Take that list you made all the way up in step one and transform it into the main signals you ignored but that you’ll be on the lookout for now.
• Put restorative activities into your calendar as if they are obligations and treat them as obligatory. Go for that walk. Take that bath. Make time to chat with a trusted friend or a therapist. These things will help protect your mental state.
• To make sure you don’t overcommit, don’t immediately say yes to new tasks or responsibilities. Say you need to think about it and then be honest with yourself about your capacity. If you find the new ask is too much, feel empowered to turn it down.

Want more advice on getting a burnout-free career?