The Hidden Cause of Burnout No One Talks About

Most people think burnout happens from overworking.

Too many things on your plate.

Too many hours spent on work.

Too many tabs open — on your computer and in your mind.

I had a call with a potential client who wanted to work with me earlier in the year. On the call, I went through my usual process of asking prospects questions to get a clearer understanding of their situation and assess if I can help them.

As he explained his situation — he was tired, always on, disorganised and spread thin — I asked him what he’d done in the past to overcome his problem.

He tried to fix it by taking a break.

Going offline for the weekend.

Saying no to projects.

Taking naps.

But soon the exhaustion, brain fog and low energy crept back in.

As we kept talking, I asked him, “Do you like any of the things you do?”

He said, “Honestly, no. I hate almost everything I do, but I have to do it, don’t I?”

And that’s when it clicked.

While it’s common for most people to burn out from overworking, there’s another reason people burn out.

And why this prospect was burnt out:

Burnout isn’t caused by effort.

It’s caused by misplaced effort.

My prospect wasn’t burned out because he was doing too much.

(He prided himself as a hard worker.)

He was drained because his energy was out of alignment with his work.

Despite all his breaks and strategies, the fatigue and exhaustion kept coming back because he wasn’t addressing the real problem.

So in this newsletter, I want to unpack this problem and how it’s not only costing you energy, but your time, money and confidence.

When You’re More Than Tired

If you’re a solopreneur, creator or high-performer building something of your own, you’ve most likely:

• Woken up tired, even if you got 7 - 9 hours of sleep

• Sat down to start working, but feel blank and foggy

• Felt resistance to the things that once brought you excitement

• Felt like you were being lazy or undisciplined (spoiler: you’re either of these)

The reality building your own thing isn’t easy, and it does take a lot of work.

Most of you pursued this path because you want freedom and to be able to do meaningful work while being in control of your income and time.

And in the building process, you’re going to have your fair share of long work days, restless nights and overwhelm.

But when you start experiencing your work as friction, more stress than anything else and constantly feeling drained, it might be time to go to the drawing board.

It’s not a discipline problem.

It’s not because you’re not trying hard enough.

And it's not because it’s part of the ‘grind’.

You are misaligned with the work you’re doing.

You’re burning out because you try to give 100% when you’re running on fumes.

You pour all you have into a cup with holes at the bottom.

In case you don’t know whether you’re fatigued, exhausted or burned out, let me give you an overview:

Fatigue

A short-term tiredness. Typically caused by intense exertion, lack of sleep or intense mental expenditure. You can solve this with good rest — a nap, a break or doing nothing for a while.

Exhaustion

This is a deeper level of depletion. This can happen when you push through the fatigue without any recovery. If you’re here, it will take more rest and care to come back from, i.e. more than just a good night of sleep.

Burnout

Burnout is often chronic and systemic. It goes beyond the physical and can be emotional, mental, creative and so on.

It’s about prolonged, unresolved stress where your internal resources can’t meet external demands.

It’s when your body and mind have been turned on for so long that your nervous system is in a state of long-term survival mode.

You can be emotionally numb, feel disconnected and unmotivated.

Rest alone isn’t enough to fix burnout, especially when it’s not because you’ve just been doing a lot.

Burnout requires you to look at the misalignment between:

• The work you’re doing

• The way you’re doing it

• The state you’re doing it in

Some common but hidden causes of burnout:

1. Misaligned work

   • Doing tasks you hate or aren't good at

   • Saying yes to everything to avoid guilt or missing out

   • Forcing output and results that don’t feel meaningful or exciting

2. Energy leaks

   • Task switching 100 times a day

   • Poor boundaries (emotionally or digitally)

   • Open loops — the unfinished tasks you’re mentally carrying around

3. Nervous system overload

   • Never fully relaxing or decompressing

   • Too much stimulation (notifications, news, etc.)

   • Operating from a constant state of fight-or-flight

4. Inverted energy rhythms

   • Pushing through instead of pausing

   • Forcing creativity during low-energy times

   • Doing mentally demanding work when your brain is fried

5. Lack of Autonomy

   • One of the biggest predictors of burnout is a lack of control over your time and workflow.

   • People who feel they have little control over their schedule are 2.5x more likely to report high burnout.

Burnout often requires you to take a step back from just focusing on your goals and start prioritising and respecting your energy.

It asks to shift from always pushing and forcing effort to managing your energy and prioritising it when it comes to work.

Effort from Aligned Energy

The shift from pushing and forcing to working with your energy won’t happen overnight.

It will take rest, planning and recalibrating how you work, but when you make the shift, so much can change:

• You prioritise tasks that energise you and delegate, outsource or eliminate tasks that drain you.

• You prioritise your most meaningful and highest-leverage work for when you have peak mental energy.

• You set and respect your boundaries instead of saying yes to everything out of guilt.

• You show up more consistently and at a higher level.

• You produce higher-quality work because your focus and creativity are at their A-game.

You stop playing according to the rules of hustle culture and you start playing by the rules of high-performance.

You make sustainable performance a foundation in how you do your work, run your business and live your life.

And this is how you build a business that doesn’t drain you and a life you have energy to enjoy.

I want to be clear:

Building a business is hard, and it takes a lot of work.

You will be tired. I’m not saying that you won’t be.

What I am saying is that you won’t be chronically depleted and burning out.

Burnout-Proofing Your Days

Though the prospect and I didn’t end up working together, I did offer him a protocol to implement, and I want to offer it to you.

This is a framework you can start using to manage your energy and improve the way you work.

Step 1: Audit Your Energy

For a week, track your energy before and after every task.

Ask yourself:

• Did this energise me or drain me?

• How do I feel on a 1–5 scale right now?

• Was this work aligned with my zone of genius? (From Gay Hendricks’ book, The Big Leap)

Why this matters:

Most people don’t even know what is draining or energising them. This is a simple exercise to build awareness.

Step 2: Define & Protect Your Peak Energy Windows

Notice when your energy is naturally highest during the day.

Is it 8–11 AM? 1–3 PM? 7- 10 PM?

Once you find it, block out that time for your most meaningful, creative, or strategic work.

No meetings. No admin. No multitasking.

It’s just you and your most important work.

Why this matters:

If you don’t protect your energy and time, someone else will waste it.

Step 3: Create a Daily Recovery Routine

High performers don’t wait until they’re burned out to recover.

They build in daily routine that resets their nervous system and refills their energy tank.

Start with one 10–15 min routine:

• Go outside for a walk in the afternoon/ evening

• Breathwork or meditation

• Stretching or movement

• Journaling or quiet time

Why this matters:

Recovery isn’t a reward for the work — it’s an essential part of the work.

You can’t perform well if your cup is empty.

Step 4: Use the “Hell Yes” Filter

Ask yourself: “If this task wasn’t already on my plate, would I enthusiastically add it?”

If not, consider:

• Can I eliminate it?

• Can I automate it?

• Can I delegate or defer it?

More often than not, you don’t need to do more.

You need to do fewer things better.

Step 5: Weekly Energy Review

Once a week, usually Sunday or Friday, ask yourself:

• What drained me this week?

• What energised me?

• What patterns can I notice?

• What do I need to prioritise next week?

• What needs to shift next week?

Why this matters:

This builds your self-awareness around your energy and creates a system you can follow and adapt. This leads to you making better choices over time and being proactive instead of reactive.

You didn’t start your business to burn out.

You started it for freedom, fulfilment and flow.

You’re not a machine. You’re a human being, and human beings have a finite amount of energy.

So instead of running yourself into the ground, build an energy system so you can perform at your best at work.

Without an energy system, you’ll sabotage the very thing you’re trying to build.

This isn’t about doing less.

It’s about doing what matters, when it matters — from a state of alignment.

The result?

• Deeper focus.

• Clearer thinking.

• Consistent execution.

• And a business that fuels you, not drains you.

Build the system that supports your best self.

Thank you for reading.

I hope it helped.

See you in the next one.

— Shana

p.s.

If you’re ready to unlock deep focus, master your performance and save 10+ hours a week, click here.