So I Think I Burned Out...
Everyone else seemed to be celebrating 2017. Looking back at accomplishments, listing wins, planning bigger things for the year ahead.
My biggest lesson was different: I learned what burnout feels like.
The Warning Signs
It crept up slowly. Difficulty concentrating. Forgetting things I'd normally remember. Snapping at people who didn't deserve it. Sleep that never felt like enough. A low hum of depression underneath everything.
I didn't recognise it as burnout at first. I thought I was just tired. Busy. Under pressure. Normal stuff.
It took my partner pointing out what should have been obvious: most of this was within my control. I wasn't a victim of circumstances. I was a victim of my own inability to say one small word.
No.
The solution to burnout isn't working faster or getting more efficient. It's doing less. Saying no. Protecting your capacity like the finite resource it is.
The 4Ds Problem
There's a time management framework called the 4Ds: Delete, Delegate, Defer, Do.
The idea is simple. When something lands on your plate, you choose: remove it entirely, hand it to someone else, push it to later, or actually do it yourself.
I was over-indexing on Do.
Everything felt important. Everything felt urgent. Everything felt like it needed me specifically. So I did it all, or tried to, and slowly ground myself down in the process.
"Busy" is a bad word. It sounds productive but usually means you've lost control of your priorities. You're responding to everything instead of choosing what matters.
What Actually Helped
The fix wasn't complicated. It was just hard.
I started asking myself: What actually needs to happen today? This week? This month? Not what could happen. Not what people are asking for. What genuinely matters?
Then I did that thing. One thing. Before moving to the next.
The Pareto principle turns out to be real: 80% of results come from 20% of efforts. Most of what I was killing myself over didn't matter. The stuff that mattered wasn't getting my best energy because I'd already spent it on noise.
The Recovery
I'm writing this from the other side. Recovered. Clearer about what I will and won't take on.
If any of this sounds familiar—the exhaustion, the irritability, the sense that you're running hard but getting nowhere—take it seriously. Burnout isn't a badge of honour. It's a warning sign that something needs to change.
The work will always be there. There will always be more to do. The question is whether you'll still be capable of doing it.
Learn to say no before your body says it for you.
In 2017 I burned out—concentration problems, irritability, exhaustion, depression. The cause was simple: I couldn't say no. I over-relied on "doing" instead of deleting, delegating, or deferring. Recovery meant ruthlessly prioritising what actually mattered and protecting my capacity. If you're feeling the warning signs, take them seriously. The work will always be there. You might not be.