I Fixed My Burnout on Vacation—Then Came Back to the Job That Caused It
At the end of September, I took a two-week vacation to Portugal with my love, my appetite, and our shared sense of adventure. I walked everywhere. I ate food that tasted like it remembered where it came from. I slept deeply. My shoulders lowered six full inches from their permanent residence near my ears. My nervous system finally exhaled.
I came home with all the usual promises: "Eight to nine hours of work a day, max. Daily yoga. Walking. Fresh air. Real food. Boundaries like the walls around Óbidos."
I did great — for the first eight hours. Now, granted, I was asleep for a good portion of those hours, but still … kudos to me.
At the end of my first day back at work, I was already bargaining with myself: "I'll just do a few extra hours tonight to catch up."
Then a few more.
The next thing I knew, I realized I hadn't left the house. In FOUR DAYS.
I was exhausted, depleted, and right back where I started.
If you've ever come home from vacation swearing this time would be different—only to find yourself back in the same patterns within days—you know exactly what I'm talking about.
Why Vacation Recovery Doesn't Last
Here's what I didn't want to admit: I kept trying to "hold my boundaries," but something always had to give — workouts, dog walks, meals, sleep, the ability to be human. No matter how hard I optimized, something cracked.
And it finally hit me:
I've been trying to solve the wrong problem.
I assumed that this was a me issue, and if I MacGyvered enough of my life, I could make it all work.
Turns out, it is a math issue, and the numbers weren’t adding up.
The Math Doesn't Lie
There are only 24 hours in a day.
There is only one of you.
And no amount of willpower, habit tracking, multi-tasking or general wizardry is going to change the constraints of time and resources.
It's math, baby.
And the moment I stopped and actually got honest about the math? I realized that this whole burnout thing is not a personal failure. It's being in the middle of a situation that's untenable.
Signs Your Job Is Causing Burnout
Here's what I noticed when I was on vacation:
I slept deeply — because I didn’t lie awake thinking about all the things I had to implement at work.
My body relaxed — turns out it wasn’t age causing the continued joint stiffness and exhaustion.
I felt like me—the real me. Not the 'who-thought-it-was-a-good-idea-to-put-me-in-charge?' version I've been playing at work.
If your burnout recovery only works when you're physically removed from your job, that's not a you problem.
That's a job problem.
A 2-Minute Reality Check (aka Crunch Your Own Numbers)
Ask yourself:
How many hours do I spend working each day?
How many hours of other commitments do I have (i.e. volunteering, commuting, keeping children fed and alive, knitting sweaters for chickens)
How many hours do I spend cooking, doing household chores, stocking the house with food?
How many hours do I need for self-care: workouts, friendships, down time
And then ask yourself;
Do I have any time left to sleep?
If the answer is no, you’re subtracting from your sleep to try and live your life – your math doesn’t math, either.
Your body already knows the truth – odds are it’s silently (or not so silently) giving you clues.
This exercise helps your brain stop arguing with it.
My 12-Month Plan to Recover From Job Burnout
Something shifted for me:
I stopped asking "How can I make this work?"
and started asking "What do I actually need?"
Here's my real answer:
1. A Realistic Timeline for Change
Not "someday."
Not "after this busy season." (Spoiler: there's always another busy season.)
I'm giving myself twelve months — until spring — to hold the boundaries I can while building an exit strategy out of the ones I can't.
2. Building Something That's Mine
I'm putting my energy into goals that belong to me: this coaching practice, new professional paths, a portfolio, conversations that light me up instead of drain me.
If I'm going to be exhausted anyway, I want to be exhausted building a bridge out of here.
What I’m Learning as I Accept the Math
Portugal wasn't a fantasy.
That rested, grounded version of me isn't gone — she's just been trying to survive in a place that requires her to be someone else.
Sometimes the most sustainable thing you can do is admit when something is not sustainable.
Admitting when something isn’t working takes time - but when it happens, it’s the first step towards a path that will work.
If you're also trying to self-care your way out of a structural problem — boundary-setting your way through a job that devours boundaries, optimizing yourself into someone who can tolerate the intolerable — maybe the real question isn't:
"What am I doing wrong?"
Maybe it's:
"What do I actually need?"
And maybe, like me, the answer isn't another morning routine.
It's a plan.
