When mid semester rolled around this year, I suddenly found myself dealing with the early signs of burnout. I was lying awake most nights, staring at the ceiling and wishing myself to just fall asleep. My thoughts were racing and all I wanted was to switch my brain off. Previously simple tasks like reading and getting myself into uni were becoming more and more challenging every day. I hadn’t considered what the cause could be, until a phone call with my mum where I was explaining all the work I was trying to get done, inside and outside of uni, and she said: “Just be careful you’re not burning yourself out”.
The notion of getting burnt out so early in the year began to stress me out even further. It felt like a disease I was trying to avoid catching. I was plagued by anecdotes from fellow students, alongside all the psychological evidence, proving just how unhealthy burnout can be. A large-scale study by psychologists Madigan and Curran in 2020 found that burnout in students is linked to poorer academic achievement overall (1). So aside from feeling constantly unmotivated and fatigued, I was also worried about the impact on my grades.
I quickly set out to find ways of escaping this slump I had found myself in. Through introspection and my own research, I now have a toolbox of strategies to combat the inevitable feelings of burnout I’m going to face this year. I am confident that these tips will be of use to other students, especially if you are coming to the end of your degree and are pushing to make this final stretch count.
Recognising Burnout
One of the hardest things about burnout is that you often don’t feel it sneaking up on you. It can take a lot of self-awareness to catch it in the early stages, which is definitely an aspect that I struggled with. According to mental health UK (2), some common signs of burnout include feeling tired and/or drained most of the time, having an increasingly negative outlook on life, and procrastinating more than usual.
It is important to recognise when these symptoms are starting to impact your general mood and wellbeing. Realising that you are burnt out is the first step to dealing with it, and dealing with it earlier rather than later will reduce the negative impact it has in the long run. So stay attuned to your energy levels and mood, as well as the people who you spend the most time with, as they can often spot these changes before you can.
“Touching grass”: foster those relationships away from university and work
Spending time talking to my friends and family about things that weren’t related to university was key for tackling my burnout symptoms. It is incredibly easy to catch second-hand stress off of course mates when a deadline or exam is coming up. Naturally, we spend the overwhelming majority of our time with other students when we are at university, all of whom are dealing with their own anxieties.
Whilst it is important to support, and seek support from, fellow course mates when needed, regular conversation with friends and family who are in entirely different environments is crucial to relieving burnout. Talk about the weather or the latest TV show you’re watching – anything other than work! Keeping this up regularly will provide some perspective on the important things in life.
Schedule days off in advance
This is an important one. Since working on reducing my uni-related stress, I’ve made myself a simple calendar where I plan my week in advance and note my working days and my non-working days. Having at least one non-working day a week has meant that I am more focused and motivated on the days I am busy. Some weeks I spend these days dedicated to self-care and relaxing, but other weeks I utilise this time to be social and organise to see friends instead.
Everyone will be different in terms of how they choose to spend their downtime but ensuring that downtime is planned is the crucial part. This may be more difficult if you have a part time job that takes up your weekend and a fully blocked out timetable during the week. But if left unchecked, burnout could cost you weeks of feeling unmotivated and unable to work in the future, so better to schedule a day off now than needing potentially much more time off down the line.
Prioritising workload
I live by the rule, whatever is due next is always the most important. By reading week I had deadlines coming out of my ears and my brain was in a fog of dates and first drafts. I combatted this by writing down all of my assignment deadlines in order of due date and broke each assignment down into manageable chunks I could work with. Then when you plan your week, deal with the soonest assignment or exam first and allocate the most amount of time to working on those chunks.
Be realistic with your plan and only schedule what you can manage. Don’t try and cram hours of work into one day when you are burnt out as it will only leave you feeling more stressed. By narrowing your focus to what is most important right now, your workload will feel a bit lighter, and you should feel accomplished when you’ve completed the work you’ve set out to do.
Reach out to lecturers and course leaders
If a particular module is causing you more stress than others, you might be surprised how much reaching out to the lecturer could help. During my undergraduate I was definitely the suffer-in-silence type and always felt too shy to reach out for help in fear of being seen as incompetent. But this year whilst doing my masters, I’ve made a point of emailing every one of my lecturers at least once with questions and for general help with the content. I have found that getting a bit of clarification and support with assignments has given me a springboard for getting them completed, and I have spent less time worrying about whether I am doing them right. Most lecturers have office hours that are dedicated to helping students that are struggling with a specific bit of content, so utilise these.
If you feel that burnout is significantly affecting your wellbeing, and you need to speak with someone about it, the university has a multitude of ways to access support. For information on how to contact your school support team, the counselling service or for general advice on looking after your wellbeing, visit the student support page here: https://www.studentsupport.manchester.ac.uk/taking-care/
References:
- Madigan, D. J., & Curran, T. (2020). Does burnout affect academic achievement? A meta-analysis of over 100,000 students. Educational Psychology Review, 33(2), 387–405. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-020-09533-1
- Mental Health UK. (2021). Burnout. Mental Health UK; Mental Health UK. https://mentalhealth-uk.org/burnout/