Student Blog: Tips and Tricks: Burnout

My experience was stressful and unexpectedly sad, too. Even though I'm only a sophomore, the jump from freshman year until now was bigger than I expected which caused so much stress for a long time. Over time I became really burnt out.

Blatantly put, burnout sucks. I started to lose motivation for everything I once loved. Theatre went from an activity I was so excited about every day to something I dreaded, which took up more time and working hours. This became super sad for me, because never in my life have I ever felt that way toward theatre, and I’ve also never wanted to. It felt like burnout took over my life.

I kept spiraling to the point where I was ready to quit theatre. I honestly didn't know what to do myself, and from there, found my best burnout tool. Talking to others, I found comfort in listening to other people's experiences and learning from their solutions. Some people I talked to have known me for a long time so theyre familiar with my love for theatre. They made it a point to remind me why I'm doing all I do, and from there I was back on track.

After experiencing burnout, I like to go back and figure out what made things extra stressful, whilst figuring out how I can avoid them in the future. A main cause of burnout is stress and avoiding extra stress can be helpful, although easier said than done. Some things I like to do to reduce stress are:

• Writing out a color-coded schedule 
• Creating reasonable deadlines
• Talk to others about how you’re feeling 
• Keep some free time in your schedule to relax
• Catch up with friends 
• My personal favorite though, is to spend time with my pets.

While burnout is very difficult to deal with, it's good to remember that it always gets better with time.