How to Avoid Burnout as a Designer
#33: As Blue Monday* is just around the corner, please read this.
Talking to designers and observing discussions on social media, I’ve been noticing more and more conversations about burnout—its causes, ways to cope with it, and the symptoms, which often take a long and challenging process to overcome.
However, I feel that despite this growing awareness, it’s still a topic that’s often overlooked in discussions. At the same time, it’s incredibly important because it directly affects our mental health and our lives, both professionally and personally. It’s no coincidence that burnout was recently included by the WHO in the International Classification of Diseases.
That’s why I’ve decided to delve deeper into this topic and share with you some strategies for dealing with it.
Step into 2025 with a healthy dose of design knowledge!
For a price of 8 latte cups, you get:
Exclusive articles every month
Access to the full archive
Free access to Fundament Library (more titles to come in 2025)
Discounts on other educational content (2025)
Hurry! The yearly Premium plan is 35% off only until the end of January.
How does it start, and what might the symptoms be?
Many different factors can lead to burnout. From my observations, the most common causes are:
The work environment we find ourselves in, such as uninteresting projects, repetitive tasks, poor work organization, unclear division of responsibilities, lack of growth opportunities, or the undervaluation of our contributions.
The nature of our work, which often involves a large amount of knowledge to absorb, constant changes and innovations to keep up with, and interactions with clients and colleagues who frequently fail to understand the value of our work. This also includes unclear and shifting requirements that we must address. Additionally, we are exposed to continuous feedback, often critical and unfavorable, which we may struggle to handle effectively.
Overwork, lack of rest, and poor work-life balance occur because as designers, we often take on too many projects and set ambitious goals, which demand significant time and energy. Due to excessive workload, we also fail to make time for rest (this is particularly common when our work is our greatest passion).
A tendency toward perfectionism, which is common among designers. We aim to create perfect solutions, leading to dissatisfaction with the quality of our everyday work.
Social media and the constant stream of others' success stories can lower our self-esteem, trigger impostor syndrome, and create ongoing stress. It can feel like everyone is achieving more than we do and at a much higher level.
On the other hand, the most common symptoms of burnout include:
Physical and emotional exhaustion, such as constant exhaustion, increased irritability, irritation, and lack of positive attitude, both at work and in private life.
Health problems, such as headaches, muscle pains, stomach diseases, and sleep disorders.
Reduced commitment, which makes us not feel like doing our job and feel indifferent to it, we lack motivation to act, and we do not feel satisfaction from the tasks we perform.
Problems with creative thinking and problem-solving, which result to some extent from the previous symptoms because when we are exhausted, stressed, and feel a lack of motivation, our brain is not able to work efficiently and effectively generate ideas and solve problems
Difficulties in relationships, both in professional and private life. Again, this results from the above symptoms, mainly fatigue, irritation, and chronic stress.
How can we avoid burnout?
The following examples are based on my own experiences, as well as observations and conversations with other designers. I hope they prove helpful in dealing with burnout or its early signs. It’s also worth exploring solutions on your own to discover what works best for you. Remember, in more critical situations, seeking professional help may be essential.
Do what you like
Recently, I heard that to effectively plan your career and personal development, it's worth starting with self-analysis and reflecting on which tasks or areas of your work bring you the most joy and excitement and which ones you don’t particularly enjoy. I think this is solid advice, as it encourages focusing on doing things and working in areas that you genuinely like rather than taking on tasks solely for financial benefits, for example. Additionally, it’s amazing if you can find a job in an industry that interests you outside of design (e.g., being a designer in the automotive industry). This can be a great combination that makes your work even more fulfilling.
While it's rare to find a position in our industry that perfectly aligns with our interests and completely eliminates tasks we don't enjoy. However, it’s worth reflecting on this and considering if there’s anything we can change."
Design for fun
Burnout is often caused by uninteresting and repetitive projects we work on in our daily tasks. We don’t always have the opportunity to focus on areas that bring us the most joy. That’s why it’s important to take some time to play around with design without rigid requirements, time pressure, or imposed constraints. Design for fun to keep the passion alive and growing, experiment, try new things, and explore areas not necessarily related to your daily tasks, such as visual design, branding, 3D, or motion.
Have a hobby unrelated to design
For many people, design is not just a job; it’s a passion that we started with. Unfortunately, when it’s our only passion, it often leads to focusing all our attention in that direction, which can result in overworking and exhausting our bodies. Very often, a hobby that allows us to completely disconnect from design and clear our minds can be life-changing. If you already have a hobby, that’s great! If not, think about whether there’s something you're passionate about outside of design—maybe photography, making music, cooking, or some sport? Hobbies also introduce new people and communities, creating a great balance between work and personal life.
Learn to separate work from private life
The next point is somewhat related to the previous one. When we can't separate work from personal life, we often end up working too much and neglecting ourselves and our loved ones. This often leads to exhaustion and can cause problems in relationships, which in turn leads to negative effects like stress and frustration. You need to learn how to 'leave' work behind and focus on your personal life because it’s definitely more important and directly impacts your professional life.
Additionally, we often bring our work problems into our personal lives, which is a common issue that also contributes to factors that increase the risk of burnout. The sooner we learn to separate these two aspects, the better our chances of avoiding the factors that lead to burnout.
Get over FOMO
FOMO can really stress us out - we're afraid of missing something if we don't read literally every design-related article, join every Discord group, or see every LinkedIn post. This is clearly impossible and can only lead to cognitive overload and chronic stress, putting us on a fast track to burnout. From experience, I know that too much pressure and trying to absorb too much content can negatively impact how we view our own work.
I'd also add the constant comparison with others and the feeling that we're somehow worse or not good enough. Each of us is different and has our own unique set of traits and skills. Instead of focusing on others, it's much better to grow at our own pace. Especially when what we see on social media is just a tiny snippet of what's really going on.
Don't be negative
The last point might sound like advice from some random Instagram coach, but from experience, I know it’s incredibly important. We tend to focus on the negatives—every bad meeting, negative feedback, or less interesting project creates strong negative emotions in us that we keep replaying, leading to growing frustration and a lack of motivation for the work we do.
It’s better to focus on the positive aspects of our work and appreciate those moments. This will significantly improve our overall well-being and help us avoid the factors that can lead to burnout and personal issues.
Final thought
As you can see, burnout is a very serious issue that leads to many problematic symptoms and destructive effects on our professional and private lives. It’s important to prevent burnout and respond to its first signs as quickly as possible, as this will allow us to enjoy our work for many years to come.
* A note on Blue Monday
The concept of Blue Monday, often referred to as the most depressing day of the year, has faced some skepticism over the years. Critics have marked the idea of Blue Monday as pseudoscience, arguing that no concrete evidence supports the claim that this specific day is uniquely depressing.
In recent years, efforts have been made to debunk the negative connotations associated with Blue Monday. Cliff Arnall, who initially promoted the concept, later expressed that his intention was not to create a negative perception but to encourage people to take positive actions.
This was well written and helpful article Mateusz