Get your Burnout Risk Score and Meeting Fatigue Index. Based on your meeting load, deep work time, break habits, and work boundaries. Free and takes 60 seconds.
Burnout is a state of chronic workplace stress characterised by exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced professional efficacy. It is recognised by the WHO as an occupational phenomenon. Unlike regular tiredness, burnout does not resolve with a single good night of sleep.
Research suggests more than 4 hours of meetings per day significantly impairs cognitive performance and wellbeing. The ideal is 1-2 hours of structured meetings, with 3+ hours reserved for deep focused work.
Meeting fatigue (also called Zoom fatigue or video call fatigue) is mental exhaustion from back-to-back virtual or in-person meetings. Causes include reduced mobility, sustained eye contact, self-monitoring via camera, and lack of natural conversational cues.
Key warning signs include: difficulty concentrating, cynicism about your work, physical exhaustion that does not improve with sleep, irritability, reduced performance, and feeling detached from your work or team. If you experience several of these persistently, seek support.
Deep work (coined by Cal Newport) is uninterrupted, cognitively demanding work done in a state of full concentration. Studies show 2-4 hours of daily deep work produces more output than 8 hours of fragmented, interrupted work.
Block no-meeting time on your calendar, batch meetings to specific days, protect 2+ hours of deep work daily, take proper lunch breaks away from screens, establish a clear end-of-workday ritual, and take at least 1-2 fully offline days per week.
Burnout is classified by the WHO in ICD-11 as an occupational phenomenon, not a medical condition per se. However, it can lead to clinical depression, anxiety disorders, and physical health problems. If symptoms are severe, consult a healthcare professional.