Taking Breaks is Important

Often people put too much on themselves, trying to juggle a million things at once, and we teens are no exceptions. We pile so many things on ourselves and set impossible expectations for ourselves. We don’t take breaks and push ourselves to keep going. But something we often don’t understand is that doing these things have consequences, bad ones. Some of those consequences consist of serious mental health and overall health issues, as well as burnout. 

Burnout is a state of total exhaustion - mental, physical, and emotional. It is caused by prolonged stress from too many responsibilities, being overworked, being unable to meet every demand, and the feeling that everything is just too much. Common signs of burnout are feeling a sense of helplessness, being irritable, having a lack of motivation, and more. To prevent serious things like burnout, health issues, and getting even more behind in your work, take a break.  

Allow yourself a second to breathe in both the figurative and literal way. Set healthy boundaries with your work and don’t take on more than you can handle. Something I personally have tried is putting a scheduled alarm that reminds me to take breaks in the middle of my work time. Managing your time properly, adding in breaks, and balancing your responsibilities, will make you successful rather than stressing yourself out more than is necessary.