Heart to heart: 5 signs that you are currently experiencing burnout

The sad part of the whole thing is that you may not realize that what is happening to you is burnout. It may have happened that while complaining to a friend about how you are feeling, she may have pointed out what is happening to you.

What is burnout? One definition is this: Burnout is a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress.

Another definition of burnout is “an extended period of time where someone experiences exhaustion and a lack of interest in things, resulting in a decline in their job performance.”

So, now that you know what exactly this is, how do you know that what you are currently going through really is burnout? Well, there are a number of signs to look out for.

Some of them are:

1. You are always tired. Exhaustion can be physical, mental, or emotional. If you find that you are always tired, especially on more than one of those fronts, then you just might be burning out.
2. Your productivity at work has reduced. Try to compare your job performance now to your job performance in previous months or years. A clear sign is that your productivity at work has reduced. Burnout happens over time and sometimes you need to take a step back and see the broader picture.
3. You have become frustrated and cynical. You may start to feel like what you are doing doesn’t matter at all. You may start to feel more pessimistic and find yourself complaining more often.
4. You are having interpersonal problems at home or at work. This can happen in two ways. Either you are more withdrawn from family and friends or you find that you have a shorter patience span than usual. This could be a sign of burnout.
5. Your life satisfaction has reduced. Work-life balance is extremely important to feel a degree of satisfaction in life. Most people work in order to get the life that they want. If you feel like your job is robbing you of this, then you may start getting frustrated which could lead to burnout.

If you do find out that you are experiencing burnout, there are a number of ways to fix it. You can try to get some more time for yourself to relax, get more sleep, or organize yourself better.

There are times, though, when it is not just you and you must figure out where your stress is coming from. If the bulk of it is from work, try to speak to a manager to effect some changes. This can eliminate a lot of your stress.

If things don’t seem to change though, it might be time to move on. Take some time to yourself and get back to how you used to be and then find a job that will allow you to take better care of yourself.