10 high-impact tips to prevent burnout at work

Written By Gabriel Kwakyi

Looking for ways to adjust your approach to managing work and prevent or recover from burnout? Try these 10 high-impact tips.

#0 Take a break from work

If you haven’t taken a break from work in a while, schedule time off from work as soon as possible, for as long as possible. Even if you don’t travel, consider taking a day trip, going out in town, or spending time with friends, and spend your time off away from the areas (or rooms of your house) that remind you of work. Also, commit to fully unplugging from work. Do not open Slack, Teams, email, text message, or take phone calls, to ensure your time off is high-quality and enables your body to properly rest and recover.

#1 Reduce your to-do list by 20%

Create a to do list of all the items on your plate and then commit to reducing your to do list by 20%. Evaluate what workload can be stopped, reduced, delegated, or shared. Even if work can temporarily be put on pause, this can be key during critical stretches of high stress. Focus on the tasks that take up the most time and bring you the lowest sense of reward.

#2 Ask for help, say no, and compromise

Strengthen your resolve to ask for help, respectfully say no, and negotiate/compromise to make your overall commitments more manageable.

#3 Gradually reduce working hours

Begin to draw more firm work-non-work lines wherever possible: for instance, start with working 30 minutes less each day for a few weeks, then work 60 minutes less for a few weeks, and keep going until you arrive at 40 hours.

#4 Set non-negotiable firm work-non-work boundaries

Set firm work-nonwork boundary times and make them 100% non-negotiable. Use do not disturb mode, calendar blocks, after-work events with friends, or other means to enforce this.

#5 Job craft

Work with your manager or mentor to evolve your job description or role to more closely align your skillset with work that is more rewarding and aligned with your personal values.

#6 Take micro breaks throughout the day

Ensure that you stop working and take your full lunch break each day. Implement micro breaks throughout the day (e.g. for every 1-2 hours of work, take a 5-10 minute walk).

Also, in any situation where you feel a sudden spike in stress or anxiety, before reacting, practice PQ reps (from the Positive Intelligence program) or take 3 deep breaths to create a brief break between a stressful situation and your reaction. This can help you to react from an executive thinking state, rather than a survival state, and mitigate the continuation of patterns of burnout reactions (e.g. saying yes to anything that is asked of you, or causing damage to relationships with an angry or exasperated response)

#7 Be honest

Be honest with your colleagues and manager about being burned out, and ask for help to navigate it, together rather than alone.

#8 Intentionally resist the urge to add more work

Refrain from volunteering for stretch projects and give yourself permission to reduce your normal workload during your recovery period. Work with your manager to create some space if need be, or re-assign tasks during this time; but specifically work to reduce the tasks for work you find less rewarding.  Burnout is partially about not feeling sufficient reward, so focus your efforts on tasks that are more rewarding to reduce your workload, while allowing yourself to continue being engaged in work you find rewarding.

#9 Change your job

Burning out is a sign that something needs to change, and it very well could be your job, team, organization, or industry. Explore your alternatives with this career change framework, and seek work that better aligns your skillset with work responsibilities.

#10 Reduce the time you spend in meetings

The reality is that burnout is a serious and complex issue, and everyone’s recovery journey is different. Continue learning about burnout through the following resources:

Gabriel Kwakyi
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