Recent polls suggest Americans have had enough at work. The labor market seems to require more and more of the workforce – balancing continuing education, extracurriculars, and networking all while doing the job leads many of us to feel burntout. As a class of Evening MBA students, I’m sure every one of us can relate.

I’m quite a collector of “better living through research” materials and have noticed three burnout coping strategies that have proven themselves useful again and again.

1. Schedule daily quiet time. 

“Everyday I start off happy, but then your boss is calling, your phone is ringing, and the dogs are barking. You’re trying to write an email and suddenly three people text you about a firedrill involving an SVP and a rejected project proposal. How am I supposed to manage stress if I can’t escape it?”

It’s a stress management trope for a reason: it works. Some call it unplugging, prayer, or meditation but no matter how you label it, humans were not designed to have constant stimuli interrupting their thoughts and functions. I subscribe to meditation twice a day, and have recently picked up transcendental meditation as a way to further my own practice.

2. Make time for nothing. Yes, nothing.

As my mother likes to say, “It’s your job to take care of you”. Schedule downtime and protect it fiercely. Sometimes that means protecting it from yourself – leave an hour a day to unwind and relax, and resist the temptation to fill that time with distractions like housework or chores (unless that means relaxation to you).

3. Learn to recognize burnout behaviors and have an action plan at the ready.

“I left the stove on last night, really? Yes, that is a nervous eyelid twitch.  No, I will not stop watching Parks and Rec and eating waffles – Leslie Knope gets me.”

Humans are creatures of habit and when threatened, we tend to revisit the same patterns that make us feel safe – whether it’s drinking too much, sleeping in, or even becoming selectively forgetful; when we’re burntout or stressed, our personal coping mechanisms rear their ugly heads.

If there’s a behavior in your life that seems to appear every time you’re facing a heavy workload or are scraping the bottom of the energy barrel, it’s a safe bet that burnout is on the horizon. Once you recognize these patterns, have a plan ready to address them.