Just to be clear, this term has nothing to compare with the emotional crisis you go through daily - stress. No, burn-out isn't stress.
It describes the state of physical and emotional exhaustion. Burnout reduces and sucks out your productivity. As it develops, it beats every single reason that once was your working motto. The interest, the creativity and motivation gets faded away. Your job might be done, but you no longer feel satisfied. You have nothing more to give, or break the boundaries. You fed up of doing monotonous work with same tools. You stuck in a place where there is only one question lingers: What the heck am I doing here?
Fellas, welcome to the burnout station.
A family dinner or weekend getaway may soften the mood, burnout, on the other hand, is a process as its negatives reach to every aspects, all at once. Work, family, passion, friends, relationship. If stress is about being stacked up with too much work at the same time, burnout is when nothing feels enough. It was not a result from job demands, it's a notion that nothing you do brings impact, your idea wasn't listened, and the fact that you live through a day in that place was a freaking waste of time.
So what is the best cure for burnout? Try harder? No shit. Even machines crash when you have them worked at 100% effectiveness every day.
Address the changes, even the tiniest. Those early symptoms are red flags that you'll be thankful for noticing that soon. Feeling drained from a project? Talk to a coworker, seek for some help, adjust your schedule, confess to your boss how you feel or simply just shut your laptop and go grab a junk food. Just do something.
This is where the term work-life balance comes in. It's not merely some remote days out of the week, it means making time for your own interest. Write, read, paint, travel. Things that boost your mood and remind you that life isn't just about sacrificing for work. Have your limit demarcated and take the ownership of your actions.
Burnout happens like burning the candle at both ends. But you get to select what time to pull the plug and replace with a new one.
