If you’re feeling exhausted, overwhelmed, and even depressed at work, you may be burned out. The first step to remedying the situation is to understand what’s causing it. Try tracking how you spend your time for a week, either on paper, in a spreadsheet, or in one of the many apps now available for tracking your time. For each block of time, write down what you’re doing, whom you’re with, and how you feel on a scale of 1–10, where 1 means angry or depressed and 10 means joyful or energized. This will give you a sense of which activities and people are diminishing your energy, so that you can start limiting your exposure to them. The goal is to decrease time spent on tasks, people, and situations that drain you and to increase time on those that replenish you. As much as possible, try to jettison low-value and high-frustration activities. If you find that there are certain relationships that are especially draining, interact with those people as little as possible.
Adapted from "Steps to Take When You're Starting to Feel Burned Out," by Monique Valcour
