Over the past three years, mental health and burnout have become an increasingly top-of-the-agenda conversation. And while the conversations around the Covid-19 pandemic are fewer and fewer, its effect on mental health still ripples through offices and homes around the world.

In March 2022, the World Health Organization reported that the viral outbreak triggered a 25% increase in the global prevalence of anxiety and depression. A year later, in March 2023, research by the Kaiser Family Foundation and CNN concluded that mental health concerns (as well as substance abuse) have remained elevated since 2020, with as much as 90% of adults in the United States believing that their country is facing a mental-health crisis.

Burnout is one of the outcomes of being always on, says executive coach Queen Ramotsehoa. And with burnout at an all-time high, knowing how to recognise the signs of being always on is important to protect your wellbeing.

These are the six areas of over-engagement Ramotsehoa describes and ways you can address them.

1. You’re too emotionally engaged in what you’re doing or need to do. When this happens, you become irritable and start to judge situations poorly. You snap at people and take things personally.

2. You’re socially over-engaged in your work compared to the rest of your life. The impact is that invariably you’re not fully present in the relationships that aren’t attached to your work. The people who pay the price (besides yourself) are your loved ones, who never get to experience the whole you.

3. You have started to “steal time” from other aspects of your life because you are too spiritually engaged in your work. This type of behaviour will lead to feelings of self-judgement and guilt, and will reduce your self-worth and self-love.

4. You internally debate what is right or wrong almost continuously, psychologically over-engaging with what you’re doing. You question where you are falling short in other roles in your life and try, but fail, at work-life-balance, leaving you with no peace. This creates mental noise which in turn impacts your physical and mental wellbeing.

5. You have become mentally over-engaged, which causes you to ignore the need to rest but instead continually look for solutions to problems, think about whatever is not going right and stress about deadlines. This consistent mental engagement leads to a state of being under pressure becoming your norm.

6. You’re too physically engaged. This type of over-commitment sees your physical energy constantly depleted. The quality of your sleep is impacted, as are your exercise and healthy-eating habits. You may even postpone attending to physical-health needs like going to a doctor when you need to.

This in turn leads to using self-medication as a solution because it replaces “wasting time” going to the doctor for a consultation.

What you can do if you’re over-engaged

1. Change your internal language

Think of your work as demanding rather than pressurising. I believe that when my work puts me under pressure it takes away my power to choose and control. When my work is demanding I acknowledge the additional demand, but consciously and intentionally take charge of how to organise it.

I look at how to re-organise myself, where I can work smart and where I can source additional support. All this ensures that I have taken care and created time for my holistic wellbeing. 

2. Focus your intentions

It’s important to be intentional about how you structure tasks and responsibilities. At the centre of that intentionality is owning your responsibilities. This means not being surprised by the same responsibilities, or overwhelmed by the same challenges, all of the time.

As soon as it becomes obvious that there is a new addition to your responsibilities, be deliberate about where you place it in time, space and quality.

Be clear with what you move and make sure that whatever you move is being placed consciously where it lands. This may include getting additional resources for what you can outsource.

3. Keep the non-negotiable sacred

Lastly, be clear about what is negotiable and what is not. When you fiddle with the non-negotiable, you are fiddling with your wellbeing, so whatever you shift must revolve around the non-negotiable.

Build a powerful relationship with your non-negotiables and master the ability to communicate with clarity what you are able to do and what is not possible.

Overall, stand firm and back yourself. Respect yourself enough to know when you are being inconsistent. People do not know your boundaries, and they will cross them out of ignorance more than malice or disrespect.