Burnout—let’s talk about it. Caused by pushing your limit and experiencing the overwhelm of tasks stacking up, it’s a serious mental health concern that not only affects your ability to work efficiently but can also negatively bleed into other areas of your life. As students, we already have a lot on our plates —discussion posts, essays, literature reviews, and group projects, to name a few. Adding in everything else that fills our lives (such as work, family, hobbies) can cause us to reach our breaking point. As we approach a welcome pause in the semester during spring break, let’s take a moment to check in with ourselves and assess our stress levels. and learn more about how to avoid becoming burned out – and what to do if we do.

What is Burnout?

Regardless of our life circumstances, we have all experienced stress. Stress is often situational and usually ceases once the stressful circumstance is resolved. Though similar and often coexisting with burnout, stress differs from burnout. The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) defines burnout as “a state of emotional, physical and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress” and is not a medical condition, rather a state of mental and emotional exhaustion. 

This means anyone can experience burnout throughout their lives and career. It is most likely to occur when the individual is not practicing effective stress management techniques. 

Am I Just Stressed?

Logging onto Canvas and checking the weekly calendar of due dates almost always sends a low-level pang of anxiety (i.e., stress) through my system—but it’s manageable, and it passes once I get organized and settle into my to-do list. However, if I were experiencing burnout while checking the same calendar, overwhelm could set in, making it difficult to fully process what I’m looking at. 

This is a key difference between the two—stress is situation-specific and alleviated by action, burnout is a constant state of mind and alleviated by rest. Prevention is worthwhile to avoid burnout and preserve your well-being.

If you’re concerned you’re experiencing burnout, Psychiatry.org outlines these as warning signs:

• Chronic Fatigue: Waking up exhausted, even after a full night’s sleep.
• Increased Irritability: Small inconveniences feel like major frustrations.
• Lack of Motivation: Tasks that once brought satisfaction now feel overwhelming or pointless.
• Physical Symptoms: Headaches, digestive issues, or changes in sleep and appetite.
• Isolation: Withdrawing from friends, family, and social obligations.

How to Avoid Burnout

While there are countless psychological techniques developed for avoiding burnout, stress management can look different for everyone. Your own stress management toolkit should be tailored to your unique habits and needs. 

Remember: It’s not a competition on how much you can handle or how resilient you are. Success is not measured by endurance, but by achieving your goals in a way that serves you best and leaves you feeling accomplished and calm. 

So often, we stack things on top of each other because we know we can get it all done, but is that what’s best for us? Just because we can theoretically complete tasks, can we truly complete them in a holistic and self-honoring way that doesn’t require unnecessary stress to ourselves?

Saying ‘No’

We’re students, but we’re also often employees, business owners, parents, partners, friends, and much more. In every faction of our lives, there’s something or someone that needs something from us, and we often are inclined to do what we can to help those around us. 

At the front of our minds, the ask may not seem big; we may even have an internal expectation to get it done like we normally do. However, when our to-do lists are already many pages long, adding another task, regardless of its size, can push us to our breaking point, resulting in burnout. 

When you can feel yourself getting overwhelmed by scanning over what tasks are outstanding and what is being asked or expected of you at the moment, all parties should communicate if you don’t have the capacity for it. Even if you’re worried they won’t, in most circumstances, people will understand. And if that isn’t the case, your mental health always takes priority. Establishing boundaries is one of the biggest ways to keep burnout at bay.

Stress Management Strategies

By understanding the importance of boundaries with others in our lives, we can take a key step in maintaining a healthy nervous system. As aforementioned, this is different for everyone,  but it’s important to identify ways to connect with your mind and body and follow whatever your intuition is telling you to do. 

That said, the following are some tried-and-true ways to deal with stress.

Get adequate sleep

Sleep is the #1 way to reset the mind and body after a long day that left you exhausted. While it’s not attainable for everyone, getting a full night of deep sleep restores your nervous system to a state of calm. In fact, research from UC Berkeley shows that inadequate sleep can lead to a 30% increase in emotional stress.

Exercise

Beyond the long list of other health benefits, exercise is incredibly useful for keeping stress levels in check. Endorphins released during a workout can naturally make you feel good. According to the Mayo Clinic, physical activity can serve as a grounding practice to help you drop into your body and out of your head. Exercise can also increase your ability to get a good night’s sleep. 

Limit Screen Time

The National Library of Medicine has found a strong correlation between screen time and anxiety. This can be most evident when using your phone or tablet excessively before bed, as the blue light from your devices disrupts your body’s effort to decompress.

Ask for Help and Connect with Others

There is no shame in admitting that your workload has gotten out of hand. According to The Cleveland Clinic, delegating tasks to others is a highly effective way to lower stress levels and can help foster connection with those in your life. You’ll be surprised at how your community can show up for you if you ask, and the camaraderie it brings can help offset feelings of overwhelm and help you feel less alone.

Strategies for Dealing with Burnout

Burnout is something to take seriously. Don’t brush it off, and don’t get down on yourself for getting there. In fact, 66% of Americans experience burnout at some point in their lives. 

The most important thing to do when you’re experiencing burnout is rest. Put your workload on pause,  take the pressure off, and get back to basics. 

If you think you’re experiencing burnout, the following strategies can help you with self-care and get back on track.

If you’re burnt out, avoid:

• Pushing through just to reduce your workload
• Fixating on late or time-sensitive tasks
• Over-planning or trying to optimize your to-do list
• Blaming yourself for how you feel
• Isolating yourself to “power through”

Instead, do this: 

• Put all to-do list items on hold
• Get back to basics: eat well, sleep well, focus on hygiene
• Self-care: draw a bath, read a relaxing book, watch some feel-good TV
• Connect with loved ones
• Rest as much as possible

To expand on that: the first step is to pause—even if that initially creates more anxiety. When you’re in a prolonged state of stress, your capacity is already depleted, so pushing harder usually isn’t effective anyway. Give yourself permission to rest. Retreat to a safe space and do the things that help you unwind/  

Then, slowly introduce small daily tasks such as doing chores around the house, engaging in personal wellness, and caring for a pet. Focusing on manageable tasks that take care of you and your environment is a good way to ground yourself and rebuild a sense of stability. Once your stress levels are lower and you begin to feel a bit more like yourself, you can start transitioning back to tackling your to-do list. 

Main Takeaways

If you’ve ever experienced burnout, you’re not alone. It’s, unfortunately, an all-too-common side effect of being an adult with many responsibilities, and most people can relate in one way or another. 

That said, if you find yourself frequently reaching a state of mental and emotional exhaustion, it could be worthwhile to reexamine your priorities and workload. Doing this with a mental health professional can also be incredibly helpful. SJSU has mental health resources that all students should take advantage of, and don’t shy away from reaching out for the help that you need: there is no shame in it! 

How do you unwind and manage stress? What are some ways you’ve learned to build a workload that actually works for you?