Burnout Isn't Just From Being Too Busy

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Hey folks, it is 5:20 in the morning and I'm driving to work. It's a little early. Um, figured this one will do about burnout. It's quite relevant. Uh, no, I thought it'd be a good time to kind of talk through some of these things. wanted to see if I could put a bit of a different angle on on talking about burnout um by discussing, you know, sort of what's been going on lately, why that leads to burnout, and then also maybe like this other angle around like um it's it's not just like being being busy. It's not, oh, I'm busy, therefore I'm burnt out. It's like busy with things that don't um that don't get you excited or don't keep your engagement. And I'm hoping that I find better words to to kind of describe all of that as I talk through this. So, um I' I've talked about burnout before in other videos.

Um and I, you know, like I said, have and will continue to talk about it because I think it's important to to discuss these things. And I'm hoping that as I talk through this, it's helpful for other people. But I'm pretty sure that by talking through this, it'll be helpful for me as well, cuz I I think it's important to kind of reflect on these things. And when I talk about burnout, usually sort of the really important thing that I encourage people to do is like identify and like be aware of of things that lead to burnout. like try to look at what is happening. Try to look at how you are and see like are there signs that that you can identify early on before burnout kind of creeps up on you. And so before diving into all things burnout here, I just wanted to go back briefly to explain what I think, you know, how I would define burnout so that we have sort of a agreement going forward.

I realize it's a one-sided conversation because I'm talking to a camera. But um but just so you know like how I'm defining it and how I look at these things. So, when I talk about burnout, it's not, oh, I had a long day, I'm burnt out, or um or not really like, I had a long week and I'm burnt out. Uh although I don't know what the time horizon is supposed to be, okay? I think that you can have long weeks that are tiring. Uh, I'm not going to say you can't be burnt out after a week, but what I think is important is that burnout is something that is a little bit more than just like uh something that you can briefly tolerate. As much as it sucks, it's usually something that's sustained uh over a period of time that uh like continues to repeat or continues to propagate.

And I would often say the other factors that are important here are that it's like continued continued effort for something that you perceive as low value or disengaging. Okay. So I think that is some of the things that I'd use to define burnout. So, um it's been not quite a year, but last year around this time, I actually was going through a period of like, uh pretty intense burnout. Um and I guess it's April, so yeah, I guess literally it would have been right, this year is already flying by. um man would have been around this time last year maybe couple weeks later um where I was on the sort of the the exit path of uh of this phase of burnout that was for a few months and it was a pretty terrible time um like I I was everything just kind of felt

like it was terrible uh in and out of work and that's one of the things with burnout here is that it's like unfortunately going to bleed into other parts of your life because it's not just hey work work or whatever the thing is that's burning you out like this has got my attention right now and I can go you know sort of turn it off uh right after it's like no it's having this this effect on you and it will carry over into other things you're doing. So last year was pretty bad, but um over the past few weeks for me uh I'm kind of reaching this this point as well. And it's not anything uh like specific. It's this time it's actually like a a series of like just things that have gone into one another. And so when I talk about these things um it's not, you know, the intention is not to like to whine about them or complain about them.

It's actually to to highlight that this time was not, oh, I have a project that's really big and long and stressful. It's like I have a whole bunch of different things that based on the timing of them stacked up and now I'm at this point where I'm like my feels like my my gas tank's empty. Like I'm I'm running on fumes to to keep going. And uh so I figured it'd be kind of interesting to to go through it from that angle. It is surprisingly terrible for rain right now, which is interesting. It's like it's not raining that hard, but I guess because it's pretty dark out. I don't know. Maybe maybe it's hard to see that there's fog or something right now, but yeah, it's just like surprisingly low visibility. Uh but anyway, okay.

So in this case for me, one sec, this part is a little bit awkward on this highway because people are trying to merge over and they like they don't have to merge over from where they are, but they do it and then it creates a little bit more chaos and there needs to be. And I got one more car that's got to go around. Come on, buddy. I'm going to get screwed over here. I got to get in that fast lane. Just in time. Wow. Okay, back to the conversation. So, going back a few weeks, um I had How long has it been now? I guess it has been a few weeks. I had basically I had some uh some team members that were that were leaving and uh you know obviously that kind of situation is like a bittersweet thing because I'm super excited

for them like genuinely and uh I'm really glad that they are that this is a two two separate things alto together but um just literally coincidence that this was overlapping but yeah two two folks are leaving the team uh got really exciting exciting opportunities uh still within Microsoft and everything and uh genuinely excited for them uh you know and like I said bittersweet because uh really enjoyed working with them and going to going to miss them directly on the team but when this happens of course okay so uh for for me it just means that there's uh like sort of extra unplanned things that I I need to focus on which is part of my role right it's not like I said this isn't going to be a complaint fest for me. I'm just kind of lining these things up. So, when that happens, of course, I need to come up with transition plans.

I have to think about the work they were doing or plan to do and then see what we're going to adjust for. Um, it means that I am, you know, down people on the team that are able to help with things. Uh, and then so it's like going back to rep prioritization and all of these things are like sort of normal things that would be happening. It's just that I I now have a time constraint because they're leaving the team and I need to make sure that's addressed and not just like forgotten. Uh, so yeah, like how do we get work wrapped up? How do we make sure there's good handoff? How do we make sure there's good knowledge transfer? And then how do I rep prioritize? That also means that now I have a uh bit of work for me to go see how I can get uh like what we call back fill.

And so that can look very different at different times of the year or under different circumstances. But again, like it's not this is just part of being manager for the team. So all good. But it's it's another thing to go to go do, right? So, um this on its own, no, not a for me not a great uh set of events, but at the same time excited for the employees uh and their next opportunities. But on its own, I think it's quite manageable, right? It's like got some people that are transitioning out. Uh I got to work on trying to get some back fill. Cool. We go from that into uh a series of sort of I don't know things where I have to help out a partner team that was unplanned for a week and uh that work in particular was sort of like from from the morning and oftent times until before bed.

And so this was not during an on call shift. And the side effect of that is really like uh you know I'm doing like going to the the gym for CrossFit in the morning and I'm bringing my phone into the workout with me. So between things I can check my phone if I'm being messaged about stuff. Um, but really that was a full week of just like uh complete distraction from not only things I was planning to do at work like I have a team of people to manage like three sub teams uh to just like I I can't I literally can't plan to have anything done because of uh because of this involvement which is pretty pretty challenging and not to mention that it's like It's it's not just during work hours. It's before work. Like basically before I wake up, it's already like I wake up to, you know, work that I have to go do for it.

Um and then going to bed trying to be like what do I what can I do before I fall asleep so that uh this is more straightforward tomorrow. So doing that for a week uh and then into the weekend not not a great spot. Like that's kind of work where for me I'm like parts of it are exciting based on what the work was genuinely parts of it are exciting but given how how much involvement it took in and out of work and how much it was sort of causing other things to to stockpile that that's the kind of thing that while it's happening I'm like okay this is it's good to be able to help like this is exciting for that reason. But at the same time, it's like that doesn't come for free on like in terms of a a toll that it takes on me, right?

So, some mornings, like I said, bringing my phone into to CrossFit. Other mornings, I'm like I have to just skip. Uh and then I'm getting, you know, pretty exhausted from from how long I'm working. So, some mornings and I can't even go to the gym. So starts to have this other effect on the rest of my life even though while it was happening I'm like hey this is exciting and interesting to be able to help. Okay. So just trying to show that there's two sides even to that part. Then I have this situation where I need to to move some of the on call shifts around. And again, given the timing of it and the fact that I, you know, am one of the managers for this team puts me in a position where I'm not I'm not able to like change the on call schedule and move just like move people into it because it's so last minute.

I kind of have to put myself in. So I go from a week of working basically from the time I wake up to the time I go to bed into a next week of doing on call. And given some of the things that were happening for for helping out during on call, I had a similar week. So, I was I had to miss CrossFit every morning because I was starting on call early and then I found myself still working on stuff. At least I got to do like my work during the second half of the week or second half of the day during the week, but I was still doing on call stuff throughout that time and then at night just given the nature of some of the things that I had to help out with. So, I have this sort of second week where uh I'm working long hours outside like you know going outside of normal work hours.

But now I'm starting to get some things mixed in where I'm like I'm not really I'm not jazzed about this. I don't really want to be doing this. And it's mostly just because the things that I in some cases had to help out with were uh either they were either frustrating or uninteresting or whatever it happened to be. Just things that I needed to help with that I'm not super engaged with doing. They weren't exciting for me. So that was a very different week, right? long hours, but now I'm doing a bunch of things that uh that are really draining for me uh in terms of engagement. Okay, this is a huge truck. You got to get in front of me somehow. Come on, buddy. Okay. So, while this is all happening, right, the challenge, because this is now two weeks in a row, the challenge is that there are still things from the first week that are that are kind of falling behind, right?

Like I'm still not through them today. And I'm in I'm about to talk about week three. So, now in week three, I'm in the second week of my on call shift. And uh the same kind of thing like it's Wednesday, the same kind of thing is happening and I'm I'm now kind of reaching this point where I'm like I can tell that I'm I'm sort of reaching my limits. And for me that comes out in different ways. Uh but one of the things that is an obvious tell for me and I and I don't like it. I mean, I don't like a lot I don't like being burnt out, but the the one tell for me that like really bothers me about myself is that I start to get short with people. And um it re like it really really bothers me because I I find that like in the moment I I'm not catching myself and I don't like being in a position where I'm like I notice I'm being short.

Obviously, I don't like I don't like coming across like an and uh I don't like having to then try and explain myself and be like, "Hey, like you know, like sorry if I'm being short or something." I just want I just want to be a friendly person and I I start to notice that I I am short. And so, like I said, in terms of signals, awareness, like that is one for me where I'm like, why am I being short with this person? Um, it's because I don't have capacity to to sort of operate. I guess me trying to be friendly takes a little bit more work and uh and I'm just at capacity. And so, yeah, that's like one of my tells for myself. Uh, that's like when I'm communicating, I'm just it's not coming out the way that I like to operate. So, this week is sort of a repeat of last week, uh, so far.

And then, you know, so I've been Oh god. Oh god. Oh god. It's a lot of water. These highways are terrible, man. These highways are terrible. The thing for basically in Seattle where it's raining uh you know a thousand% of the time they would have highways that were well equipped for rain but uh absolutely not. Give me one sec. Okay. Let's move over here and get out of this water water death trap. Um, so this week is sort of a repeat early mornings, late nights. Um, and then now it's we're midweek. And so this week we have some team events. So I'm driving to the office for the the return to office. We got some team events and like my on call shift starts in 20 minutes and I am like, you know, on my way to work. I have to get to work before my on call shift.

So, I have to be there by 6. And then the reality is based on traffic and stuff to leave, I'm not going to be able to leave until probably after 6:00 that night, right? I can't leave at 5:00. I'll just be stuck in traffic for an hour. Um, so I'm basically signing up for 12 hours of work again today minimum and I'm at this point where I'm like I don't have a lot of uh a lot of mental bandwidth, a lot of emotional bandwidth. So that's the framing for a lot of this. So, you might have said, "Well, Nick, I thought we were going to talk about not just complaining about things." And I hope that didn't come across too much as complaining.

But uh the other thing that's being interleved in here is like there's there are things that are going on outside of work that um that I am like excited about and if they do take a little bit of extra energy and time and effort, it's uh they're exciting enough where they're kind of pulling me into it still. So, for example, there's a uh depending on how many videos of mine you watch, you might know that I build something called Brand Ghost. Uh, and so we have a lot of exciting momentum right now. And that's really cool. And for me, even after being like I so exhausted of just doing uh, you know, long work hours or you know, certain things that I'm completely disengaged and that I just know have to get done. um to be able to have these these moments where it's like got to get something done for Brand Ghost and I'm like my fuel tank is zero.

Uh that instead of taking more from of my energy, it actually like is exciting. And the reason I'm mentioning this is that I think it's interesting that burnout is not just am I doing too many things. I think that's a big part of it but I think it's what things you are doing. I think that's the other piece to this. So there's some element that's a over a period of time, how much of I am I doing? So am I like over my capacity? And for the stuff that I'm doing, is that something that is engaging for me or perceived as like high value to me? Right? And I'm I'm using kind of generalized words because I I can't um define that for you and the next person versus myself. But I I think to me it's really interesting because you know if I'm if I'm feeling burnt out or I'm feeling exhausted, I'm noticing I'm getting short and I'm having these signs of burnout.

all important for me to recognize like how is it that even on top of that there are still these opportunities where there's you know air quotes more work to be done and that's exciting to go do right it's not oh man I can't there's nothing left like got to got to get to sleep and like make it through this it's like no it's like I'm finding whatever energy there is to go to go chase more of this down because it is exciting Right. So, it's not necessarily just the amount of work. There's this element of like, do I perceive this as high value to me, engaging to me, whatever that is, however you define it. So, where does that leave us? Right? I think for the most part I just wanted to be able to highlight that um you know can go through this this period of sustaining things are are still like not engaging.

Um so in my example I have the the the time period right I have sustained like elevated uh just like demands on me and this mix of like things that are either engaging or not. the first that one week I was talking about I was like that is engaging work but I know that's not going to be sustainable is that engaging work that's giving me energy that might be on the threshold right it's like it's engaging I'm I'm happy to help it's it's kind of exciting um but even on its own I don't think I could sustain that then going into a week where I'm like absolutely can't sustain this because it's not engaging for the most part into now a third week where you know I've had sort of two days where I'm like this is not this is not engaging it's going to

be very very difficult to sustain um so engagement levels low um sustained work hours that are high and uh then when you interle these glimpses of like this extra work this extra work on top but it's engaging ing it actually it actually helps with the burnout. It's like it's more work, but it's like but this is what this is what I want, right? This is exciting for me. Um, so I I wanted to mention this not only to kind of talk about different aspects of burnout, but one of the things that really got me thinking was like when we have periods of burnout, is there is there's kind of something hidden here? Is there is there something we can look at? Again, if you have awareness, are there things that while you're feeling burnt out, if you pay attention to them, that's actually highlighting like the the things that you're truly engaged with, right?

So, and I I'm not just saying in my case like, oh, it's because it's brand ghost and it's something on the side. I had um there was something else for work that came up And uh like yesterday it came up and for me even though I'm like man like I'm I'm ready to to log off cuz it's been it's been a good few days here. Um you know getting getting pulled into something and being like I'm actually excited to help with this. And so I think it's important to listen to what those things are because when you're feeling burnt out and you have this opportunity to listen to some of those signals, um it might be telling you something about genuinely where your interests are.

Because I've had some people either reach out in messages or in comments or even on reading some posts on Reddit, people being like, "How do I know like if this is for me if I'm interested uh these different factors?" And it's like, I don't know like this I can't answer that for you, but I think in my case was able to to find some things like that. This thing's about to die. Good thing I barked. Um anyway, that's burnout. Would love to hear from folks if you've gone through periods of burnout. Like were there glimpses of things during those periods where you were like this keeps me going even though it might be perceived as more work or more more effort on top of it. Um if you want to leave that in the comments, that would be cool. If you want to write in about that and get feedback or ask questions about it, cool.

Happy to try and answer. But it's kind of what's going on for me. And uh fortunately when you leave for the office at uh just after 5:00 in the morning, you don't get a lot of traffic. So I got time to spare. I will see you in the next video. Take care.