Dear Sugar, I'm Burnt Out

Hello baby gorgeous! 

How have you been?? (Serious inquiry, I’m dying to know!!) 

The first few months of the year have been blur. After getting back from my New Year’s sailing trip, I was the image of Zen, convinced that I was cured of my addiction to grind culture … but within about a week I was sucked back into the vortex of NYC and heading straight to Burnout Central. 

And that is exactly where I arrived by about the second weekend of February. I got smacked down by the flu - which really felt like a physical manifestation of my stress, and I spent that entire weekend in bed alternating between Soylent and Nyquil. If this wasn’t sad enough, I also chose to participate in the delicious emotional torture of watching One Day in … one day (watch at your own risk). 

Despite my best efforts to keep the vibes high, they were pretty obviously … not. 

I haven’t been as sick as I was this February since like, freshman year of college when I got mono. The forced stop really made me think about what led me to burnout so quickly. The verdict? A classic case of doing the most. 

Which sucks, because I’m someone who loves doing the most — but lately, this has resulted in doing the least in the areas that are really important to me - spreading my little anonymous love notes, showing up for my friends, writing, taking care of my body. 

I’m feeling a little better now, but generally recognizing this as a vicious cycle that I really need to break. I’m reluctantly reckoning with my addiction to “productivity culture” and trying to realize that quantity doesn’t always = quality when it comes to projects and output. 

So I’m doing something a little different today and requesting some solicited advice – when you find yourself in a cycle of burnout, how do you pull yourself out? 

I value this community SO much and would genuinely love any words of wisdom, advice, or anecdotes about how you’ve navigated this.

Sending you lots and lots of love, 

Bogs