Millennial Burnout – My experience
I’ve been reading a lot of articles about millennial burnout recently so I thought I’d share my own experience. Like most millennials, I don’t just have one job or one source of income. In a world where life is pretty bloody expensive, I can’t really survive on just my full-time wage. This seems to be something which plagues a lot of 20/30 somethings. Especially those who are brave enough to live in London. An area where the thought of owning your own property is pretty laughable.
Monday to Friday I work as a Content Editor at ASOS in the Customer Care team and I love it. Every day is different and I work with some incredible people. But much like any job it just isn’t enough to allow me to save for house buying next year and still live. I have been blogging for around 5 years now, although it’s only really been any source of income for around 2-3 of those.
I count myself very lucky that I can make any money from this spot on the internet doing something I love. And the more money that I make, the harder I work. Much like millennials, in general, I work bloody hard at what I do. I’m also in the middle of trying to push into the paid freelance journalism world which takes time.
So basically I’m super busy all the time, this may be why I micro-schedule my time. You can find out more about the process and how I structure my day in my post. But in a world where I have 20 hours of things to try and squeeze into 14, it can be tough.
My experience of millennial burnout- When it got bad
When I was single I thought I would have more time as there was no boyfriend to try and squeeze into the occasion. But I was wrong. From about 2010 to 2016 I was in prime millennial burnout stages. 2010/11 saw me at university and working full time. Then in the years afterwards it was constant work, additional studies and starting my blog. My day-to-day life was a bit of a mess as I’d be up until around 2 am doing work. And then I’d struggle to wake up in the morning for work pushing myself through with a mixture of Pepsi Max and chocolate.
Pushing myself to my absolute limits I’d have a day pretty much every month which was a write-off. I’d spend almost the whole day in bed sleeping and I’d be ill, like really ill. My head would hurt, my stomach wouldn’t be able to keep anything down and I’d feel drained. But to me this was normal, it was my bodies way of recouping how I’d treated it for the month before. In reality, it really wasn’t healthy though, I wasn’t treating my body how it deserved to be treated.
Starting to change my schedule to alleviate burnout
I continued to do this but when I met Luke in November 2016 things started to change. Due to his working hours as an electrician, he would be up between 530 and 6 am every morning, which meant a bedtime of 10 pm just to get enough sleep. I never liked the idea of going to bed at separate times as it would mean no snuggles. So I started to adjust my sleeping pattern to match his.
Doing this meant no more stupid late finishes in the evening, although it did take a while for my body to allow me to sleep that early. And it meant I had a few hours of uninterrupted morning work time. I actually now feel way more productive at 7 am in the morning than I do late in the evening. Thankfully my body seems to have been trained and I have a much better balance.
As my body is finally getting the rest it deserves I no longer have my recoup days, and I rarely ever sleep in past 9 am. Even when the alarm isn’t set. In my early to mid 20’s I definitely pushed my mind and my body further than I should have which I’m not proud of. Thankfully I seem to have learnt and while I do sometimes have the occasional night I’ll be up late finishing work it is no longer the norm.
Have you ever experienced millennial burnout?
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18 responses to “Millennial Burnout – My experience”
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All About Me
Rhian Westbury
Travels and Destinations
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I completely agree, I think our generation just have this consistent need to be productive and working and we don’t think about the burnout effects
Totally agree, life is expensive and most people our generation don’t have savings like older generations so working hard is not just expected but needed x
I’m not a Millennial but I’ve definitely experienced burnout. You just get to a point where you need to stop and switch everything off.
Totally agree, even if you’re not a millennial you’re experiencing things in the same time. There’s a constant need to be productive, working and earning money x
I know exactly how this feels! I recently left my ‘dream job’ for this reason amongst others because although it was what I wanted to do, due to the lack of support I had, I found the entire role emotionally exhausting. I couldn’t switch off at the end of the day, often put in longer hours than I needed and because I was massively underpaid, I spent my free time constantly freelancing or working for freelance work.
On one hand, I think our generation are amazing at finding alternative ways to earn money and push themselves, it’s so good that we think out of the box of a typical 9-5 career..but on the other hand, we often suffer from this burnout and never quite learn how to switch off properly.
I also agree that having a set schedule helps so much, especially switching off at a certain time and having a set regular bedtime each night x
You’re a prime example, and I’m glad you did leave otherwise it could have got really bad! I do think you’re right about the 9-5 careers, they’re not really what our generation do any more x
I don’t think I’ve experienced millennial burnout ever before. My life is too boring, so sometimes I feel very lonely instead or having to retire from anything.
I think it is so easy to attempt to cram as much as possible into everyday. If we are not working we are playing, entertaining etc. Leaving little, if any time to switch off and relax.
Totally agree, like anyone who is a mum and also works (freelance or not) I totally admire that because everything is more than your standard 9-5 x
I think life is getting harder for future generations as expectations and standards for things like work and education will probably increase. People want to break free from the traditional lifestyle of work, college, uni, and then 9-5 jobs x
Totally agree, people want to do non 9-5’s and sometimes that can mean working longer hours x
I am not a millennial, but I do agree with working hard and burnout this is something we have experienced it is my parents generation and probably your grandparents generation that got the best way of life
Yeah everyone can experience it, I think it’s just more openly talked about now as more people than ever before don’t work the traditional 9-5 jobs x
Crazy to think a large family could once survive on the mans full time income. We barely survive on two coming in with 5 kids to feed.
I know it’s crazy how much the price of living has changed x
I’m not a millennial but I can definitely relate to this, I am juggling lots of balls and I have days where I completely crash. It’s a sad sign of the times isn’t it? I hope to get to a place soon where I don’t have to keep working so hard!
It is really sad that no longer can most people survive on just one job. The price of living is just so high now x
I try and cram in as much as I can each day and there are days where I definitely suffer. Life is just so busy!