I burned out. Here's how I recovered.

I'd like to share a little bonus story, which will show how my life is often a process of learning the same lesson over and over:

In college, I was in the honors program. Graduating with it would've meant I'd be able to put it on my resume and wear a cool gold cord at the graduation ceremony. However, there were some requirements; I had to take some extra classes and do a big project during my senior year.

About halfway through college, I was putting a lot more time into building my business, and trying to juggle that alongside classes, my job, and the Honors requirements was becoming incredibly stressful. Additionally, my time was very fractured; I wasn't able to focus for very long on any one thing, and everything suffered as a result.


So - even though I really wanted that additional resume item - I decided to quit the Honors program during my senior year. It was hard to give that up, but the time and ability to focus that I gained was worth it. And looking back, I can see now that having "honors graduate" on my resume wouldn't have helped me as much as all the extra time I was able to invest in building my business.


I still struggle with living by the lesson this taught me: Letting an opportunity go doesn't equal failure. And even if that opportunity would have helped me progress slightly faster, it may not have been worth it.

I've recently been diagnosed with burnout with which i have apparently been walking around with for 4 years.
I've never felt so unsafe and lost in my life, to a degree words cannot express.
I have no one that can help me, but your video gave me a flicker of hope and a few insights of steps that I can take.

Thank you.

this was very helpful! thank you

True burnout, creatively exhausted, bro what are you like 25? You got a ways to go yet bud.

Doesn’t sound you head a serious burn out. You would have had much more mental and physical problems then you mentioned. But good for you that you where able to adjust in time to prevent it from happening.

next time stright to the point please. too much talking around.

not me who stayed in a burnout state for two whole years and doesn't even know what it feels like to be motivated and energized

thomas "is" one of the productivity guy that I look up in YT...he makes sensible vids ..but now he is not visible anymore in making content😔....

Very well explained very helpful thank you thank you very much 👌💖

On my 6th burnout. I was first diagnosed in the early 90s but not told what to do about it. At least now we have the internet to help.

My vacations end up more stressful than working days. It happens when you have triplets (age 7) and twins (age 5). My kids are monsters too.

thank you a lot , i needed that

Currently burned out 🙋🏽‍♂️this video helped

Currently going through this recently while studying & working 2 jobs, thanks for sharing your insights, it's been super helpful

So the solution to burnout is to hire a whole team of people to do your job for you. Nice.

In my previous role, when I told my boss I am not kipping up witht the workload and am not able to meet all tasks (I was literally working 12-13 hours a day on my 7.5 hours contract in Supply Planning), he said to me 'aren't you able to download some things during the night?'. I was like, you must be joking me.
Changed the role and I am not in this unhealthy environment anymore.

Dome of us cannot take a break.

Bro you hit ALL the points! I really needed to hear this. Thank you!

I seriously doubt that there is any huge number of people who go through this phase. Most people just gonna confuse temporary exhaustion and tiredness with burn out. Burn out is something way way more intense and its kind of thing that happens only ones in life after years of pushing yourself to extreme. Now everyone can even manage to push himself that far.

It was helpful🙌thank you

This described my current situation so perfectly well. Glad to see I’m not alone

yes you could ease up your schedule to recover, but what if someone is working in a corporate set up and the bosses will not let up on them?

This has been very helpful. Thank you

I know this video is 3 years old, but it just popped up in my suggestions so I said I'd give it a go. It made perfect sense to me so thanks for creating it.

I'm lying here on my couch at 5.53am, having gotten home at 2.00am and slept for 2 hours and woke again unable to sleep. My brain is juggling a million different things (or at least thats how it feels) it's probably the same 10-15 thoughts circling and criss crosing.

I have always felt the need to be ultra productive and to squeeze as much into every day as possible and I got very good at that without realising the huge personal cost, I have no time to rest or recover and this has been going on for years now, but has worsened considerably in the past 12 months.

Your video is so relatable, our pressures differ (mine is work related, but I also have a sick parent and am carrying more than my fair share a lot of the time simply because of my geographic location...and eagerness to help any way I can) but the idea of feeling like you can't change anything resonated strongly with me, but I do have options to find the breathing space I need (but even realising that breathing space is what is required was tough). The thing is realising that as unpalatable as these things might seem when they are rattling around randomly in your head, they need to be considered fully before being cast aside.

It's great to hear this from the perspective of someone who has lived it rather than someone who knows the science behind it, it makes it much more tangible and easier to relate to my own experience.

Thanks again for this very valuable content, I will be liking and subscribing, I hope your channel, but more importantly you yourself continue to do well these years later.

Yes you need friends and family. I don't have that..

Thank you

مايفيدني أنا لأني مو بمثل مرحلته....انا بعدني اتعلم كيف اوصل لمستواه

As a freelance photographer and journalist, I have burned out on several occasions, with this last being the most severe. It is to the point where not only do I feel uncreative, but mentally dull. Forming thoughts on the fly, short-term memory, and holding conversations feel like I have become slower. I am in the midst of a long vacation working to regain my drive, but I am looking for what people's thoughts are on how to regain what feels like lost brain power.

I'm too burned out to watch this

-This guy talking about how he got stressed for one month and defines that as burnout
-Me in burnout and daily derealization for 6 years and keeping on with my job

Ice baths trigger adrenaline and raise dopamine baseline for weeks later, but you have to exercise afterwards or your body won’t get rid of the free radical adrenaline which like stress is toxic to your body.

Cycling off of caffeine for 14 days resets the benefit of caffeine to get the most out of it. Do that every 6 months and then you can start small and increase caffeine very gradually over those 6 months to get the same effect. Try Yerba Mate or Mud Water (or cheaper equivalent) for energy…

Not having caffeine in the first 2 hours of the day or after 2pm after the reset is a good idea.

Burnout? I never burned. I just feel lazy. But I’m learning how to manipulate my dopamine so maybe that’ll help.

feeling so burnt out i literally cannot watch this entire video

I can't go on holiday - I cannot reduce the workload because I need the money - but what I need is SLEEP.

Starting to consider quitting my job - there's no control over workload at all and no way to manage your own schedule... And that workload is massive.

It's getting to the point that my entire life feels like it's just my job. It's not healthy and I'm exhausted every waking hour. Doesn't help that it's winter in the UK so I wake up and it's dark, I come home and it's dark. I may as well be living underground.

Hmmm maybe I should take a break after my 43 minute per week study session

I'm kinda in that right now

Don't believe in burnout. It's that simple. Become a burnout denier.

Burn out sucks , using any stimulants will increase the risk for it too, like caffeine for example . It’s why I don’t use them anymore . Taking breaks daily , etc

I'd recommend Eckhart Tolle to a lot of people experiencing burnout.

Thank you so much this has been the most helpful video on burnout I've watched

To eliminate burn out you need good and interesting people around you :)

Ughh...bro I totally relate...!!! I couldn't find find a better way to explain and you nailed it!!

Burnout number ONE solution = Resign and travel.

My problem is that school burnout me, If I would I would left school to achive my dreams but it is complicated and for now I cant leave highschool, Idk what to do I just feel on auto mode and I hate it, I want to do so much but I just mentally and timely cant because of highschool. I hate it.

This nerd still looks at his phone 400 times a day.
He's not even a burnout!

Smoke more weed U dweeb!

wow, you are like the phoenix ... never think maybe your ancestors were phoenicians

Some things I learned from this video.
1 Make fewer commitment to not have stress.
2 Let go fast success to have a work life balance.
3 We can be content in the moment and be delighted too. If we could just stop being over ambitious.

Good for you I can't I support 3 kids 🤷🏽‍♀️

Everything you said about being in the stage of burnout is the exact same thing that is happening to me. This is a validation to me that some people out there are experiencing this as well and I can get insights on how to bounce back.. thanks for the input!