In this personal vlog, Julia Fedorin shares her experience with burnout and outlines practical lifestyle adjustments to prevent and recover from it. She begins by defining burnout, describing its common signs—persistent low energy, a flat feeling despite external success, and diminished empathy—and uses a driving‑stop‑sign analogy to illustrate the need for mental breaks. Julia then presents a series of actionable steps: improving sleep hygiene by going to bed earlier; dedicating at least one hour daily to exercise (bodyweight, Pilates, rowing, light weightlifting, and running); cooking healthier meals and trying quick, budget‑friendly recipes; leveraging a digital calendar for time‑blocking both work and relaxation; focusing on single‑tasking while limiting mindless social‑media scrolling; seeking therapy for mental health support; intentionally spending quality time with family and friends; and creating a vision board for future motivation. Throughout, she emphasizes the importance of prioritizing self‑care, setting mental stop signs, and finding present‑moment peace. The video ends with a light‑hearted outro about her new haircut, inviting viewers to engage.
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Do you feel tired and have like no energy all the time? Burnout. Not just a figure of speech anymore, it's actually been declared a legitimate medical diagnosis. In 2019, I went through a period of true burnout. Burnout. When you've been grinding for so long that your life becomes a grind. I literally want to do nothing. I love that we were talking about burnout today, or that, you know, you're creating this YouTube video about burnout, because I am currently laying down on my bed absolutely just exhausted. Absolutely utterly exhausted. The downfall of trying to be an ambitious overachiever is doing too much to the point when you don't want to do anything at all. I've been on the edge of falling into the fiery hole of burnout so many times now, but I haven't quite made it there. I haven't quite got burnt yet. However, this day may very well soon come if I don't get my act together and try to find balance in my life. I want to prevent burnout from happening because it's not a great state to be in. To be quite honest, I feel like a big part of my lack of motivation and exhaustion has been because I haven't been taking care of myself as much as I've been taking care of my work. In this video, I want to incorporate more healthier habits that can keep me feeling productive, focused, and ambitious, but without that burnout component to it. And I hope after watching this video you also get inspired to take a look at your own life and determine whether the lifestyle you're living is complementing the health of your well-being. Burnout is increasing and I think a big part of it is because people don't quite understand what the term really means. Nowadays it's really been thrown around a lot and everyone says they're burnt out. And someone does say they're burnt out, another person may say, "Oh, just take a rest, like take a nap, relax, go to bed earlier." However, it takes more than just a good night's sleep sleep to recover, especially if this burnout feeling may have went unnoticed and uncared for a while. Okay, now let's get into the signs you may be on the verge of burnout. Now the first one is very self-explanatory, it's just having a lack of energy. And again, this is not surprising. All of us may feel a lack of energy from time to time, but if this lack of energy is continuous and something that always happens even with the easiest tasks, then it may be more than just a lack of energy and something like burnout. Now the second one is life feels flat. You may still be accomplishing things on paper, everything may be going well, like you're doing everything just so perfect, but inside something feels off and you're not as— you don't feel as fulfilled and excited with the work you do or the hobbies you partake in. And now the third one is a little bit more extreme. I don't think I've experienced this myself, but it's having a lack of empathy towards others. Emotion stands for energy in motion, and just like any other emotion, empathy requires energy. And if you don't have this energy, then giving to others can become a challenge and you may start acting cynical. By cynical, I mean having a pessimistic attitude towards situations and people. And this may come as a big surprise to you, especially if you're someone who usually sees the glass as half full, is very upbeat and positive. It's not like you're doing all of this on purpose. It's not like you're trying to be negative just because, but it's just you have an empty battery. And even though there may be people who are going to support you and they're gonna help you, if you don't take the first step of improvement on your own, then others' help may mean nothing to you. So take care of yourself before anything else. I want to share an analogy with you. When you're driving down the road playing your awesome playlist and you approach a stop sign or a red light, you stop at it because if you keep going then you're gonna crash. Now apply the same kind of scenario when you're doing work. Create a mental stop sign, a mental stop sign, and so when you feel like you're getting tired, when you feel exhausted, take out that stop sign and just stop yourself because you don't want to mentally crash. Here are some of the action steps I've been taking to prevent burnout from happening in the first place. First one is sleep. It's an obvious but a big one. Now for the most part, I have been going to bed at a reasonable time, if you'd count 12 as reasonable, but I do want to start going to bed a little earlier so then I can wake up before sunrise. But that has been a bit of a challenge because I've liked working on personal projects like planning and editing content late at night, and I easily find myself working till 3 AM because time flies by. Though I do know that I'm much more aware, critical, and creative in the morning, so if I can start going to bed at 11 and wake up at 6, I think I'd produce better results. The next step is to carve out at least 1 hour for exercise every day. This one is a no-brainer for me. I love working out so much, to the point where a day without some sort of physical activity is going to equal an incomplete day. Here's a quick breakdown of my workout routine, as it's been some time since I've done one of these. I kind of stopped doing home workouts for a little bit, but with the weather getting warmer and I'm able to do workouts on my deck again, I will be reintroducing home workouts for sure. Also, I pretty much quit heavy weightlifting, so now I'm just doing more bodyweight workouts. I'll do a separate video talking about why I decided to quit in the future, but yeah, I'm in my cardio Pilates era right now. Another favorite workout of mine has been rowing. I've never rowed before, but I want to join the rowing team at my university, so I've been practicing with rowing and that has been super fun. I feel like rowing is very underrated. Comment down below if you guys do rowing at the gym. Now even though I did say I quit weightlifting, I still want to incorporate some weight workouts in my routine, but now we're focusing on lower weight, higher rep. So you can see with this barbell right here, it has no plates on it, but it's still challenging because I'm going slowly and focusing on the amount. And finally, we can't forget about running. You guys, running has become a big obsession of mine, and I pretty much do it every single day. Next up on the list is doing something I usually wouldn't have the time to do, and for me, that's creating artistic breakfast and trying out recipes. I used to love baking and creating yummy treats, but ever since university has been a bit busier, I haven't been doing it as much. My diet has actually been really weird lately. It's consisted of just lots of snacks and having a big dinner. It hasn't been super balanced. So today I created this delicious banana sundae that I found on my Instagram. If you've been eating lots of yogurt bowls like me and just want to try a different variety of yogurt bowls, I would recommend doing this. I also made these peanut butter chocolate chip balls. Both of these recipes are really easy, time efficient, and on a budget, but they're also healthy and delicious. The next action step I have is to take advantage of your digital calendar. I've been using Google Calendar for a year now when it comes to planning my days and setting goals. When I know I'm going to have a busy week ahead, I make sure to take the time to plan it out and time block each task I'm doing. Not only do I time block everywhere I have to be, I also make sure to time block relaxing. A lot of times we forget to take a break because there's so much for us to do, but if we can make relaxed time an appointment, just like any other appointment we would schedule, then we'd feel less guilty to take it. Action step number 5 is to focus on one task at a time. Task switching is something I've always done, whether it be task switching between projects or accompanying my work with social media. Scrolling. But if you want to get more things done, set a goal to work on something with complete focus for at least an hour or two and then get up and take a break before moving on to something else. Limit social media scrolling. Going on social media in the evening when all your work is done for the day is understandable, but wasting your waking hours mindlessly scrolling is a no-go for me. We may think we are recharging when we go on Instagram, but believe it or not, we are draining ourselves even more. So Julia Fedorin, pick up a book instead and leave Save social media time for when you feel you've accomplished enough in the day. Hey guys, guess who's going to therapy? I've never been to a psychologist or therapist before, but I really need to go, so I booked an appointment and let's see how it goes. Let's see if she gives me some good advice. Turn left on Landis Avenue. Next is speak to a therapist. Therapist. I've always thought that therapists are for people that have been through traumas or have major problems, but I think we can all benefit from talking to a licensed psychologist because they may help spot parts of us that still need healing. Hello guys, I just finished with therapy. It was so good, you guys. I'm doing it again. I'm definitely doing it again. It's so refreshing. Yeah, let's not. Do you want me to— yes! Oh no, I'm so scared! Number 8: spend time with family and friends. I've only recently added this action step to my list. Before, I would never think of hanging out with friends as a break from work. If anything, it felt like a chore for me, maybe because I wasn't spending time with the right people. But I'm so happy I finally have a circle of wonderful individuals that support and appreciate me just as much as I support and appreciate them. Also, never forget to spend time with family. Do something fun with them from time to time. On this day, my parents, sister, and I went to the movie theater to watch Super Mario Bros. It was funny, especially since my sister and I played this game religiously as kids. And the last action step I have is creating a vision board. When I was younger, I used to have so much fun going on Pinterest, looking through all the aesthetic photos as inspiration to plan out the life of my dreams. So why not create an updated one today? Also, vision boards are really great for when you feel lost and want something to bring you hope for a better future. If someone were to ask me how I would describe burnout in the most simple terms, I'd say burnout is endlessly treading water without ever going on shore. It's working even when your body tells you enough. The harsh reality is work is never going to stop. If we're waiting for a time to relax only when we finish a certain task, then that day will never come because there's always going to be a task that is going to come after that finished task. You're always on a loop with work. So that's why it's so important to find peace in the present. Don't wait for the future. And also remember that our present was once our future, and our future is going to be the present. So do yourself a favor, make time for doing the things you love, spending time with the people that bring you the most joy, and put yourself at the top of your priority because your health will determine your success. Yes, finished filming! By the way, how are you guys liking my new haircut? I just got it today and I was like, you know what, why not I film this outro and post it and see if you guys like can tell the difference. It's like I got it shorter and then I got like curtain bangs. But yeah, let me know how you guys like it, and I'll see you guys in my next video.
