Prevent Work Burnout

• Rest before you get tired. Recognize signs of fatigue before you get frustrated. Take an afternoon or a long weekend away from work. When you return you'll be amazed how much more you get accomplished. A Carnegie Institute study confirms the importance of reg­ular rest. Men loading pig iron who rested for 34 sec­onds after working for 26 seconds were able to load 40 tons in an 8 hour shift. Normal crews who never rested loaded only 12 tons.
• Alternate activities. Energy can be acquired by splitting up the day into the smallest possible segments of time. Break your work into small compartments, get something accomplished and then go on to the next small compartment.
• Exercise. Most of us run out of energy because of mental fatigue. Physical exercise gets the overwork webs out of our brains and invigorates our thoughts.
• Reward yourself. To create energy, reward your­self every time you accomplish a task. Pat yourself on the back, take a short breather, go have some fun, give yourself a spell of pleasurable laziness.
• Build leisure into your lifestyle. Take regularly scheduled vacations. Plan a half day off occasionally. Rest is an excellent use of time and properly scheduled recreation will increase productivity.
• Combat boredom. Boredom, the greatest energy drain, can be defeated by having variety in your life and work. Setting daily, weekly, and monthly goals can make work fun and help you feel satisfied when a task is accomplished.
• Laugh and enjoy yourself. Ask yourself, "Am I having fun yet?" If not, why not? Figure a way to bring fun to the workplace.
• Take time for family and friends. Here's what Lee lacocca, former CEO of Chrysler Corporation said: "Since college I've worked hard during the week and, except for crises, kept my weekends free for family and recreation...I'm amazed at the number of people who can't seem to control their own schedules. 'Boy,' some say, 'I worked so hard last year I didn't even take a vacation.' I say, 'You dummy. You mean to tell me you can take the responsibility of an 80 million dollar project and you can't take two weeks out of the year to have some fun?'"