How to prevent burnout at university

The term “burnout” 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’s 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.

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How to manage your time as a university student

1. If you need to rest, rest

If you are experiencing feelings of burnout, the first thing to ask yourself is whether you’re sleeping enough. An unhealthy sleep cycle will only worsen the stress you’re 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’re 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’s 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’s 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. Scale 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’re 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’re struggling with. These conversations can be difficult, but they are often necessary to your recovery.

It’s also worth assessing how you’re 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. Consider 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’ve let yourself down or failed to live up to the impossibly high standard you’ve set yourself.

This imbalance is often formed when people stop engaging in activities that bring them genuine happiness. You shouldn’t 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’re struggling to understand the underlying cause of your burnout.

4. Don’t 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’re unable to keep up with the amount of work you used to be able to achieve before the pandemic.

You may find that you’re 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’s 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’s 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.