How to Get Out of a Slump And Avoid Burning Out
5 steps to help you.
Sometimes, it feels like life is testing you and your effort and patience is being stretched too long and you simply don’t have anything left in you.
You’ve reached the point of burnout. You just want to give up.
GOSH. These past few weeks, I’ve been feeling like I’m working too hard for too long and I’m at the point of collapsing with exhaustion. But I know that there’s work to be done — and I need to do it now.
How do you push yourself to work in these situations?
All you want to do is get into bed and stay there forever. But you have to motivate yourself to work. I know it seems hard, trust me, I’ve had my fair share of slumps, but you can get out of it.
Here’s how:
#1: Visualize your goal.
Focus your mind on your goal. What do you need to accomplish? Now, think about the exact results of your efforts. How will you feel? What will you do?
Imagine yourself celebrating that achievement, perhaps with friends and family. As you see yourself accomplish your goal, you will begin to believe in it. If you want to know more, here is an article on Huffpost that might help you master visualisation.
For me, this was as simple as imagining myself make the final edit to my short film, publish it and sit down to watch it with my friends. The project had been bugging me for a while and editing is probably my least favourite part of filmmaking.
By visualising myself finally complete it, I had the final boost of motivation I needed to get started.
#2: Before you begin your task, cheer yourself up.
It’s hard to get yourself in the right mood to work. Some people prefer to work in a quiet place, with zero distractions. Others like to have some ‘white noise’ in the background. For some, timing is very important (morning vs evening). But no matter what kind of person you are, everyone feels more motivated when they’re happy.
Whether it’s listening to your favourite song, cooking your comfort food or going for a quick workout, find a way to hype yourself up.
When I’m in struggling with work, I usually become very lazy. And now, it’s affecting me more than I admit — quarantine has me sitting at home in my pajamas with zero motivation to do anything.
Today, I had to drag myself out of the house to exercise with the promise of cold coffee. I ended up biking to a nearby mall (with a mask :) and picked up a drink for myself. By the time I reached home, I was feeling so much better about myself and immediately started on this story!
Try and cheer yourself up — whatever it is, I promise you’ll be in a much better mood to start the next step.
#3: Start with the ugliest frog.
This next tip is inspired by Brian Tracy’s book Eat That Frog. For those unfamiliar with the term, here is a simple way to put:
If you have a bunch of tasks to do, start with the worst one. This frog is the largest, ugliest, and vilest of the frogs. The one that will take you the longest to ‘eat’.
In truth, I really really don’t like this advice. First of all, I hate frogs — they’re creepy. I’m fine with all other amphibians. But when it comes to frogs, it’s a hard pass. Secondly, this advice is really really hard to follow! There has never been a time when I’ve looked forward to ‘eating a frog’ (a ‘frog’ is a task that I don’t enjoy, so this is pretty self-explanatory), let alone the biggest and ugliest one.
But Tracy has a point — once you eat the ugliest frog, you’ve gotten the worst task out of the way and the rest will become more bearable.
So as much as it pains me to say this, EAT THAT FROG!
#4: When on the verge of burning out, yell for help!
If things are starting to get to you when you’re in the middle of a hard task (following the previous analogy, this ‘ugly frog’ is stuck in your throat), take a break and dial a friend.
Tell them about your situation and explain how far you’ve gotten. If not a friend, rant to the closest inanimate object in your bedroom (I’m assuming quarantine has you stuck working at home like me).
Not only does it feel good to rant (a wonderful stress reliever, in my opinion), but you are also filled with renewed motivation! You’ve now got yourself a personal cheerleader cheering you on!
In addition, telling someone your ‘next steps’ is a way to hold yourself accountable. Now that you’ve told someone else, you need to get it done.
#5: Reward yourself once your done!
Once you’ve completed your task(s), which I assure you, you will, congratulate yourself and reward yourself!
This final step is probably one of the most important in getting yourself out of your slump. Remember step 1 — you visualized yourself completing your task. Well, now you’ve done it! Give yourself the credit you deserve!
I like to treat myself to a guilty-pleasure — sometimes it’s an episode of my favourite show on Netflix, sometimes it’s a purchase from my favourite restaurant, or sometimes I simply give myself ‘down-time’ to call up friends, read a book, listen to music, etc.
But, I have to admit… sometimes my ‘rewards’ are a tad undeserved… There have been many instances where my break is longer than the time I spent actually working…
While some of these might not be up your alley, some might really help prevent you from burning out like they did for me!
Whatever challenge lies ahead of you, I wish you the best of luck!
YOU GOT THIS.
Feel free to give suggestions! I would love to hear about what motivates you during stressful times!
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