Maxwell Stephens

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Avoiding Burnout In A World Where You Are Constantly Available

More people are facing burnout. But why? There seems to be a simple answer to this and that is the pressure of social media, our constant ability to check our emails and our inability to say no.

Our Connectivity:

People will always want things from you whether this is personally or professionally. With us now being connected we assume this now means we are constantly available.

 

Our friends can text to meet for a coffee whenever but our employers can email us work at any time too!


This has been highlighted in the pandemic. More than 37% of people are experience high levels of anxiety compared to 19% before the pandemic. This has been linked to trying to get things done (especially during working at home) well facing unprecedented fears.

 

Do you check your emails at dinner, before you go to bed and when you first wake up?

 

So do most of the population, this is being linked the feelings of being overwhelmed and exhausted, or as it is known ‘burnout’.

 

A key piece of advice has been to step away from our phones, laptops, smartwatches and make time for personal hobbies whether it be reading, cooking or getting exercise.

 

Challenge yourself to do tasks without looking at any device.

 

You can get apps that encourage you to put your phone down. There are apps that allow you to set timers and once you have put your phone down for a set number of hours they will plant a tree for you.

Helping your mind and the environment!

Our Inability to Say No:

As we are constantly available we feel like we need to say ‘yes’ when asked to do something.

 

What happens if we say ‘yes’ to everything?

 

We end up doing nothing because we are not getting anything done that we need to, instead focusing on helping others with their projects or tasks.

 

This means we need to start being able to say ‘no’. Saying ‘no’ is not always easy, we do not want to let people down, we might be scared of saying no because we have been conditioned to say yes and we might see saying no as a weakness.

 

In our professional life saying yes might make us this we look ambitious and is a way of getting ahead. Often we think the people who say yes to everything are achieving more.

 

However, research was conducted it found that on average it takes 25% longer to get tasks done if we try to focus on more than one at once. It becomes clear that we are better to priortise tasks.

 

We are better to work with a purpose!

 

By saying ‘no’ we can control our time, the things we need to do as well as allowing us to set our priorities and reduce stress.

 

In a world where anyone can contact us at anytime and anywhere, we need to ensure that we make time for ourselves. It is key that we set some time to ourselves by perhaps taking a fully unplugged holiday, scheduling some free time or trying to finding a happy balance between work and personal life.

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