Busy season burnout feels like a fact of life—but does it have to be this way?
As a leadership coach, I see the same pattern happen around this time every year. So many of my clients are brilliant, high-performing professionals who struggle to rest. And when the year-end work pressure collides with the social pressure to enjoy the season, it can be a recipe for burnout. Many are left completely exhausted by cramming in all the holiday parties and cookie swaps while simultaneously trying to wrap up the year's task list neatly.
If this sounds familiar, this post is for you.
You'll learn three strategies to control the pace of your busy season, beat the burnout, and start the new year feeling refreshed.
But first, let’s talk about why you may be stuck in this busy-season-burnout pattern in the first place.
Throughout your life, you were conditioned to get your work done first, then play. Eat dinner first, then dessert. Cram for the finals, then rest over Winter Break.
With that in mind, it's no surprise that as an adult, your brain has retained the message that you haven't earned your rest until you have completed your entire list of work tasks. And when that internal messaging mixes with a society that values quick, available, self-sacrificing, and excellent employees, you’ve got a recipe for burnout.
If your brain is still treating work like a sprint—the way we did in those last weeks of the semester before a break—you are fighting a losing batter. That's because, in most modern workplaces, true natural breaks and fully finished lists simply don’t exist.
There are always loose ends, and few things are ever completely done. When you’re efficient, you may find yourself rewarded with additional responsibilities. Meanwhile, if you do take a vacation, the work continues in the background. This reality often causes us to check in even during our breaks to save ourselves from a full-blown tangle upon our return.
The productivity culture that permeates most companies can lead to increased burnout—especially during year-end or other busy seasons.
If work-then-play isn’t a realistic goal, how can you perform well while protecting your mental health?
Strategy 1: Ease the mental burden of unfinished business
In the 1920s, Russian psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik observed that unfinished tasks seemed to create tension in the brain that made people continue to fixate on it.
What Zeigarnik’s work tells us is that the brain craves closure. Open loops can haunt you, leaving your mind stuck in worry mode. Knowing this is the first step toward easing that mental discomfort and coping with the feelings incomplete tasks can stir up.
The next time you find yourself awake at 3:00 am ruminating on your task list, try this:
Ask yourself, “What are the things I’m worried about getting done?" Once you've identified the tasks, give your brain a place to put them by scheduling each task on the calendar. Giving your brain a place to put each task helps to release the task from your short-term memory. It also creates a system of accountability.
Strategy 2: Quit saying “yes” to everything
Year-end tends to be full of extra meetings, holiday gatherings, and school or community events. With so much coming at you, it helps to be proactive about how you’ll manage your schedule.
Decide how many meetings you can fit into a day while still showing up in a way that adds value. Or, think about your realistic weekend holiday party limit before the fun becomes a burden. Beyond that, intentionally block off time for your work projects as well as rest, reflection, and even holiday shopping.
By giving your own work and self-care priority status, you can set the pace of your season. This planning ensures you won’t be stuck trying to fit the most important things into the margins around everyone else’s surprise meetings and requests.
Once your plan is in place, honestly evaluate each new personal and professional invitation that pops up based on your:
Schedule (“Do I have capacity to do this?”)
Interest (“Do I want to do this?”)
Responsibility (“Do I need to do this?”)
Energy Level (“How will saying yes to this make me feel?”)
It can feel tricky, but remember, people often overestimate the consequences of saying no. By protecting your time, you’ll be able to show up more effectively for the things you do say yes to!
Strategy 3: Establish new metrics for success
The third thing that can be incredibly protective of your wellness in a busy season is to work toward redefining what success looks like.
Many things in work and life are perpetual tasks. No matter how hard you toil, your sink will keep filling with dishes, and your inbox will keep filling with unanswered emails. So, if a clean sink and inbox zero continue to be your goals, you will never feel done.
Instead, take some time to reflect on what "enough" could look like for you. For instance, you might build in a 15-minute window at the end of each day to handle your inbox and then stop when the timer is up. The important thing is that you set realistic boundaries and then communicate them to those around you as a way to reshape expectations. This second part is essential if you're used to twisting yourself into pretzels to get it all done (and fast!).
Remember, an unfinished list doesn't mean you're failing or falling behind. It's just the reality of work in today's productivity industrial complex. Give yourself grace as you model to those around you that they can do the same.
Want more tips to avoid burnout at work?
The strategies you learned here don't just apply in busy seasons; they are a great way to preserve your well-being at work all year long. If you're looking for even more guidance on advocating for yourself at work and preventing burnout, read my post "How to Recognize Time as a Finite Resource and Avoid Burnout at Work."