The Five Stages of Burnout: How to Spot the First One

Burnout almost never arrives in a single day. It builds over months, and its very first sign doesn't look like a decline — it looks like heightened activity: you take on more, get more done, and you're proud of it. That's exactly why the beginning is so easy to mistake for good form and to walk right past the point where things could still have been fixed at a low cost.

Below are five stages, described as an observation of your state. This is not a diagnosis or a schedule: for one person, weeks pass between stages, for another, months, and some notice signs of several stages at once. The point isn't to slap a label on yourself, but to see the direction you're moving in and manage to turn around.

Stage One: Engagement That Looks Like Strength