This isn’t going to be another article on the importance of sleep. Chances are, if you’re reading this, you’ve been inundated with information from Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar and Survival, already have f.lux installed on your laptop, and have at least contemplated buying blackout curtains.

This is about something slightly different: feeling exhausted and completely disinterested with work. This usually happens after months or years of doing just a little bit too much, of needing to take a break but ignoring those signals out of necessity (or obstinacy) or just due to circumstances outside of your control.

Whether you just opened a new box and have burned the midnight oil for one night too many, are juggling work and kids, volunteer work and school or your own unique combination of one thing too many, chances are that at some point in your life you’ve found that you’ve lost the drive for your work (or even play) and are simply going through the motions. You’ve done so much, for so long, that there’s no way you can sustain that level of effort for a single day longer. And yet, it needs to get done, so there you are. What next?

Even the title of this article begs the question: how do you get the fire back? Obviously, that’s going to be different for every person, but we know what doesn’t work for everyone: ignoring those signals indefinitely and moving on forward, hoping that it doesn’t catch up with you (and that nobody notices).

Typically, what’s needed—and what’s realistic—takes a completely different strategy-set than the one you’ve been using to burn the candle at both ends, but each situation is unique. So let’s run down a list of options to contemplate, and you find something realistic that you haven’t already tried, give it a shot, record the results, and repeat until you’re back to your chipper self again.

Just realize that this is part of a process. It’s like working out. Clearly, you’ll need to recharge after a long period of excessive energy expenditure, and that’s true for other aspects of your life as well. If you feel completely numb and disinterested in things that used to get you excited, take heart. You are not broken. You won’t feel this way forever. But you do need to find a way to hit the reset button.

Take some time off

A recent report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research shows that Americans are pretty stingy when it comes to vacation. And even when employees do dish out days off—far less than they do in other countries—Americans often don’t take advantage of them. In fact, there are 175 million vacation days workers are entitled to but don’t take each year.

There’s really no substitute for going on a one or two-week vacation. Leaving your laptop and cell phone behind, going somewhere remote or beautiful (either alone or with family and friends), and finding activities to occupy your time that have nothing to do with putting out fires at work or dealing with office politics.

Unfortunately, truly taking time off can be difficult, depending on your specific job and circumstances. If taking a longer break is absolutely not an option, schedule something in the future when it will be.

A week or two off isn’t in the cards for all of us, but almost everyone can take a single day, a weekend or even an evening off. Go on an extended hike and leave your phone behind and see if that helps you recharge. Had to pull an all-nighter? See if you can get someone to cover the next day. Take shorter breaks whenever possible if you can’t take an extended one.

But remember: If you’re truly burned out, a single day off or even a week off may lead you wanting more. You may not feel rested and replenished from a single evening away, and if taking months or weeks off isn’t an option, make sure you don’t just take a single day off and call it done. Just like you work rest days into your training schedule, plan days off into your schedule—an afternoon off every other week, for example. The trick is to address the issue before you’re at the boiling point.

And this isn’t just about days off. Even scheduling in time for sleep can be useful at this point.

Automate anything that’s repetitive

If you’re a gym owner, think of all the things that leave you frazzled and scrambling every day and do as many of them as you can in advance. Here are some examples:

• Instead of jumping on Twitter between clients to try to come up with something clever to say day in and day out, use FutureTweets or TweetDeck or HootSuite to plan your tweets on in advance.

• Figure out exactly what’s going on your blog ahead of time using an editorial calendar (perhaps with a regular, repeating theme for the days you post). Plan out your WODs far in advance so you’re not scrambling every morning.

• Need to find a way to manage projects? Trello has saved me hours of time which I can spend taking naps and hot baths. (Wrike and BaseCamp are also nice.)

• Rather than writing a list of things to do on sticky notes around your office or little scraps of paper, use one of the thousands of list apps out there. (Do It Tomorrow, TeuxDeux and Remember the Milk are all options.)

• Write down all of your passwords that you keep forgetting somewhere (under lock and key, of course).

• Use Gmail’s canned responses to answer questions from prospective members.

Figure out how to be proactive instead of responsive—or to leave time and energy for when you do need to be responsive. The more of this that you do, the more time you save, and if you’re trying to save energy, eliminating even an hour of extraneous work each day is huge.

Outsource –or eliminate-- anything that’s exhausting

What drains your energy and takes tons of time away from what you’re truly good at? For me, it’s things like having to spend hours on the phone with service providers to tell them they messed up a bill or figure out what’s broken. I spend $25/month to outsource that shit to FancyHands. Five tasks a month off my plate, freeing up energy for me to do what I do best.

This isn’t about time; it’s about energy levels. Got a class you’re teaching that’s leaving you drained and making it difficult to do what you need to before and after? Can you find someone else to teach or co-teach it? Over time, replace activities that aren’t fun for you with ones that are. Think about what’s win-win and what isn’t. This may mean shifting things around, canceling certain events, or finding a way to get rid of that thing you really want to get rid of (and figuring out the details later).

It also means saying no.

Remember, we’re talking about burnout. If you’re feeling even on the verge of it, and can’t get rid of the majority of you responsibilities, for God’s sake, don’t take on new ones! It can be hard to say no because it feels like we’re letting people down or are too focused on just one aspect of our lives, but I’ve found people feel more let down if you say yes to something you don’t really want to do and suffer through it when your heart’s not really in it.

What can you say no to, today? Sometimes this is as simple as not calling to reschedule something with no-showed, or not rearranging your schedule to work with someone who came in late. It could be turning down that person who wants free sessions when you have clearly posted rates, or lowering the amount of workshops you host. Just stop yourself from trying to do everything when you don’t even have the energy for what’s on your plate.

It can be tempting to want to start something new, but don’t think that the thrill and adrenaline rush of a new project is what you need to get you out of your funk. This is the time to focus on what you’ve already done—either celebrating your wins, or deepening the work you’ve already started.


This is also a very good time to allow other people to pitch in a bit more, if they’re asking what you need help with.

Find activities that aren’t work-related

I know, I know. I just told you to cut back and take time off and say no to things and not start anything new, and now I’m telling you to find things to do that aren’t work-related? But bear with me. Part of recovering from burnout is filling the well, and finding something to do that’s not work-related doesn’t have to be all-encompassing or time-consuming.

For me, it’s reading fiction—something which I avoided for years, because I preferred to only read books that were directly work-related. It’s watching movies or shows that I’m not planning to write about, or enjoying an evening of comedy, or spending time in my garden. What can you do that’s enjoyable and not directly related to you job?

That also means you want to spend time with people who aren’t asking you for things (or who you’re not asking anything from). If you’ve been heavily networking and promoting your gym (or whatever), signing it from the rooftops, even, you may have forgotten what it feels like to just get coffee or drinks with friends. Likewise, if you’re constantly doing what feels like unpaid consulting and letting people pick your brain on your ‘off’ time, you may be working even more hours than you think you are. Call up someone who really could care less about what you do and who you don’t want to work with. It’s energizing, especially if you’re an extrovert. (If you’re an introvert, let yourself have as much time holed away from the company of others as you need to reset, and cross some networking events off your calendar. You don’t need to go to everything.)

Take care of yourself

Get enough sleep—and focus on sleep timing—even if you don’t think it’s helping. (Even a 10-minute walk outside and soaking in the sunlight can help reset your circadian rhythms if you find yourself up ‘til 4AM each morning.) Get a massage or bodywork that’s not ART or related to treating an injury. Pile up all of your gift cards and buy something frivolous.

What are your outlets, and how can you work them into your schedule? Many people throw themselves into work when dealing with (or not dealing with) personal problems, because it’s easier to affect change…but ignoring the weight of those problems is a mistake. They’ll pop back into your consciousness when you least want them to, unless you address them head-on somehow.

Another example of burnout is when dealing with medical issues. The added stress of bills (which means extra hours of work) combining with limited outlets to release that stress (due to whichever medical issues are causing the problem) means you’ve got more pressure and less of an outlet to release it. What can you do that makes you feel the same way (or similar) to the activities you can’t do? Focusing on how you want to feel instead of all the things you want to do (and can’t) can help you find surrogate activities until things are back to ‘normal’ again.

Bottom Line

If you’re feeling so disinterested with your job and life that you’re completely numb to things that would normally excite you, it’s already been too long. Use some of the steps above to take a bit of pressure off, and use the time and energy you free up to
take whatever steps you can (however large or small) to rise out of the ashes again.