mood tracking at work showed me i was burning out months before i realized it - Lemmy.World

I started doing a quick mood check in my journal every day after work. Just one line. How do I feel leaving the office? For the first month: tired but satisfied, challenged, productive. Normal work stuff. Month two: tired, just tired. Dreading tomorrow already. Month three: empty. Angry. “Why am I doing this.” Fantasizing about quitting every day. I could see the progression SO clearly in my journal but I was living it so gradually that I didn’t notice in real time. It was like watching a time-lapse of a plant dying. Each day’s change is invisible but zoom out and the trajectory is obvious. That journal data is actually what gave me the courage to talk to my manager about my workload. I had evidence. Not just “I feel bad” but a documented decline over twelve weeks. If you’re working and not tracking how you feel about it, consider starting. Burnout sneaks up on you. Anyone else catch burnout through journaling?