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April 21, 2025 19 mins

Chime in and tell me. How do you beat burnout?

Do you feel that familiar tension building between your ambition and well-being? That profound emptiness where you're emotionally checked out and unable to recover even with normal rest? Welcome to the danger zone of burnout—where you might show up physically but your mind, spirit, and enthusiasm have quietly quit.

Join us today as we tackle this universal challenge with actionable strategies anyone can implement—without expensive vacations or extended time away. We explore five science-backed approaches to beat burnout.

Your greatest breakthroughs likely come during periods of apparent inactivity. Elite athletes understand that recovery isn't what happens when training stops—it's what makes training effective. The same principle applies to cognitive performance. When designing your rest strategy, focus on quality over quantity; a fully disconnected weekend provides more restoration than a vacation spent checking emails. Burnout isn't inevitable, and you don't have to work yourself into the ground. Use these strategies to transform time off from an indulgence to your competitive advantage. 

Join our LinkedIn Mindful in 5 group to share which approach works best for you, and remember—sustainable success requires more than just pushing through exhaustion.


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Episode Transcript

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Spiwe Jefferson (00:08):
Welcome to Mindful in 5, where busy
professionals find your peacefuloasis to thrive in complex work
environments.
I am Spiwe Jefferson attorney,certified mindfulness
practitioner and author of theMindful in 5 book series.

(00:28):
Here to guide you to a clearer,softer and more supported life.
Join me and your fellow mindfulninjas as we explore
science-backed mindfulnessstrategies for successful
leaders that you can implement,starting with just five minutes

(00:49):
a day.
Elevate your work, empower yourlife, work higher, live
stronger.
Let's go.
Are you noticing the warningsigns of burnout creeping into
your high-performance routine?
You noticing the warning signsof burnout creeping into your
high-performance routine?
Even as you drive results andlead forward, you may feel that

(01:13):
familiar tension buildingbetween your ambition and
well-being.
Well, today I've got you,because we are talking about
breaks to beat burnout.
As an accomplished professional, you recognize that sustainable
success requires more than justpushing through exhaustion.
When burnout advances unchecked, it doesn't just compromise

(01:38):
your health, it undermines yourdecision-making, diminishes your
presence and ultimatelythreatens the competitive
advantage you have worked sohard to establish.
Burnout isn't just stress.
While stress feels like havingtoo much to handle, but still

(01:58):
being in the fight.
Burnout is that profoundemptiness where you feel like
you have nothing left to give.
You are emotionally checked out, you are on empty, you are
unable to recover, even withnormal rest, and perhaps this is
where you quietly quit.

(02:19):
You show up in body, but not inmind spirit or enthusiasm.
You show up in body, but not inmind, spirit or enthusiasm.
So today I wanted to give youone powerful intervention that
can rewire your relationshipwith work and rest, and that is
strategic time off.

(02:40):
Now, before you start saying,oh Spiwe, I don't have time for
all that.
That is a luxury for peoplewith money.
I don't have time, I don't havemoney, I can't afford to go off
for some fancy schmancyvacation.
I can't afford to be away fromwork.

(03:00):
Stop, just stop, because I'mgoing to give you five easy ways
to work breaks into yourschedule.
The most resilientprofessionals aren't just
working hard.
You know this.
They are resting strategicallyas well.

(03:23):
Your brain's neural pathwaysrequire periods of disengagement
in order to strengthenconnections and process complex
information.
That's why we have sleep.
We're supposed to do it everyday, every night, for long
periods of time, and you knowhow you feel when you haven't

(03:44):
had enough sleep, and you knowhow awful your day is when you
haven't had enough sleep.
So we are wired biologically totake these breaks, and what
appears as doing nothing isactually your mind's most
sophisticated form of problemsolving, of problem solving.

(04:09):
So here are five patterninterrupting approaches that I
would love you to try, and ifnot all five, certainly just
pick one, just pick one.
So what are they?
First, Embrace micro-sabbaticals, brief but complete

(04:31):
disconnections from work.
Research from the University ofCalifornia found that even a
24-hour period of total workdetachment can reset stress
hormones and improve cognitivefunction by up to 37%.
What a concept, especiallysince most of us have a two-day
weekend.
So schedule these briefsabbaticals quarterly, marking

(04:55):
them in your calendar, with thesame commitment you would give
your most important meeting.
I'll give you a personalexample.
I find that over the weekend now, I work lots and lots of hours.
But I do find that over theweekend, if I completely unplug

(05:16):
from work, I am much moreenthusiastic, excited, fresh and
creative when I go back onMonday, compared to if I work a
bit on Saturday and I work a biton Sunday, or, worse yet, if I
spend a lot of hours over thecourse of the weekend working,

(05:39):
when I get back to the office onMonday, I'm tired, I feel
depleted.
I'm not I know I'm not asproductive, I'm not as creative
because there I was thinking, oh, I'm just going to push through
and I'm going to get a jump onthis and that, whereas it
actually does not.
My body does not respond thatway.
Coincidentally, over the pastthree weeks, I have taken off

(06:03):
each Thursday and Friday.
Coincidentally, over the pastthree weeks, I have taken off
each Thursday and Friday.
First, my husband and I went toSedona, arizona, for a long
weekend.
The next week we attended ourniece's graduation in Alabama
and finally our son's graduationin Virginia.
Okay, I can't claim that Inever did any work, but I did

(06:24):
make a real effort to disconnectand be fully present, to rest.
I even exchanged congratulatorymessages with one of my
girlfriends who was on vacationin Jamaica when we were in
Arizona and both of us wereliterally crowing with victory
over our ability to rest andrecharge and do nothing.

(06:47):
So she's sending me pictures ofher legs because she's laying
in a deck chair and she's facingthis gorgeous view of this
ocean and this pool and she'sdoing nothing.
She's like look at me, I'm notdoing anything and I am in a
wicker chair by the pool inArizona, at this resort, and I

(07:10):
am sending her pictures of medoing nothing, and so we are
both celebrating the fact thatwe are taking time to rest,
which tells you something abouthow we usually operate.
So if you are like me, thenthis will resonate with you.
Second, implement the 10-minutenature reframe.

(07:39):
Neuroscience research hasdemonstrated that even brief
exposures to naturalenvironments triggers alpha
brainwaves associated withcreativity and reduced anxiety.
The psychological shift beginswithin seconds of exposure to

(07:59):
natural settings.
So just go outside.
I have a friend who goes fordaily walks during all but the
most extreme weather, and heswears by this practice.
This doesn't require money.
It doesn't require anythingexcept you getting off your duff
and walking outside.

(08:20):
Whether you walk around yourneighborhood and you just
observe the grass and the treesand the breeze and mindfully
walk, be present and justexperience with your body.
What am I seeing, what am Ihearing, how am I feeling, what
am I tasting, what is going onaround me?
It can make all the difference.

(08:44):
This is a deliberate cognitivereset that can activate your
parasympathetic nervous systemand it will make you feel better
and increase your clarity.
Practice strategic incompletion.

(09:14):
Did she say incomplete,incomplete?
Yes, I did incompletion.
I know this is counterintuitive, but sometimes the most
productive thing you can do isdeliberately leave work
unfinished at a natural breakingpoint.
The Zeigarnik effect acognitive bias where unfinished

(09:35):
tasks occupy mental bandwidthcan be leveraged to your
advantage by doing this.
By intentionally stepping awaymidpoint, after you document
your next steps, yoursubconscious continues
processing solutions while yourest.
This transforms that time offfrom an interruption to an

(10:00):
integral part of yourproblem-solving process.
Just letting it go and doingsomething else.
I have found that going to bedmulling over a challenge that
needs a solution can beincredibly effective.
God-lovers, give the problem toGod and ask Him to help you
solve it.
When you wake, you may findthat you have a solution with

(10:25):
such clarity that it seemsobvious and you're surprised you
didn't see it before.
So try that.
Fourth, create ritualboundaries between work and rest
, because your brain responds tosymbolic transitions.

(10:48):
This is one of the reasons whyI strongly advocate and a
fundamental component of theMindful in 5 approach is this
idea that your day will gobetter if you begin it by taking
at least five minutes in themorning, by sitting in stillness

(11:09):
in the same place, in the sameway every day, because your
brain will automatically startto go into that calm mode that
makes it easy to shut off thefive senses and go within and
focus internally if you continueto do it day in, day out and

(11:30):
you create a habit out of it.
So why am I suggesting ritualboundaries between work and rest
?
Well, once upon a time, whenmany of us worked outside the
home and we didn't have hybridschedules, the ritual that we
had to prepare to go to work andto prepare to come home every

(11:53):
day created that separationbetween work and home.
That was very natural.
Well, now, if you have a remoterole where you're working from
home every day, or even if youhave a hybrid role where you're
working from home some days, youdon't have that natural

(12:15):
transition time anymore.
So create it, develop a simpleritual.
Develop a simple ritual.
Even if it's as short as 90seconds, that signals the end of
work.
Maybe it's changing clothes,it's a specific breathing

(12:36):
pattern or getting outside forthat walk as part of how you end
your day.
My husband and I sometimes liketo go cycling at the end of the
day, and that is a very naturalbreaking system between I just
got home from work and now I'mdoing this, or I just left my
desk at home that is myworkspace and now I'm going to

(12:58):
go do this completely differentthing and engage my mind in a
completely different way.
This neurological boundarysetting prevents work from
infiltrating your recovery time.
Finally, and this is thesimplest one of all of them, I

(13:22):
love micro breaks betweenprojects.
When I leave a meeting, forexample, I will take a
five-minute break.
I might go to the restroom orjust walk around and clear my
head and think about my day fromjust at a high level.
So if I started my day with mycentering time, one of the

(13:49):
things that I do is I also liketo reflect on what are the three
most important things I need toget done today so that I can go
to bed at peace and not befretting at night and working
all kinds of well.
I do work crazy hours, butworking even more crazy hours
and then being stressed outabout it.
So when I take that micro break, it allows me to reset in real

(14:12):
time.
Am I doing the things Iintended to do today?
How am I doing on those threepriorities?
Have my priorities shifted and,if so, should they?
Should I get back on track?
And what does that look likenow?
And it only takes five minutes.
It is astounding to me how muchclearer and refreshed I feel by

(14:38):
just taking that five minutebreak, and it's also a form of
reward.
Sometimes people have troublewith rewarding themselves in the
right way.
There's some people who rewardthemselves with food.
There's some people who rewardthemselves with food.
There's some people who rewardthemselves with alcohol.
There's some people who rewardthemselves with many habits that

(14:59):
they don't necessarily think ofas healthy, but they're
compelled.
This is a way to rewardyourself.
After every block of work thatyou do, ideally every 25 to 30
minutes, take a five minutebreak and just get away and
clear your head, and you will bemore productive than if you

(15:20):
just try and power through thewhole day.
So all of that to say if you'reone of those hard charging
professionals who likes to go,go, go all the time and I'm
speaking to myself too, so thisis no judgment Just remember
that resting does not meanyou're not being productive.

(15:44):
It is, however, the foundationof sustainable performance.
Elite athletes understand thatrecovery isn't what happens when
training stops.
Recovery is what makes trainingeffective, and that same
principle applies to cognitiveperformance.

(16:08):
When designing your time offstrategy, focus on quality over
quantity.
A fully disconnected weekendprovides more cognitive
restoration than a week ofvacation where you are still
monitoring emails.
The psychological trigger isthe depth of your disengagement.

(16:31):
Ask yourself what would happenif I approached rest with the
same strategic intention I bringto my work.
This cognitive reframingtransforms time off from an
indulgence to a competitiveadvantage.
I think the mostcounterintuitive truth about

(16:54):
preventing burnout is that yourgreatest breakthroughs will
likely come during periods ofapparent inactivity.
Your brain's default modenetwork.
The neurological systemresponsible for connecting
disparate ideas and generatinginsights functions optimally

(17:17):
when you step away fromdeliberate problem solving.
So let's recap.
I would love for you this weekto try at least one, maybe even
two, of these strategies todisconnect.

(17:41):
Number one embrace themicro-sabbatical.
Number two implement the10-minute nature reframe.
Number three practice strategicincompletion.
Number three practice strategicincompletion.
Number four create ritualboundaries between work and rest
and finally, plan thosefive-minute micro breaks.

(18:04):
Burnout is not inevitable.
You don't have to work yourselfinto the ground and if you do
get to it, use burnout as asignal that your current
approach to work and rest needsrealignment.
Don't judge, don't beatyourself up.

(18:25):
Just come up with ways tochange how you are working.
Let me know how it goes andshare this episode with someone
who could use a burnout resetUntil next week.
This is Spiwe saying be mindfuland be well.

James@DiscovertheVoice (18:46):
Thank you for listening to Mindful in
5.
If you enjoyed it, share itwith a friend, follow and rate
it on your favorite podcastplatform.
Pick up your signed copy of thebook and journal from
spiwejefferson.
com, or unsigned copies fromAmazon, Barnes, Noble or
wherever you get your books.
Visit spiwejefferson.

(19:07):
com to download sample chaptersof the book, watch videos and
become a mindful ninja.
Join us on the LinkedIn Mindfulin 5 group and share your
thoughts.
Until next time, be mindful andbe well.
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