5 Simple steps to help you recover from college burnout

During orientation week one of the things the counselors talked about was burnout. I was like what’s there to be burnt out about?

What is burnout? In my sophomore & junior year, constantly burned out and emotionally unstable for the majority of the semester.

According to helpguide.org burnout is a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. It occurs when you feel overwhelmed, emotionally drained, and unable to meet constant demands.

There is a reason they talk about it during orientation, it’s because it’s a huge problem for college students. College is called a career for a reason. It is challenging, and it isn’t for everyone, which is why sometimes people drop out and others fail out. It needs resilience and endurance, otherwise, you will never make it.

I am well aware that there are people who make it look easy and effortless, but that’s the one percent of the one percent, I care about the other ninety-nine point nine percent, which is squarely where I was. Without further ado here are the five simple things I did to help me recover from my college burnout.

1.   Sleep

The first and most important one is to sleep. I have suffered periodic insomnia since I joined college so I understand that sometimes the problem is the lack of sleep. Honestly, if the problem persists when you can go to the school clinic, and they will give you something to help you sleep.

College can be stressful and overwhelming, and when you finally crush, the best way to get on the road to recovery is to catch some zees.

Without sleep, we are cranky, irritable, and anxious. All of which fan the flames of stress. To put out said flames, all you need to do is to put on your coziest pajamas and rest your body and your mind.

2.   Cry it out

Stop laughing I’m serious.

Sometimes all I needed was a good cry. When you have tons of deadlines and assignments of all kinds you will feel overwhelmed, you will feel like you are failing like you can’t do it all sometimes the best thing to do is to have a good cry about it.

Allow yourself to feel those feelings then get up and go to the school guidance counselor for the next step.

3.   Get help

Sometimes you just need to talk it out. There is a reason why your school has a school guidance counselor on payroll full-time.

They know that being a college student is a task in itself and they wish to make sure you have the support you need those counselors are there for you so go talk it out. Go be supported.

4.   Prioritize

Once you have had a chance to vent and talk it out you need to look at everything you have to do and prioritize.

Do you know that quadrant that has urgent and important in one square, important but not urgent, urgent but not important and not important and not urgent in the last?

You need to create that and fill it so you can understand why you are feeling so overwhelmed and how to reduce that pressure.

5.   Get organized

Once you have prioritized the things you need to do, you need to break them down into tasks. Break each huge assignment into bite-size tasks and set deadlines for each.

Write it all down.

Don’t try to plan this in your mind it will only make you more anxious. Instead, put it down on paper where you can look at it and move things around as needed.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how great you are at organizing or whatever, you will get burnt out at some point and that’s okay. These five steps will help you bounce back every time. How do I know? Because they helped me bounce back every time too.

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