Breaking The Burnout Cycle: How Mindfulness Techniques Can Help

ZEN-it Team

25 Dec 2023

A man resting his hand on his hands at his work desk, representing exhaustion.

Introducing: Productive Pete

Productive Pete has a packed day. He wakes up to a buzzing phone alarm, hits snooze a few times. It was another late work night. He takes a quick look at his emails and worry fills his stomach. He sinks back into bed for a couple of minutes, drumming up the courage to start his day.

Pete finally gets up and goes through his morning routine on autopilot - brushing his teeth (thinking of the contract that needs to get closed today), showering (remembering his niece's birthday coming up soon), having coffee (ordering a present for his niece online), then quickly dressing (trying to recall the sticky points and strategising the approach he needs to take for his first meeting of the day).

He heads out and rushes to work. His day passes by in a daze of meetings, deadlines, jumping from one thing to the other, without rest, reflection or breathing space. He’s bone-tired and doesn’t know how he can help himself feel better.

Meet Mindful Meg

A woman tackling her work tasks with ease, sitting at her work desk with headphones and holding papers in her hands.

Mindful Meg wakes up earlier than she’d like. She takes a deep breath and repeats an affirmation to herself. She sits up in bed, reminds herself to focus on the things she needs to do before starting her workday. She streams a grounding session and listens to it while brushing her teeth.

She starts tackling her pre-work chores. When she catches her mind wandering, she tries to bring her mind back to the present, to focus on the present activity (or the next few steps she needs to take). She drops her children to the school bus, then starts her work day.

She begins by looking at her emails and reviewing her task list, adding tasks, then, checking ZEN~It’s priority wizard for quick tips on what to tackle, when. She sets up some focus time, and jumps into her tasks.

She recalibrates her expectations and task list as the day goes by, and spends some time taking quick mindful breaks, to ensure her mind maintains its balance.

Is It Productivity? Or A Path To Burnout?

Productive Pete and Mindful Meg demonstrate how people with similar levels of “busyness” can handle their tasks and daily requirements: focusing only on productivity, or, trying to be more mindful, and effective. The key difference is in the impact their schedule and approach have on their energy, mental health, and inner peace. We can see that Pete is on a path to burnout, while Meg seems more in control of her inner balance. Why is this so? Meg is using mindfulness techniques for preventing burnout!

Recognising Burnout Symptoms

In popular perception, burnout relates to work stress and the exhaustion that follows. However, burnout is not restricted to professional settings. Burnout refers to a persisting state of exhaustion caused by enduring physical, mental, and/or emotional stress, and the resultant feeling of being overwhelmed and unable to cope. It is also linked to feelings of being underappreciated or undervalued, and with loss of control over one’s schedule and time.

Burnout is not normally medically diagnosed, but you can recognise burnout from some symptoms:

Persistent feeling of exhaustion
Increased negativity and disinterest towards everything or directed at the area of life where the burnout is most pronounced
Struggling to manage all your tasks and deliver them, feeling overwhelmed or inadequate as a result

How Does Mindfulness Help Avoid Or Manage Burnout?

Mindfulness focuses on self-awareness, and being present in the moment. By following mindfulness, we can identify our feelings, understand why and how they arose, and how to let them go. This can help us recognise when we are feeling overwhelmed or nearly so, when we need to stop and care for ourselves. It also helps us reorient ourselves when we start dwelling in the past, or future, instead of focusing on the present - this works well to bring our focus back to our tasks and completing them.

Regularly practising mindfulness techniques can arm us in managing work stress, pressures in our personal life, and build our resilience to prevent burnout. In fact, daily mindfulness practices and mindfulness exercises are shown to significantly reduce job burnout, stress and anxiety.

Mindfulness Techniques You Can Start With Right Now

We don’t need to get into intensive coursework to start practising mindfulness. We can start by practising some basic mindfulness techniques and self-care strategies - bringing our attention to the present moment; engaging in self-reflection to identify our thoughts and feelings; observing those thoughts and feelings without judgment and orient ourselves in the direction we need to. These can be worked into a daily mindfulness routine.

Here are three techniques to start your mindfulness journey:

A man sitting at the beach, reflecting deeply, as he pens down his thoughts in his journal.

1. Mindful Journaling

Journaling is the practice of writing down what you feel. There are many journals available in the market that come with prompts to help you get started. As you get into the practice, you can move to journaling without prompts, writing what you feel, how your day went, what you’re grateful for etc. Journaling helps you become self-reflective, understand your trigger points and overall acts as a sounding board for self.

2. Mindful Breathing

Just merely observing your breath for a few moments every day helps you calm down and alleviates stress. Once you are comfortable with this practice, you can try breathing exercises such as box breathing, 478 breathing etc. with guidance from experts.

A woman sitting on her sofa and practising a breathing exercise.

A woman in workout clothes, lying on the floor and practising body scan meditation.

3. Body Scan Meditation

A simple practice of lying down on the floor and scanning your body, from feet to head, helps you become more aware of the stress points in the body and helps you relax.

Ready To Be Productive Without Experiencing Burnout?

Incorporating mindfulness practices into our daily routine can significantly reduce stress and help us deal with burnout. By observing our thoughts and feelings without judgment, and taking deliberate steps to relax and unwind, we can enhance your mental and emotional well-being.

Some of these are a little hard to start from scratch, and that’s where ZEN-it can help you. ZEN-it has a specially curated set of self-care tracks encompassing the basics of mindfulness - centering, grounding, acknowledging and releasing emotions, and so on.

ZEN-it app screens - Home Screen, Productivity Suite Screen and Self-Care Suite Screen.

ZEN-it also offers a number of complementary tracks which go hand-in-hand with mindfulness, in combating burnout and relieving stress: meditation tracks and breathing exercises in our Meditation section, and motivational tracks in the Uplift section. We also provide some simple desk stretches in our Stretch section, which can help reduce the physical tension that gets pent up from stress. These go a long way in stress management, achieving work-life balance, combating burnout and improving productivity and mental health!

Remember, ZEN-it helps you achieve more and stress less. ZEN-it to WIN-it!

Start your mindfulness journey using ZEN-it!

Wondering about the Science behind Mindfulness and Meditation? Read our blog: The Science Behind Meditation and Stress.

FAQs

How does one measure the effectiveness of mindfulness techniques in combating burnout over time?

Effectiveness can be measured qualitatively, through self-assessments and reflection. Observe how you feel in the morning. Do you feel well-rested and ready to start the day? How do you respond in stressful situations? Do you react immediately or take your time to analyse your thoughts and emotions before communicating? Regular check-ins with self will also increase your awareness of stress causes and what you turn to, for relief.

Are there any scientific studies or research that support the claims about the benefits of mindfulness for burnout specifically?

Yes, there are numerous scientific studies that demonstrate the benefits of mindfulness practices in reducing symptoms of burnout, improving mental health, and enhancing overall well-being.

One study published in the Journal of American Medical Association found that mindfulness meditation programs had moderate evidence of improved anxiety, depression, and pain outcomes. Another study in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology demonstrated that mindfulness-based interventions could significantly reduce stress and burnout symptoms among healthcare professionals. These findings support the notion that mindfulness practices are effective in mitigating burnout and improving mental health.

How does ZEN-it customize its mindfulness and self-care tracks to individual needs?

ZEN-it will use user feedback to tailor its mindfulness and self-care tracks, and over time, will work towards customizing the experience to suit individual needs.

Ready to Redefine Productivity? Start your journey with ZEN-it today!