How to permanently solve burnout as a student!

It seems like being a student nowadays is more difficult than ever before. Self-comparison from social media, impossibly competitive college admissions, and pressure from schools and parents can all lead to burnout, which is absolutely terrible for your mental health. If that sounds like a problem you’re struggling with, then these tips might help you!

Take a (real) break

Most often, burnout happens because you haven’t taken a proper break in a while. Give yourself a day or two when you don’t do anything productive – just have fun. If you don’t have time for a break, try to make time by reorganising your schedule. I know it might be difficult if you have lots of responsibilities, but try to delegate something or rearrange your schedule. I promise, it’ll help your mental health and productivity in the long term.

Relax!

Make sure you’re saving time for having fun and relaxing in your weekly schedule. Spend time with your friends, rediscover old hobbies, and do some exercise! Also, mindfulness techniques like meditation can be great for reducing burnout.

Identify the root cause

If you want to prevent burnout from occurring again, then you have to find the root cause. Do some research on the common causes of burnout to see which resonates with you. Here are the most common causes of burnout:

• Your workload is too big
• You feel like you lack control over your work
• You aren’t feeling rewarded
• The people around you are burntout
• Your values and motivations have changed

Prevent reoccurrences

Now that you’ve worked out the root cause of your burnout, it’s time to prevent reoccurrence. Try to remove the root cause. Here’s how you can go about fixing the main causes of burnout:

• Your workload is too big – try to delegate something, quit something, or find something that you don’t need to spend too much time on.
• You feel like you lack control over your work – exams and uni applications can quickly spiral out of control, so make a schedule and a to-do list to prevent getting overwhelmed.
• You aren’t feeling rewarded – reward yourself! Set small goals and go for them. As well as this, try to focus on intrinsic, rather than extrinsic, rewards.
• The people around you are burnt out – yes, it’s contagious 🙁 Either switch who you’re hanging out with, distance yourself, or do a fun (unproductive) group activity!
• Your values and motivations have changed – this one’s challenging. Take some time to reevaluate your new priorities, journal a little, and make new goals!

Make studying fun!

If you’ve solved the root problem that’s causing your burnout, you can start studying again! However, it might not seem super appealing. Try to make it more fun! Listen to music, make pretty notes, study with friends, or use fun methods like Kahoots!