Part 3: Burnout - practical actions that can make a difference for you, right now
Wouldn’t it be great if a simple recipe or set of steps could fix burnout? Sadly, it’s not that simple. But there are things we can do that make a difference, and ways to implement personalised action plans that be effective for each of us.
While important conversations need to be had about structural and policy changes that can support healthy and sustainable work, we can all set boundaries, build protective friendships and networks, manage stress, and find time in each day and week to rest and seek satisfaction and joy.
These small but vital changes can reduce factors that lead to burnout and bolster practices that manage chronic levels of stress and exhaustion. Insights from behavioural change research show that we change our behaviour and learn new habits in small but consistent steps.
To prevent or reduce burnout we can:
Use our knowledge and awareness of stress and exhaustion
Be proactive about self-care and wellbeing
Address and manage workload
Seek connection at work and outside it
Develop strategies to reduce and recover from stress
Develop strategies to bring back engagement and joy
Let’s look at each of these six areas in turn.
1.Using our knowledge and awareness of stress and exhaustion
Since stress is a part of life, and a natural response to difficult situations, we are all going to experience it at various times. How do we know if stress is at normal levels, or is too prolonged or too harmful?
First, we can better understand our own responses to the things that make us stressed. We can start by observing ourselves at work. When difficult events occur, we can notice what we are thinking and feeling – as if observing ourselves from the outside. What symptoms am I experiencing? For example:
Is my breathing or heart rate increasing?
Do I feel tense? Am I getting a headache or stomach ache?
Do I feel extra irritable or frustrated? How can I tell?
Increasing self-awareness is an important professional and leadership skill. Since we will all differ in what causes us stress and how we respond, the skill is to learn how things are for each of us and then planning a set of small steps and strategies that work for us.
Naming and labelling emotions in our response is part of becoming more aware. You may notice you are getting hot and flushed or perhaps breathing more quickly. You may then think, ‘I am feeling overwhelmed (or scared or irritated) by what’s happening.’ To manage your response, you may say to yourself: ‘I can tell I’m getting really stressed, I’m going to take a bathroom break and make a cup of tea as soon as I can’. Or ‘I’ll call a friend in the break.’ In this way, you are putting in place an action that breaks your standard stress response.
2.Being proactive about self-care and wellbeing
Self-care is a term that means tending to your physical, mental, social, and emotional health. In theory it sounds simple, but in busy lives self-care can be difficult to prioritise, especially for those in caring professions, who are constantly faced with the needs of others: students struggling, colleagues burning out and families at home needing you, too. But to teach and lead well, you need to be well. Effective leadership involves a duty of care for students and colleagues. Rule number one: put your own oxygen mask on first.
Self-care means different things to different people. There is no definitive list; it is important to find out what feels right for you. Ask yourself: what makes you feel happy and well? Part of developing school leaders is to help them to support their staff to include self-care in their everyday work. Research is clear that practising self-care enables you to be more effective at work.
Here are some small things you could do in your day or week that would increase your self-care and wellbeing:
Care for yourself physically – eating, sleeping, gentle exercise:
Food and nutrition: can you take a lunch break or regular time to make a hot drink at work, perhaps with a colleague? Is there a night you can be home earlier in order to cook a nutritious meal? Or plan meals on the weekend?
Exercise and physical activity: can you include a short walk before or after work, or take a slightly longer route home two days a week? Can you include half an hour of exercise one morning before school?
Sleep and rest: can you determine a suitable bedtime and try to stick to it during the week? What bedtime routine, such as reducing screens and phones, would work best?
Care for yourself psychologically and emotionally by tending to relationships, taking a break and doing things that bring you joy.
Social connection and relationships: having trusted and professionally close relationships with at least one or two colleagues at work is important for our health. We are social beings. We don’t have to have best friends at work, but a couple of work friends is healthy. Take some time to think about who you feel closest to, trust and enjoy spending time with. Make an effort to connect once or twice during the week, by sharing a coffee or a short walk around the block.
Emotional and mental health – rest, recover, revive. It is crucial that we can really disconnect from work and have energy to focus at least for a couple of hours each week on other things we enjoy -- a book, a TV show, a class connected to a hobby such as yoga, games or sport, and so on.
Happiness and joy: you may choose to undertake extracurricular work in an area such as music, sport, art or computers, that you also enjoy. You may decide to carve out some time for enjoyable things outside work. The goal is to think about what makes you happy, and then make sure you fit it into a busy life (especially when you have a family to look after also) without being overloaded or overwhelmed.
3.Addressing and managing workload
Burnout is caused by work design and workload, forces that are outside any one person’s ability to control. Yet we can do things and learn skills to help us manage work and to find support. For example, we can break down our work into smaller and more manageable chunks and organise our approach to it and manage the stress it might trigger. Consider the following:
Workload: can you take any work off your plate, even if just for the short term if you urgently need some rest? Is there work that is not a priority and can be delayed? Is there something you can ask for help with, or someone you could delegate this work to?
Prioritisation: Reducing workload can mean being more realistic about what you can do, then feeling good about getting it done. Have a to-do list of three things, not 12. Change daily habits: don’t reply to emails that don’t absolutely need one, or write extensive notes if not required. Don’t do the extra ‘nice-to-have’ work that you may have had time for in the past, but don’t right now. Be kind to the part of you that wants to do the extra work and forgive it for the bit of grief that comes with doing less than you’d like.
Teamwork, collaboration, and coordination: Teaching and leading can be a team sport. Can a group of people share tasks and planning, rather than everyone doing it alone? If you do extra one week, can you take some time off the week after?
None of these actions can fix all burnout. Yet, by being small, they are more likely to be achievable, and a good place to start. Try one thing and see how you go.
4.Seek connection and support inside and outside work.
This article has already identified the importance of finding one or two ‘work friends’ to share time with. Social connection has two other important aspects:
Connection with friends and family outside work. When work is busy and demanding, and energy is low, it can feel daunting to organise to go out or call a friend. Yet such social support is important. Think about making time to reach out to friends outside work once or twice a week.
Ensure you have a GP and other health professionals you may need. Seek support when you have to. While friends, companions and family are vital, at times you may want professional support (further links at the end of the article).
5.Strategies to reduce stress and recover
To reduce stress and ensure you have time to rest and recover, make sure you set and hold boundaries around work. Make rules for when and where you work, and don’t work. Set work hours: for example, at school from 8:00am to 4:00pm and one hour in the evening at home. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, work has become more flexible. Some meetings are held online. This flexibility brings many positives, but it requires individuals to manage work boundaries and protect non-work time. What boundaries would help you to ‘switch on’ and ‘switch off’, so that work – and thinking about work – doesn’t creep into all aspects of your life?
What can boundary setting look like?
Carve out time for yourself each week, whether it’s a lunch break or coffee with a colleague. Sharing your plans with others can increase your commitment to achieving them.
Guides for work-life balance: make it a goal to leave work on time or be home for dinner at least one or two days a week, or more if you can.
Consciously disconnect: think about appropriate boundaries for being on and offline—commit to not checking work emails or your phone during designated time, and consider ways to tell colleagues who need to know that you can’t be reached.
6.Strategies to bring back engagement and joy
Beyond setting boundaries and disconnecting is having things that help us switch off from work. They might be a new episode of a TV show, a phone call with a friend, a weekly exercise class or a walk with a cousin. They don’t have to be big or overly ambitious – they just have to make us feel good. Only you know what these are: don’t judge or question; just pursue the things that bring you joy. What are your top three things?
How to create, plan and implement small steps
Doing new things or doing things differently is hard, whether this is changing a habit, or noticing a pattern of stressed thinking and trying to break it.
Behaviour change research tells us to start small. Design an action that is realistic for you because it fits into your existing time and schedule and isn’t too hard. Instead of signing up to a workout plan at the gym for a set number of hours each week, plan a slightly longer walk home. Rather than plan a fancy homemade lunch each day, take a lunch of leftovers one day a week. Rather than try to be home on time every night of the week, plan a day that suits better for working late, and a night or two where you commit to being home by a definite time. This not only supports you, but it helps family and friends to understand your schedule, too.
Key takeaways:
Based on the areas above, what are three things that you think will support you to reduce stress, rest, and recover?
Have compassion for yourself as you try to change. It takes time – some days will go well; others will get derailed. Aim for good enough and not for perfect.
Of course, the way work is designed also creates burnout. Working hours, pay, resources and support are vital issues, but are beyond the scope of this article, and beyond what individuals can control or fix on their own. Policy and structural changes will be needed to reduce the level of burnout in our teachers and leaders. Conversations about these changes should not be avoided or shut down but it is crucial right now to find a set of small actions to preserve your energy, and to create some time and boundaries to rest, relax and recover when possible. Go well and good luck!
References and resources
Beyond Blue. Burnout and Mental Health. Burnout and mental health - Beyond Blue
McQuaid, M. (2023). Are you really burned out or just exhausted? Psychology TodayBlog.https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/from-functioning-to-flourishing/202307/are-you-really-burned-out-or-just-exhausted
Parker, G., Tavella, G., and Eyers, K. (2021). Burnout: A guide to identifying burnout and pathways to recovery. NSW, Australia; Allen & Unwin.