10 Tips for Beating Brownout by Joyce Shulman

I am taking part in the WOW! Women on Writing blog tour for the book “Walk Your Way to Better” by author Joyce Shulman. She’s here with us today to share her tips for avoiding brownout (before you reach burnout!). Something I sure need help with these days. Make sure you check out her book here.

Heard of burnout? Yup, most people have. But over the past few years, “brownout” has become recognized as not just a precursor to burnout but as a problem in its own right.

Though more subtle than burnout, brownout has many of the same symptoms and characteristics. You find yourself feeling overwhelmed and overworked. Things that typically bring you joy don’t seem to give you the same boost that they used to. Your productivity dips as does your interest, engagement, and energy.

Things seem just a little out of focus.

Now, I’m not a mental health expert and don’t purport to have all of the answers for combatting brownout or keeping simmering brownout from ballooning into clinical burnout. But I do have ten tactics that have worked for me and that might work for you. Some are contradictory and some seem counterintuitive. Not all will work all the time. But all are worth trying.

1. Take a Break. Seems obvious, sure. And when you are suffering from brownout or beginning to burnout, walking away and taking a break can be the hardest thing in the world. But experience shows that taking even a true 24-48 hour break can work wonders and even a 12-hour digital detox can help.
2. Get Help. Brownout can make you feel like you are in it alone yet feeling like you “should be able to handle it.” But there are no gold stars for people who do it all without asking for help when they need it. 
3. Take a Hike. Literally. Get outside. Get some exercise. Change the scenery. A boatload of research has proven, without question, that moving your body and being in nature are incredibly restorative.
4. Work Harder. Counterintuitive, I know. But burnout and brownout are often characterized by that sense of malaise that makes real productivity impossible. So you find yourself spending lots of hours accomplishing little. Identify the most productive time of day for you, put a fence around three hours and work as hard as you can, without distraction, for three hours. Then get up and walk away.
5. Do Something for Someone Else. A raft of research has made it clear that doing something for someone else is the very best way to make yourself feel better. So when you are feeling browned out, find a great not-for-profit in your community, pick up the phone, and say “how can I help.” Call an older neighbor and offer to pick up her groceries. Write a card and send it, old school, to a friend. Bring your partner coffee in bed.
6. Get back to basics. Remember the part about there being no gold stars for doing it all yourself? Yeah, well, there are no gold stars for “doing it all” either. Keep your compass pointed toward the things that are most essential, most important and most valuable to you and avoid the trap of striving to do it all.
7. Connect with others. It is so, so easy to stay in your bubble. The four walls of your home, your immediate family and your work. But as human beings, we thrive on social connection. One of the tendencies of people who are suffering from brownout is feeling like they don’t have the energy to make plans to connect with others beyond their immediate obligations. Force yourself.
8. Go to bed. I’m always shocked when I learn how many women sacrifice sleep for, well, everything. Exhaustion leads to lower productivity, which leads to more time spent “working” which leads to less time resting and recharging. Unless you have a newborn in the house (in which case all bets are off), make getting the rest you need a priority.
9. Say No. I know, it is a total cliché, but you must learn to say no to things that will not fuel your spirit, give you joy or get you where you want to go. Sure, often we must do things for others. But at least once a week, there will be a chance to say no. Take it.
10. Laugh more. Whatever makes you laugh, seek it out. Laughter is truly one of the all-time great brownout busters.

Joyce Shulman is the co-founder of Macaroni Kid, Pack Leader at 99 Walks and author of Walk Your Way to Better. A serial entrepreneur, speaker and self-confessed idea junkie, you can find her on Instagram at Joyce.r.shulman.