“Burnout is an official medical diagnosis, World Health Organisation says,” a headline on edition.cnn.com announced (05.28.2019).
The article says: “Burnout is now a legitimate medical diagnosis, according to the International Classification of Diseases, or the ICD-11, the World Health Organization’s handbook that guides medical providers in diagnosing diseases… Burnout now appears in the ICD-11’s section on problems related to employment or unemployment. According to the handbook, doctors can diagnose someone with burnout if they meet the following symptoms: feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion; increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job; and reduced professional efficacy.”
I hope you are not experiencing these symptoms.
But one of the major things we can do to avoid burnout at work and imbalance in life is by having sufficient rest. Sufficient sleep. So, are you resting enough?
In an interview published on CNBC.com (03.11.2018), Arianna Huffington said, “I have to assure you that the success at the Huffington Post happened after I started taking care of myself.”
The article reveals that in 2007, Huffington was making phone calls and checking her email when she passed out at her desk. ‘She awoke in a pool of blood with her daughter standing above her.’
It says, “After coming to realise the importance of sleep, Huffington started to see a difference in her work style and that’s when, she says, her business began to grow.”
Are you resting enough? Are you sleeping 7-8 hours a day?
Several years ago, I was with a team of auditors working on a special project. We were working round the clock that we lacked much needed sleep. The only time I was able to sleep was when I run the formula (click Calculate).
We had to do a huge job of recalculation. But because the data was not clean, we could not run it in the regular system. We had to clean it and codify it on MS Excel. Because of the complexity and vastness of the data and formula, we had to stop the calculation first. Finish everything. And that’s the only time we click “Calculate” and give us the results. When I do that, that’s a long time of waiting, and that was the only time I sleep. That’s at the middle of the night. In the office. Sitting on my work desk.
Only to find out later that there was an error in the formula. We missed one thing. We expected the amounts to be higher. What went wrong. A very simple error. Our lack of sleep was contributory to the cause of that error. We missed to put in, somewhere in the formula, one single digit, “Number 1”. As a result, instead of computing 180%, it computed 80%.
Sometimes we think that we will produce much by reducing our sleep and prolonging our work hours, but the opposite is true. Our efficacy or productivity goes down. We become more stressed. Add it up, we might experience burnout very soon.
So, let me repeat, are you resting enough?
Let me close this with a practical tip:
Set sufficient time for your sleep. Rest. Have mini-vacations (weekly, quarterly, annually) It doesn’t have to be fancy. As long as you will have that much needed rest and break. Ready to go back to work. Energetic. Passionate. And productive once again!
(Chris Dao-anis, CPA, DTM is a leadership trainer, presentations coach, and an author of 4 books. Together with other powerful speakers, he will be speaking at the ‘GROWTH SUMMIT: Build Your Foundation of Growth’ on July 13, 2019 in Baguio City. Get your tickets now at http://bit.ly/growthsummitph or text your name and email address to 0917-858-9154.)
