Are you feeling tired, unmotivated, and generally burned out? If so, then that’s on you, as avoiding burnout is as easy as doing 41 little things each and every day. So what are you waiting for? Here are a few dozen things you must constantly be doing in order to be the best version of yourself.
1. Mindfulness
All it takes to start your day off on the right foot is just a few hours of mindfulness exercises first thing in the morning. And before you say “I’m too busy for that,” know that even just an hour meditation session or a quick five mile walk before breakfast can do wonders for your mental health. You’ve got no excuses—set yourself up for success with dedicated mindfulness time every single day!
2. 20 minutes of exercise
Please don’t tell us you aren’t exercising 20 minutes a day! The endorphins released by exercise are the best weapons you have to combat stress and fatigue, so why wouldn’t you use them? Get to the gym, stat!
3. Connect with a member of your support system
This can be anybody, as long as they love you unconditionally and are willing to provide you with support and encouragement whenever you need it on any given day. Stop putting this off! It couldn’t be easier!
4. Eat a healthy breakfast
A healthy breakfast is essential for brain function and stress management. If you did not have a healthy breakfast this morning, we’re not going to sugarcoat it—you are fucked!
5. Eat a healthy lunch
Your cortisol (stress hormone) WILL spike if you do not eat an EXTREMELY healthy lunch each day (no exceptions)! But no worries, because all you’ve got to do is put healthy food in your mouth instead of unhealthy food. So, so simple.
6. Eat a healthy dinner
Sorry, but why would you not eat a balanced, nourishing dinner every night? Are you stupid? This is a no-brainer.
7. Eat healthy snacks
Any idiot knows that fatty, sugary snacks can make you sluggish and unfocused, which is why you should limit yourself to only eating snacks that are incredibly healthy.
8. Declutter your home
Wellness starts at the home, and having a clean, tidy place to live is crucial for getting into a good headspace. If your home is not clean at all times, your life will be a chaotic, irredeemable nightmare!
9. Spend time in nature
Skip this one at your own peril (you will burn out—and HARD!).
10. Keep a gratitude journal
Please tell us you’re doing this already. Because if you’re not spending half an hour a day writing out what you’re grateful for, then you’re setting yourself up to fail.
11. Keep a bullet journal
Keeping a gratitude journal is important, but so is keeping a bullet journal—doing just one is NOT ENOUGH. This time-tested form of journaling is one of the top 50 most important tools in your anti-burnout toolkit, and if you don’t use it, you are officially hopeless.
12. Prioritize your work tasks
Priorities are essential! Make a to-do list right when you jump out of bed if you do not want to have a devastating mental breakdown during the day. It’s so easy!
13. Prioritize your home tasks
Separate these from your work tasks. If you think about work while looking at your home tasks list, you may experience what is known as “spontaneous burnout” and send your life into a spiral. Don’t even think about it!
14. Prioritize your self-care tasks
Setting aside daily time for intentional acts of self-care is absolutely imperative if you want to be a functioning, capable human being, and failing to commit to it—in addition to committing to work-life balance, proper nutrition, physical exercise, mindfulness, and multiple forms of journaling—will fuck your life up in a major way.
15. Take an hour-long relaxing bath (no phone)
One hour in the bath every night is an absolute must for anyone who wants to avoid having a mental health crisis. We assume that you’re already doing this as part of your regular self-care routine, but if not, don’t be surprised if you one day find yourself in a mental hospital.
16. Get a lot of sleep
Your body needs to recharge at night if it is going to endure tomorrow! Anything less than eight hours of sleep is absolutely unacceptable.
17. Don’t hit the snooze button
Hitting the snooze button is one of the quickest shortcuts to burnout.
18. Use a weighted blanket
This awesome product is a burnout-fighter you need to crawl under daily. You should already know this, though!
19. Find your purpose
If you have purpose in life, you’ll never burn out—this is why people like Gandhi and Steve Jobs are capable of achieving so much. If you don’t know your purpose, then figure it out by tomorrow at the absolute latest or brace yourself for the consequences (a life of burnout and failure).
20. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Work with a therapist to fundamentally change the way you think about literally everything in your life. It’s not hard.
21. Master the Danish art of hygge
FYI, if your home is not optimized for hygge, then that is most likely the reason for any and all negative feelings you are currently experiencing!
22. Get sufficient Vitamin D
Early man spent all day outside, which is why he never burned out from jumping around and running after animals and stuff. You need to start doing the exact same thing immediately, because without achieving the recommended Vitamin D intake on a daily basis, you don’t have a chance in hell at leading a happy, productive life.
23. Supplement with Omega-3 fatty acids
These powerful supplements are vital for protecting your brain against burnout, and incorporating them into your wellness regimen is a piece of cake. All you’ve got to do is remember to take them with food three times a day for the rest of your life, never forgetting even once.
24. Minimize screen time
Screen time is what we call a “burnout enhancer.” Do not under any circumstances get more than four minutes of screen time per day.
25. Try CBD
One hundred dollars is the minimum you should be spending on CBD each month if you do not want stress to turn you into a desiccated husk of your former self.
26. Develop a circle of 5-7 close confidants who you can call in times of need
Five to seven is a conservative figure—ideally that number would be in the dozens. More support = more protection against burnout.
27. Find a job that is meaningful, challenging, and life-affirming
One of the simplest ways to avoid burnout is to spend your days doing important, well-paying work in your dream field. Do this now or suffer a stress-induced heart condition!
28. Use deep breathing techniques
Sorry, but you’d have to be a fucking idiot if you are not already using deep breathing techniques to manage stress and anxiety. But if for some reason you haven’t tried it yet, you better get on that now before you utterly ruin your life.
29. Do a social media fast
Sometimes a quick one-month social media sabbatical is just what the doctor ordered. Try to do this every month if you can!
30. Spend time with animals
Having a dog or cat around can reduce your stress levels and lower your heart rate, which is why you should be putting aside a couple of hours each day to interact with animals—that is, if you’re not already doing it, though hopefully you are if you give even one shit about your mental health.
31. Make a vision board
Do you really think you’re going to achieve your goals burnout-free without a vision board? Give us a break.
32. Keep a normal journal
Gratitude journals and bullet journals work wonders, but you are dead in the water if you’re not also keeping a normal journal. Seriously, you can’t neglect this. Your psyche is too fragile.
33. Do yoga
Don’t even bother reading the rest of this article if you aren’t doing yoga first thing in the morning. And if you think you’re too busy for it, just wake up a couple hours earlier and do it before the sun rises. Just be sure to go to bed a couple hours earlier, too, to make sure you’re getting in a full eight hours of sleep.
34. Do goat yoga
It’s only slightly more expensive than regular yoga, and the benefits are undeniable. Goat yoga is essential for becoming a well-adjusted, mentally strong person.
35. Set realistic goals
No one’s asking you to do a million things a day. Just 40 or so. Keep your goals realistic, and maintain a manageable workload in order to achieve them.
36. Carve out time each week for meal prep
If you don’t pre-prepare your meals yet still expect to avoid burnout, then you’ve got another thing coming. Just make all your meals ahead of time and neatly store them in freezer-safe containers. It’s not goddamn rocket science.
37. Break tasks into smaller tasks
Very obvious. Come on!
38. Japanese forest bathing
Anyone who knows anything about the Japanese way of living knows that spending one or two hours per day immersed in a forest setting is absolutely vital for avoiding burnout. But if you’d rather be an absolute hot mess, feel free to skip this one.
39. Forge intergenerational connections
Keep up close relationships with children and the elderly (BOTH, not just one) or else!
40. Maintain religious traditions
A grounding spiritual practice is absolutely vital. Learn to believe in God immediately!
41. Use a standing desk
If you’re doing the other 40 things on this list but still not using a standing desk, then you’re just wasting your time, because by sitting at a normal desk you are literally inviting burnout to come have its way with you. Yes, maintaining your mental health is incredibly easy, but not if you’re sitting in a chair all day, as sitting is the new smoking. So get a standing desk, and do the other 40 things on this list as well. It takes so little effort but pays off in so many big ways. You’ve got no excuse not to.
