How to prevent burnout at university
What is burnout and how can you avoid it? Psychologist and mental health adviser Gareth Furber shares his top tips for dealing with burnout at university
Dr Gareth Furber
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The term 鈥渂urnout鈥 was coined in 1974 by the psychoanalyst Herbert Freudenberger and Christina Maslach, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley.
Burnout is a combination of constant stress and exhaustion, leading you to feel disconnected and unable to do your work. It is more than feeling tired out after a hectic day or a busy week. Instead, burnout describes the psychological result of working beyond your means for an extensive period of time.
If you do experience burnout as a student, it鈥檚 easy to fall into a vicious cycle of feeling too stressed to work and therefore avoiding work, meaning you quickly fall even further behind.
The ongoing stress of burnout can be a risk to your long-term mental health as well as your short-term happiness, so it is important to take it seriously.
Here are four ways to prevent burnout as a university student.
Why it鈥檚 OK if you aren鈥檛 being productive right now
Tips for studying online and at home for university students
How to manage your mental health when the world feels uncertain
How to manage your time as a university student
1.鈥侷f you need to rest, rest
If you are experiencing feelings of burnout, the first thing to ask yourself is whether you鈥檙e sleeping enough. An unhealthy sleep cycle will only worsen the stress you鈥檙e experiencing and prevent you from recovering properly.
If you are in the throes of burnout, you may find you still feel tired all the time even if you鈥檙e sleeping a good amount. This is because your nervous system is working overtime, meaning you may need to sleep longer than normal to feel properly rested.
If this is the case, it鈥檚 best to listen to your body. Giving yourself time to sleep now will end up saving you time in the long run, as it will stop you from crashing later down the line.
To properly recover from burnout, it鈥檚 also important to make time for restful activities. This may include yoga, meditation and exercise, but it also includes spending time with friends, playing a game or reading a book.
These restful activities give your brain a chance to recharge, process the day and consolidate new knowledge.
2.鈥係cale back your workload where possible
Burnout is a sign that the way you are currently living your life is not sustainable. Because of this, easing the problem often requires a significant re-evaluation of how much work you are taking on and how you are structuring your time.
Have a look over your schedule or reflect on the amount of work you expect yourself to complete in one day. Are you setting yourself unrealistic goals?
If this is the case, consider how you could feasibly scale back your workload.
If you鈥檙e struggling to keep up a particular module, try contacting your lecturer or supervisor and explaining the problem.
Often, they will be able to provide some support, answer any questions about your work, or they may offer you an extension to any deadlines you鈥檙e struggling with. These conversations can be difficult, but they are often necessary to your recovery.
It鈥檚 also worth assessing how you鈥檙e spending time outside your studies. Joining societies and clubs can be extremely rewarding, but overcommitting to too many activities can easily lead to burnout.
It may be worth scaling back the number of hours you put into clubs and societies in the short term, until you are feeling less overwhelmed.
3.鈥侰onsider any underlying causes
Beyond time management issues and having too many things to do, burnout can often be an indication of a deeper underlying problem.
Burnout may well reflect some distorted views about what constitutes success, how well you should perform, how people value your contributions and what others expect of you.
In these situations, burnout is the result of feelings that you鈥檝e let yourself down or failed to live up to the impossibly high standard you鈥檝e set yourself.
This imbalance is often formed when people stop engaging in activities that bring them genuine happiness. You shouldn鈥檛 feel guilty about this. It can be easy to get wrapped up in your work and lose sight of yourself and what you really want.
Burnout is an alarm bell sounding to tell you that you need to stop and re-evaluate. You may find counselling or therapy a good context in which to do that evaluation, especially if you鈥檙e struggling to understand the underlying cause of your burnout.
4.鈥侱on鈥檛 hold yourself up to your pre-pandemic productivity levels
The disruption and uncertainty caused by Covid-19 has made everyone more vulnerable to burnout. You may feel disappointed in yourself if you find that you鈥檙e unable to keep up with the amount of work you used to be able to achieve before the pandemic.
You may find that you鈥檙e trying to compensate for the uncertainty caused by Covid-19 by overworking to feel a sense of control, which can lead to feeling overwhelmed.
For others, the anxiety caused by Covid-19 manifests as indecisiveness, procrastination and avoidance.
It鈥檚 important to remember that the pandemic has introduced a great deal of additional stress, from worrying about contracting the virus or falling behind due to illness, feeling isolated or struggling to stay motivated with online learning. That鈥檚 OK. We are all processing a unique global event, and having to slow down in other areas is perfectly normal.
Another way to look at the pandemic is to see that we have a unique opportunity as a global community to collectively take a moment and relax some of our normal expectations of ourselves and others.
You may well find more people around you will be receptive to conversations about burnout and mitigating stress, since everybody has been affected in some way.
These steps require you to make some tough decisions and engage in some self-reflection, which is not an easy task. However, if investing some time and work into avoiding burnout will pay off in a happier and healthier lifestyle, it is well worth it.
