How To Banish The Burnout Boogieman
Written by Ava Bonsall and Kritvarya Singh. Graphic by Avery Melhado.
It’s the middle of the quarter, and you haven’t left your dorm. Six empty coffee cups clutter your desk, and a planner is full of reminders and deadlines. Somehow, you’re still clawing your way through that one assignment, but when you finally finish it, you don’t feel any better. Your mind is already on the next assignment, the next club meeting, the next class critique.
The burnout boogieman comes for all college students at some point in their education. It creeps along at the edges of their vision and tells them to keep going, to stay up that extra night, and to invest all their savings into Monster energy drinks. It makes them feel guilty for taking a break or spending time with friends. It convinces their minds that this is the way it should be, but the body isn’t so easily influenced.
The first step is to acknowledge that the burnout boogieman is there, and that the solution isn’t to just keep letting him live in an already tired mind. But how do you get rid of him amidst a sea of assignments and classes?
- Rest! – it’s a task, not a waste of time
Rest doesn’t mean you jump on your bed and scroll on Tiktok. It also doesn’t mean running through a to-do list of tasks for the day, week, and month. It means sitting for a moment and allowing your mind to take a break from constant stimulation. However, for people haunted by the burnout boogieman, it’s a little difficult.
Most of the time, people who are experiencing burnout suffer from extreme guilt by taking some time for themselves. Their brain has been alert for weeks. It’s not going to calm down after a half hour break, and instead panics about wasting time.
So how do you rest when you can’t? If your brain won’t stop thinking about other tasks, then make rest a task. Mark it on your calendar. Make it a mandatory assignment each day. Trick your brain into accomplishing a task, and then the boogieman will begin to shrink.
- Start Small – practice on the hill before climbing the mountain
After weeks of constant work, major assignments can feel like an impossible mountain to climb. Burnout raises the amount of mental effort it takes to complete larger tasks. You look up at the stacks of work and freeze, unable to see the finish line. Discouragement makes it difficult to continue working when there doesn’t seem to be an end.
There’s a lot of preparation that goes into climbing a mountain. You need to do research, take climbing lessons, and put on the correct gear. Then you practice on a small hill, getting your muscles stretched and moving. When you get to the mountain, it doesn’t seem so hard. That first step isn’t so stiff.
It’s the same way for burnout. Fold your laundry, send an email, or sketch a few thumbnails to get started. Prioritize small tasks to kick-start your energy. Then, that looming essay won’t seem so difficult.
- Go walk – it really helps clear your mind
Leave that screen you’ve been staring at for so long, feeling miserable about your work,
your major, your life. You live in one of the most walkable cities in the U.S. with history
engraved on each and every street; take advantage of it. Even a short five-minute walk refreshes
your mind, lowering stress hormones and lowering your anxiety. Put on
your headphones, wear your favorite pair of running shoes, and go outdoors; connect with nature.
- Play that music – the songs you’re too embarrassed to like
Play the kind of music you won’t play in front of others. Play that sappy song, or that over-the-top happy song. There are two kinds of people: the first kind plays the music according to their mood, the second kind switches their mood to the music being played. So if you belong to that latter half, you know what to do. I’m not saying playing upbeat music will defeat your burnout boogieman, but it can definitely confuse the hell out of it.
- Burn the Burnout fuel – (Hear me out)
So far, we have discussed ways to counter the effects of burnout. But I believe the whirlwind of emotions we experience at 3:00 a.m. while trying to finish an assignment that is due later that morning can spark something.
When the imagination is allowed to run wild, it can produce work nothing short of incredible. While this approach may not work for most people, it is important to be open to the idea that some of your best ideas may come to you when you’re at your worst.
