How to Recognize You’re In a Brownout Cycle
You find yourself more resistant than you normally are about taking on work projects or initiatives. You may find yourself losing interest in the work itself. It takes more effort to “push through” strong desires to disengage with your leadership, your team, and your stakeholders. It becomes harder to stay present for meetings. You’re finding at the end of the workday that you can’t wait to walk away and resent when you can’t. You spend less and less time attending to your interests outside of work; for example, you catch yourself blowing off time at the gym, or making excuses that you’ll return to your activities after you get through this deadline. You reschedule plans with friends and family just until you get through this week | month | trip | project, which increases a sense of isolation and risks skewing your perspective. Your sleep may become interrupted and your nutrition downgrades to convenience snacking. Maybe you catch yourself drinking an extra beer, glass of wine, or other beverage to unwind in the evening. If you’re sober, a compulsion to drink might return, or you may have a sudden resurgence of drinking dreams. Finally, after you push yourself hard enough, telling yourself that this is just a one-time thing, you deliver the work, and are more tired than you’ve been in the past.
Afterward you take a long weekend, or scale back at work for a week or two, “catching up.” You’re feeling a bit more restored, and then the cycle repeats. You end up moreexhausted than you had during the last project and it takes longer to recover. You recover a little less before taking on the next project. Work starts feeling more like crisis management but hey, you’re good at that, right? You tell yourself this is the price you’re paying for success.
Impacts
Until the overall brownout state is recognized and addressed, the cycle continues, further deepening the experience of demotivation, disinterest, and disengagement. Eventually, brownout spreads throughout your organization: colleagues of browned out employees and leaders are compelled to pick up the slack, increasing their own workloads and stress. With brownout states left unaddressed, employees—those who are browning out and those who aren’t—often leave the organization or the company, and regretted attrition—and the associated lost productivity and costs— increase.
Break the brownout cycle
Sunset and sunrays, Skala Eressos, Lesvos, Greece
Because it’s so woven into the pace and success metrics for many industries, brownout culture is hard to recognize. But there are markers you can identify. Here’s what to you can do to break the cycle.
Commit to your daily and weekly health activities. If needed, seek support for healthy sleep, good nutrition, healthy exercise or movement, and social connection each day. Write down your daily health goals and post it prominently in your workspace. And yes, holding yourself accountable to a partner or friend really does work.
Clarify your work goals and priorities, and understand how they align with your company’s vision. If the work you’re engaged with doesn’t align with both of those, get comfortable putting it below the line.
Control your calendar. Audit the last couple of weeks and determine where and how you’ve spent your time. Does that align with full focus and productivity on your work goals and priorities? If not, own that and change your calendar accordingly.
Set a sustainable pace. Finish one deliverable or piece of work before committing to more. If you’re working on a long-range project, break it down into sustainable milestones and finish one first before moving to the next.
Continuously monitor and learn. Hold retros for yourself and your team. Solicit 360 feedback from your workplace and your personal life. Adjust where needed.
Celebrate your wins. Critical to your sense of satisfaction and accomplishment is the time you spend acknowledging the hard work and creativity you’ve delivered. For the health of your organization, it’s important to recognize and savor the wins. Give yourself and your team intentional time and space to celebrate which feeds a positive, engaged culture.
Seek help and counsel. If you’re having trouble with any of the prior actions, it’s time to get help. Talk with your manager, extended leadership, mentor, ally, physician, or therapist to find out what’s stopping you from working at a sustainable level—and then take action.