In today’s fast-paced, high-demand work environment, leaders everywhere are fighting an uphill battle to prevent employee burnout.
Employees are plugged in all day, every day — whether they work in-person, hybrid, or remote. Work, life. Personal, professional. There’s just no separation anymore.
The good news? By helping your team members build self-regulation strategies into their daily routines, you can help them prevent burnout while elevating their performance.
But remember: Burnout is a multifaceted issue. Self-regulation is one important tool of many in the fight against burnout, including smart nutrition choices and building a culture of strategic recovery.
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines burnout as a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.
But burnout isn’t just the result of overworking. Based on Exos’ extensive work in human performance, we know that burnout is the result of poor energy management.
Think of burnout as an energy debt that accrues interest when you don’t properly balance work and recovery.
When your body and mind are constantly taxed without the chance to recover, that “debt” compounds like an expensive credit card account. That leaves you exhausted, frustrated, and eventually, burnt out.
On the flip side, learning how to properly regulate your energy and stress responses can be like building a savings account. Good news: The benefits of healthy energy management compound positively, too.
With more practice, you’ll feel more easily energized, focused, and stress-resilient over time.
Burnout prevention isn’t about working less. It’s about properly balancing workload and recovery. The better you recover, the more efficient you can be at work. As a leader, you can support intentional recovery by encouraging strategic breaks and building a team culture where recovery is celebrated.
Here at Exos, we practice balance between sprints of work and intentional recovery. Just like muscles need time to recover after a workout, the mind and body need to recover after periods of high stress or intense focus.
Remember that analogy of burnout as credit card debt: You want to avoid ever dipping “into the red” if possible. It’s significantly easier to prevent going into energy debt than it is to claw yourself out of debt once you’re already there.
With some effective self-regulation strategies and leadership support, your employees can help keep themselves from falling too deep into energy debt.
When exploring how to reduce burnout in the workplace, don’t forget to arm your employees with self-regulation strategies.
Self-regulation is the ability to shift your internal state — i.e. your thoughts, emotions, and physical reactions — to meet the demands of any given moment. There are two primary forms of self-regulation:
Mastering both forms is key to maintaining a sustainable, high-performance lifestyle.
As with all things, Exos uses a holistic approach to self-regulation in preventing employee burnout. But it’s all about mastering the basics.
1. Sleep: Aim for 7-9 hours of quality sleep on a consistent schedule. If you're feeling irritable or stressed, downregulate with a quick power nap (just ensure it doesn't disrupt your night sleep).
2. Nutrition: Fueling your body properly ensures you have the energy to meet the demands of your day. Incorporate balanced meals that include carbohydrates for quick energy, protein for muscle repair and mood regulation, and healthy fats for sustained energy.
Feeling sluggish? Don’t reach for the chips. Often, a glass of water or a high-nutrient snack can give you the boost you need.
3. Movement: Physical activity supports both upregulation and downregulation. Upregulation could involve a brisk walk or high-intensity workout, while downregulation might involve stretching or low-intensity movement like yoga.
Build some light movement into your day. Take some meetings while walking. Stretch in between calls. Engage in a short workout like some bodyweight squats.
4. Reflection: Effective self-regulation requires self-awareness, so reflection is key. This is where you assess your mental, emotional, and physical state and determine the best course of action.
Ask yourself these reflective questions:
5. Breathwork: The breath is a powerful tool for regulating your nervous system. For example, a physiological sigh (two quick inhales through the nose followed by a slow exhale) can instantly downregulate the nervous system, calming anxiety and helping the body wind down.
6. Sensory Input: Engaging your senses can help shift your body’s internal state. Cold immersion or focusing your vision can upregulate, while warm water exposure or widening your visual focus can downregulate.
7. Creative Activities: Engaging in creative work or play can help upregulate or downregulate the nervous system, depending on the activity and how each person relates to it. Something like painting may be soothing for some, while energizing for others.
Optimal energy management depends on a strong foundation of sleep, nutrition, reflection, and movement. Laying down these “big rocks” of well-being helps your body metabolize stress more effectively.
Without these foundational pieces, any surface-level efforts to regulate your energy won’t amount to much. No matter how many candles you light or deep breaths you take, it's hard to balance your internal state without proper sleep and nutrition.
A common metaphor we like to use is the boiling water analogy: It only takes one degree for water to go from hot to boiling. The same is true for energy regulation — small actions like a one-degree shift can make all the difference.
Small actions like taking a quick break to breathe or stretch can prevent burnout before it starts. Every moment is an opportunity to practice energy management. For example, if you’re feeling overwhelmed by work, take a 5-minute pause for some deep breathing or a short walk to reset your focus.
Whether at work, with family, or simply navigating life’s demands, is a tool people can use anytime, anywhere.
Remember, it’s not about reducing workload — it’s about managing energy. Like any skill, it gets easier with practice. And with consistent practice (plus leadership support), your employees can perform better, recover faster, and better equip themselves to handle the stresses of life.
When it comes to preventing burnout, remember: Work + Rest = Success.
Note however, that self-regulation strategies alone can’t solve for a workplace with poor psychological safety and lack of leadership support. If you want to improve how you effectively model well-being and self-regulation, check out Exos’ Human Performance Coaching.