In this article we will look at four amazing tips on how to avoid burnout when preparing for UPSC. Let me begin with an analogy – have you ever pressed the front brake and throttle at the same time on your bike? You can relate this feeling within yourself, when your mind is ready to explode after reading for long hours and your body is in so much pain sitting in one position. That’s how we can say that “the Burnout is real”.
Tip no. 1 :- Get more sleep
I cannot stress the importance of what it means to get more sleep. The funny thing is that many of you will say – “alright… I know this tip, please tell me something else”. You are right, you need to get more sleep! You need to priorities your sleeping hours when you are reading so much in a day. Today human brain is literally exposed to tons of information. Some are relevant and some are not. Today we are almost drowned in the digital stream of information, distraction and it’s easy to feel like our day is getting wasted doing too many things. Ultimately it takes a toll on us and we feel like we are burning out.
If you are not getting your 7 to 8 hours of sleep over and over again. Your focus, concentration and cognitive skills goes down. Your chances of getting sick goes up and more importantly the likelihood of you becoming a drama queen in your life goes up. Drama is a direct result of being stressed out. So the final conclusion is the less sleep you get the more of a jerk you become.
Tip no. 2 :- Do meditation
Meditation has proven to be a method for defragmenting and decluttering human brain. Begin your day with at least 10 – 15 minutes of meditation, and end the day again with 10 – 15 minutes of meditation. Sit down in a designated spot, focus on your breath and watch your thoughts. You will be amazed to see what meditation can do to your brain. So give your brain the required therapy by meditating.
Related: How to build self belief for UPSC exam
Tip no. 3 – Learn to say “No”
Before we learn to say no, we need to understand why we keep saying yes. Below are the possible reasons that you can relate –
- The need to please. It could be as simple as a request from our best friend or partner, we often say “yes” just based on who is asking.
- From a sense of duty.
- To avoid feeling guilty. If your parents ask you to do something as a favor, it’s a little tougher to say “no” than if it’s a stranger asking.
- The fear of hurting someone’s feelings.
It is hard at first to say no to people and opportunities around you. At the beginning it feels as if it’s going to make you happy if you are good to everyone. Especially when you start to get busy that’s the time when you say no to everything. Unless you can justify very strongly as to why you need to say yes. Most of the time burnouts come from saying yes to everything In other words, over-committing ourselves. So be a little attentive to that!
Related: How to avoid overwhelm during UPSC exam
Tip no. 4 – Be mindful
When you’re feeling negative or your are in a bad mood, immediately ask yourself – “what happened right before you started feeling like this”. What is it that triggered this kind of reaction in you? Was it something unusual? Questions like these can help you in treating the root cause of the problem rather react to the symptoms. In any real recovery, you need to dig deeper and focus on the deep issue rather than passively react on consequences.
So these are my four tips that can help you in avoiding burnouts during your exam preparation. If you can relate to the points that have been made in this article, i would like to here your side of the story. Leave a comment and i will make sure to reply. Good luck!