How do you handle burnout, especially when you’re working long hours and feeling exhausted?
I was feeling really tired that day, barely sleeping and having to wake up at 4 am, so I thought about burnout. I believe burnout is mostly a story we tell ourselves. Humans are great storytellers, and we internalize the narrative that burnout is a real, inevitable condition. Historically people worked in dangerous jobs—coal mines, for example—and kept going despite extreme hardship. The idea that we’re somehow uniquely vulnerable is a myth. If you keep telling yourself that burnout is a looming catastrophe, you’ll feel it more. I try to remind myself that nothing I do matters on a cosmic scale, which helps put the pressure in perspective. I also avoid short‑form content that trains the brain for instant gratification; instead, I focus on longer, deeper work that builds patience and real growth. By rejecting the burnout narrative and reshaping the stories we tell ourselves, I stay more resilient.
I think a lot of the struggle comes from the story you tell yourself about the work. If you frame it as a massive challenge you create a mental monster that makes it harder to show up. Instead, zoom out and remind yourself that you’re living in a relatively blessed time – you can turn on a button and talk for an hour, which is a privilege compared to many jobs. Treat daily tasks as simple by‑products of life rather than monumental obstacles. By changing the narrative to something straightforward, you reduce the mental resistance and burnout tends to disappear. I’m not a motivational guru, just sharing the story I tell myself, which seems to work for me.
I would first understand that human beings are just the stories we tell ourselves. If you wake up and your sleep tracker says you had bad sleep versus great sleep, you’ll perform differently even with the same amount of sleep. Studies show how suggestible we are, meaning we have far more control over our daily state and performance than we think. You can improve performance just by thinking, 'I’m fantastic and incredible at this; I crush it.' This is neurobiological. If you suggest a task is tiring you out, you increase the chance of burnout. Many high achievers adopt a nihilistic, existential viewpoint, zooming out. For example, the president works a lot despite his age; he takes vacations but still works long hours. My grandfather’s routine was waking up, going to the store, brunch, then sleeping six hours, then seeing friends at night. The point is that when you zoom out and realize your struggles are a tiny fraction of global struggles, it helps. Your life isn’t that important in the grand scheme; there are many things consuming vast amounts of energy. Adopting a nihilistic viewpoint frees you from cultural expectations about cognitive effort. In university, people complained about burnout, but historically, farming and shepherding involved 12‑14‑hour days as the norm. It’s about what you establish as your norm. By zooming out and seeing your struggles as a small chunk of worldwide struggles, you can reduce the perceived burden.
I think the problem you describe is common. The key for me is not seeing work and breaks as opposites. The most important thing is momentum—making sure I always put in some small daily effort toward an actionable goal, regardless of what I’m doing. Starting small and gradually increasing effort works like progressive overload at the gym: your ability and resiliency grow over time. Most people view work as always on or always off, but I fluctuate—some days I work many hours, other days just a few, while avoiding extreme swings from top to bottom. I always do some amount of work toward my goals because momentum matters; when you get a ball rolling, lead generation, outreach, or content production will eventually yield results if you don’t stop. I avoid all‑or‑nothing thinking—I might work at 40% one day, 100% another, then drop to 30%, 80%, 60%, etc.—and that’s my typical workday. This approach helps reframe work so it doesn’t have to be all on or all off. Books like Atomic Habits and The Compound Effect reinforce this: start with a tiny habit (e.g., run for one minute) and build up gradually; by the end of a month you’ll have a solid habit. This method is far more effective and economically sensible than the all‑or‑nothing approach.
When I was starting out, yes, I had days where I did nothing. But I came across a Reddit concept years ago called 'no zero days' — the idea is that no matter how bad a day is, you never do absolutely nothing. Even on a terrible day, do one small thing, like sending one Upwork application. The point is to not break the streak and keep some momentum going, so you're still technically in the game even on an underperforming day. It's been many years since I've had a true zero day now — I'll always do something: inbox zero, respond to my community, record a video, take a sales call, whatever. My recommendation: don't treat your work life like an on/off switch, where 'on' means fully on and 'off' means burned out. Treat it like a dimmer switch instead — there are degrees of work and degrees of rest, not just two states.