When looking forward to how I picture my 2025 life, I want to ensure I don’t burnout. It is a typical way of life for me to go through multiple phases throughout the year. I have times of 150% to the wall, all gas no brakes, where I am ON IT. This period of time I am doing everything and anything to become better. Then I go through a drought of burnout, where I don’t want to do ANYTHING. I mean I want to work and sleep, that’s it. Then, I go through a moderate state, where I am probably sitting at 80% all of the time. Not too high or too low, just cruising. Then comes the guilty phase, where I try to reflect on the last year and see I didn’t accomplish all of the things I wanted to because I let external things get in the way.

So here are the 5 things I am going to do to help me avoid the rollercoaster this year.

Define burnout (for you)

We all need to determine what burnout looks for us. There are different signs for different people, we all handle stress differently. The WHO defines burnout as the following:

“”Burn-out is defined in ICD-11 as follows:

“Burn-out is a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterized by three dimensions:

• feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion;
• increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job; and
• reduced professional efficacy.

Burn-out refers specifically to phenomena in the occupational context and should not be applied to describe experiences in other areas of life.””

The first thing I am going to do is try and identify that 150%, all gas no brakes, mentality. Which I already have found myself trying to do and it’s only the first week of July. I am already having this talk with myself to not take on too much because I will burn myself out. Some days I need to be at 75%, some at 100%, some may need to be at 33%…

The next thing I will focus on is how to better determine when I start to tip that meter. Some things I will look out for that are signs of burnout for me:

• Anger – I know once I start to get angry and set off for things that don’t normally set me off, that is an early indication that burnout is starting for me
• Exhaustion – This one gets tricky as I am always tired. I have a lot going on but, when I start to want to sleep in or when I want to take naps during the day, that’s an early indication.
• “F it, I don’t care” – The F it I don’t care mentality shows in ways such as: “big project at work is going and I get to the point where I just kind of don’t care anymore”, its easy to get derailed at work and just give up.

One important caveat here is that there COULD be times when burnout shows signs that also could overlap with signs of depression. That is why is it important to know what burnout looks like for you and determine if it is exceeding what you normally face as we don’t want to attribute burnout to depression.

Fully disconnecting when not at work (boundaries)

This one I think is the most important thing someone who works the rat race can do, especially if one is also working from home. It is so easy to always be connected, who doesn’t hate those team pings or HAS to get rid of all notifications to be satisfied?

We need to learn to disconnect. That, to me, means if I am not on call, my work phone doesn’t leave the office. Once I log out for the day, my day is done. That doesn’t mean I won’t be available if SHTF, but I am not looking at emails or messages. I have two separate phone numbers and only those that need to know my main line have that number and know to ONLY use it if it is an absolute emergency. Otherwise, all of my business goes to my business number. That’s it. My business and personal life are disconnected from my phone, which is a huge trigger for most.

Just as a note, I will also try to not think about work when not at work. Any issues, problems, and deadlines, are left behind and my brain is on other things. Easier said than done, because like I’ve heard from others it is often times when we are just relaxing we get a great idea for troubleshooting… WRITE IT DOWN. That is going to be my solution. Great I have a few ideas to troubleshoot, TOMORROW, it doesn’t always need to be solved right away. I will write it down and solve it tomorrow.

Set a boundary that makes sense to you and stick to it!

Taking time off (vacation/sick days)

This item also includes the rules from above, days off are days off.

This year I found myself at the great issue of having “use or lose” days. Which means I didn’t take enough vacation this year, even though I felt like I took plenty.

For those that have “unlimited” PTO, its been shown time and time again that people take LESS PTO when they have “unlimited” I would have been that victim this year if I didn’t know I had use or lose days because I would have just put it off and not taking the additional days because I would have had to.

DON’T DO THIS. USE YOUR VACATION!

I will be planning out more vacation time this year so I don’t have this issue. Your vacation is important, take it.

Two planned vacations this year:

6 Days – Florida

7 Days – Dakotas

The second part of this was “Sick Days” I am the biggest failure at this because of the thought “I’ll take them when I am REALLY sick.” Then I never get really sick, and to be honest I don’t think I even know what REALLY sick means. I believe that sick days should include mental health days no matter what, but before I tell you to violate policies, read your workplace policy around the usage of sick days. I will be taking sick days if I notice I am starting to get burned out, that to me is a mental sickness, so I will be taking a day off and taking care of my health.

Physical and mental health (exercising)

This one is pretty self-explanatory and not much needs to be said about this. You need to take care of your physical health through food and exercise. You also need to take care of your mental health by doing various things such as, food and exercising, but could also mean finding a mental health doctor and working on some of the issues you are facing and building up those good mental habits. There is no shame in going to a mental health doctor, I did it, and it was one of the best decisions I have ever made.

Some brief thoughts about this piece:

• Set a goal
• Find a good diet and stick to it. This will help your physical and mental health
• Find a good exercise routine and stick to it
• Do that 80% of the time

None of this really matters

This could be a pain point for many people, work is important to people because without it, we don’t eat, right? However, we NEED to determine what actually matters in life, and let me be perfectly clear, it is NOT work. It was never work and it will never be work. If work is the most important thing in your life, I suggest you get help, that is how it should be.

For me, knowing that one day I will cease to exist and the business keeps rolling, makes me believe that none of this really matters. At the end of the day, when I leave this world I don’t ever want to be remembered for the hours I worked or the problems I solved at work.

What are the most important things in your life? Write those down and when you are facing a decision between the two… make sure you are choosing what you wrote down more often than not. People will always remember that you missed out because you decided that work was more important. If that happens once or twice, probably not going to impact the truly meaningful relationships, if it happens often and more than often, that is going to impact those relationships.

That’s it, those are my plans for 2025.

Are you someone that struggles with burnout? What are you doing to help yourself? Let me know!

Take care of yourselves out there!

Joe