Burnout and priorities
An attempt to restore the lost feeling of calmness that writing generally brings to me
Oct 7, 2021. This is the date of my last post here on Substack. For most writers, the reaction to going 18 months without writing would be commonly be self loathing or bemoaning a creative block (or any other adjectives that apply when thing don’t go to plan). Thankfully, I feel neither of these; instead, I am grateful that I finally got some time and head space to start updating my personal newsletter.
Here’s a simple trick to reacting positively in this scenario - being kind to yourself and understanding your physical and mental needs. My own experience of managing a big team of designers in a fast-paced startup environment has certainly taught me how limited our time and energy is, and how we need to maintain our pace at work to avoid getting burnt out. Sadly, this took more more than a year to understand this — by then I had my third bout of burnout and fatigue, and was on the precipice of completely losing my ability to recover from draining situations at work and in life.
Let’s talk about burnout. Have you ever experienced certain phases where you start feeling disoriented and exhausted pretty fast, after putting in a lot of hard work and getting good results in your job? That’s probably the unspoken pressure we put on ourselves to keep up with the expectations at work ; but it can also indicate that our body and mind needs a break from the hustle and bustle, to sufficiently recharge and keep up the pace of recovery.
I did recognise these signs each time I pushed myself to the limits. I took every opportunity to power down — relaxing on weekends, going to the spa, or even taking working days off for mental health reasons. But I still wasn’t able to regain my physical and mental energy; having a niggling knee injury for many months didn’t help to ease my anxiety. I had to keep up my responsibilities at work and at home, and more often than not I let the stressful situations get the better of me. I was sinking into the abyss of burnout before I realised it. By June of last year, I had reached rock bottom, and the will to push on was receding by the day.
When my friends started noticing my struggles, they encouraged me to take care of myself first and not worry about other things. It took me a lot of self reflection and acknowledgement of my attitude towards certain facets of my life, to start being actionable on my current state of stupor.
I decided to make some changes. The first thing I did was to ask for help. From friends, from colleagues and from kind strangers on social media.
Needed to find an Ortho specialist for dad’s knee problem or a gastro specialist for mom’s persistent stomach issues? Twitter to the rescue.
Needed a reliable physiotherapist clinic for my knee rehabilitation? Bestie to the rescue.
Needed a good therapist to help me deal with my struggles and complex life situations? Colleague to the rescue.
Needed to make sure my time and energy at work was balanced without putting myself in danger of burnout? Team to the rescue.
In hindsight, I am really glad I had friends and great online acquaintance to consult with in times of need, and they helped me get in touch with the right folks to ease my struggles. As a token of gratitude, I want to pay their kindness forward through this post. Please don’t hesitate to ask for help from your friends or family if you are going through some difficult times - there are amazing humans (and cats/dogs) who will help you motor through these!
Next, let’s talk about the importance of prioritisation.
In any situation or environment that demands a lot out of you, it is imperative you understand that no human being is equipped to do many things at once and do these well equally. You will come to realise that some things are worth spending time more on compared to others, and you start to prioritise them and set correct expectations with other people - friends, family, coworkers - on how you intend to spend your day/week/month.
After my promotion last April, I was tasked with even more responsibilities in addition to my ongoing obligations as an adult. My first strategy was to find a way to structure and organise my team’s design process, to enable every designer to contribute to their best in demanding situations while making time for self care and recovery. In my casual conversations with them, I took pains to remind them of how important it is to manage their time and energy is, drawing inspiration from my own experiences.
The ability to prioritise and manage your time and energy is an underrated skill to possess. While the current times are uncertain in the job market, and there’s a pressing need to ensure we do our best at work to stay in the company, it is also important to have an identity outside of work and be able to do things you love more often. In fact, regularly following your passions in life has the ability to positively affect your output at work. You also have to prioritise friends and family members, and maintain good relationships with those who have a positive effect on your life.
Adulting is all about prioritisation in fact; we need to do the things we love while upholding our responsibilities to family and at work, and this becomes a weekly or monthly balancing act for all of us.
There’s a fine line between being selfish and having priorities, and it’s all down to clear communication to and respect of boundaries from other folks in your life.
As we come to the end of this post, I am really glad to have gotten my writing mojo back on. It’s been an emotional roller-coaster journey in life since my last post, but I have been lucky to meet some amazing people and made some memorable trips in between. Though this post is not about design or accessibility, it’s a good shout out to you to prioritise your time and energy, and avoid burnout at work.
Adios!