Recognising the signs of Fatigue
With this blog, I’ve decided that I really want to providing you the reader with tools that can help with the feelings of delivery fatigue.
Earlier this week I saw this tweet and it made me stop and wonder, do you know what the signs of burnout are and can you recognise it in others?
Image Description: Screenshot of a tweet from Carly Anne York, Ph.D. Text reads “There’s been lots of burnout discourse on here over the years…what was the big sign that you had been pushed too far?”
Even after you've experienced burnout, it can be hard to tell the signs as burnout often creeps up on us slowly through the experience of acute stress over a prolonged period that I refer to as delivery fatigue. Each person has unique signs, so it's important to pay attention to what are your signs that you're falling into a pattern of constant stress, and fatigue, so that you can take action before it impacts all aspects of your life.
Burn out is like a broken bone, it leaves a weakness to future breaks. But also like a broken bone, if you take the time to heal properly, that includes identifying the sources of stress, the symptoms you need to watch out for and the techniques that help you in the moment, you can turn a break into something stronger.
Here are some of my signs to look out for in yourself and in those you care about. This is far from a complete list and I'd be very keen to hear your experiences.
Early warning signs, plenty of time for this to be recovered
Back to back meetings, going from one call to another is a sign of my commitment to work, overcoming my commitment to myself
Withdrawing from social interactions or feeling less connected to friends and family. In my experience, my first sign is always a sense of loneliness and withdrawal. Taking myself away from others to protect them and if I'm being honest, reduce the ask of my capacity in the spaces I feel most secure
Not making time for the things I enjoy, if I haven't been out to the shed to restore some tools or visited the forge in a while, I know that I’m in survival mode, only doing what I feel I have capacity to do. I stop looking after myself in a broader sense
The first alarms start, this is where I now stop and begin to take care of myself, I start warning others and I begin to look at how to stop delivery fatigue in it’s tracks. For me, that’s reaffirming boundaries, calling on others to support and dropping tasks that just won’t get done
When I begin to struggle with knowing what task is next, or have difficulty focusing on setting priorities, I know I’m getting to an overwhelming level.
Constant physical fatigue or feeling run down, when I struggle to get over a cold. Waking up feeling I only just went to sleep. I know that the stress is beginning to take a physical toll on me and impact me beyond what is healthy.
The warning signs are coming at every 10ft now, they’re constant and at the point that if you can’t see them everyone else can and you need to take action and make effective changes immediately
The black pit of doom appears, anything you can say is met with negativity, neutrality, or downright pessimism. I have a lot of energy and I am easily excited about doing challenging things, when I get to a point that I don’t get excited during my day, something is desperately wrong
Insomnia, spending all night thinking about all the things that need to be done in the morning but not making any progress from them
My friends, family and my partner all start asking about me, which adds to the overwhelm of letting others down
As I said, this is my experience of burnout, in a bulleted, neat form that takes a bunch of the emotions I feel out of them. From this distance they’re safe, but if you’re feeling any of these signs, it's important to take action.
One of the simple things that helps me, and by simple I mean “so simple you’re going to look at me oddly” is morning pages. Morning pages are the opposite of a journal, you grab a book, a pen and you put them next to your bed. First thing in the morning, before you even begin to think about the day and you write whatever comes to mind. Take 20 minutes and just write, then at the end of the 20minutes, take the pages you’ve written and lock them away, never to be read.
Sounds weird, and a bit pointless? I thought so too, but the purpose of morning pages is not to write something great, it’s to give your brain something to do and something to achieve straight out of the gates. You put them away and you forget about them, they are done, they are complete. I have written morning pages about what I needed to do in the day, random stories, goals, dreams, I forget what the content is because the words are not important but the act of writing is.
Morning pages may not cut it for you, and if you feel like you’re blowing past my signs and some of your own, it can be helpful to reach out for help, either through work, family or professionally.
As a coach I can help you work through what is causing your delivery fatigue and partner with you to develop a plan to get back on track.
If you're interested in booking a discovery call to see if coaching can help, don't hesitate to reach out.