Hitting the Wall, Burnout and Spoon Theory

A lot of people seem to be hitting the wall this week in their job search, despite positive news elsewhere. Caused by knockbacks, career grief, impostor syndrome, mental fatigue, worry about coronavirus, lockdown, economy and all the other crises in the world. A vicious circle that affects sleep, diet, how you cope and fundamentally your ability to commit to an effective jobsearch.

Maintaining, managing and planning your energy levels is an important aspect of health and wellbeing and should be one of the pillars of your jobsearch. If you don’t you do it effectively, you are danger of burnout, if you haven’t hit the wall already.

Even if you aren’t looking for work, our drastic change in lifestyle may affect how much you have in you to cope.

What can we do?

This article is about Spoon Theory, an energy management concept in disability and mental health that may help you get back on track, and have a sustainable way of committing to the grind of the job search, with the aim of getting you what you need – a job.

One strategy worth taking a few minutes to read about and see if it can be effective for you.

This won’t pay the bills or deal with matters out of our control – 2nd wave, furlough etc. But it will allow us to effectively manage what we can control – the job search.

What is Spoon Theory?

Spoon theory is a metaphor coined by Christine Miserandino in 2003 who used it to described her limited energy levels to a friend, as someone who suffers from Lupus. Since then it has been adopted across disability and mental health, both as an explanation and a strategy for managing energy levels effectively.

It’s an effective concept and strategy that allows you to manage what may be a limited pool of energy, so that you don’t suffer problematic consequences of expending too much energy – such as burnout.

How it Applies

Imagine a spoon is a unit of your energy. Start your day with all your spoons on the table. If you are fit and healthy, you may have 20. If you are under stress, strain or about to burn out, you may have 15. If you have an illness, such as Lupus or MS, or a condition such as ASD, you may have 12. Or even less.

If something changes in your life, you may find the amount of energy you have access to changes too.

Everything you do in your day uses up a certain amount of spoons. An activity may take up a different amount depending on how you approach it, what your state of mind is when you do it, or if you are feeling unwell for any reason.

Some activities may replace spoons such as sleep, exercise and relaxing. Not always the case if you are injured, if it’s hot outside, or if your sleep is affected.

If you use too many spoons up on one day, you may borrow from the next, or even a few days ahead, but beware taking too much from the pot without paying it back. This will only lead to problems.

Spoon Theory in Practice

Here are a couple of example days of when I’m supporting job seekers, to give context:

Not a huge amount of difference between the two. What’s changed? A bit of stress from lockdown, a bit of family friction (and we are lucky), not much benefit from a run (hot day), but I’m better at doing video and the supermarket isn’t so tricky. Having less starting energy doesn’t help, but I’ll probably catch up at the weekend.

But what if I am more stressed and I start each of these examples with only 15 spoons? What if I’m not sleeping properly and don’t get a full quota of spoons? What if the things that used to give me energy quickly take it away?

What if your productivity looking for work in lockdown isn’t the same as when you were working?

You can quickly see how easy it is for that negative energy level to build and build, until you hit the wall.

Spoon Theory in Job Search

Same concept. This is Ian – he’s just been made redundant at the start of lockdown. Taken a bit of time to grieve the loss of his career and consider how to optimise his search. He doesn’t have children (no homeschooling!) so has no excuse but to commit to his search.

As time progresses the futility of applying for jobs becomes difficult. Financial strain and stress of lockdown, means he doesn’t sleep as well and despite exercising he’s putting on weight due to bad diet and drinking. Knockbacks, no feedback, pipped to the post, depressing news starting to take their toll.

But he’s found some positivity in engaging with LinkedIn, increasing his network, videocalls, virtual coffees. It’s just that he’s not getting the result he wants (a job).

He’s really feeling the pressure by day 90.

The problem is Ian has been on -1 spoons for quite some time, and he’s blaming himself for having low energy levels creating a vicious circle. As he has quite a deficit he can’t keep borrowing from tomorrow. So he takes the week off – he’s hit the wall.

Spoon Theory and You

These examples are arbitrary, but why not think about your days 14, 30, 60 and 90. What’s changed? How are your energy levels fluctuating? How are some things more difficult or easier?

Start to think about your energy expenditure objectively, spoons or otherwise, to understand what you have to play with.

Next Steps

If spoon theory applies to you, there are other activities you should do, to see what your current state of mind is and establish a workable strategy going forwards.

• Mindfulness, to assess whether you are being affected by stress and strain.
• Are there things you can do differently to improve your state of mind? Better sleep, exercise regime, diet? Removing destructive activities from your day?

Establish where you are with your mental health and what things you can do differently to increase your energy levels.

There are many sources of help online that can be a good start. For example, how about this interview through FurLearn on sleep strategy:

Or how about my video on job search mindfulness:

Once you’ve audited yourself, now it’s time to put a plan in place that is sustainable and constructive. For me it starts with treating your job search like an appropriate full time job, but only because I have 20 spoons.

Job search strategy and work day structure

I always talk about the job search grind, and how you need to commit your time appropriately to all the tools you have available to you:

• Job boards
• Partnering with recruiters (transformative and transactional)
• Social Media
• Networking
• Door knocking (virtual or actual)
• Speculative emails
• Blogging
• Promotional offers (e.g. can you help a local business, with an hour of your time in your area of expertise)

We all have different skills sets, whether in sales, marketing, HR or supply chain and you need to find a balance of search tools that works for you, with the energy available to you.

As you develop your skills you can hone in on what’s effective for you.

E.g. keep using job boards, but be focused in what you apply for – if you only have the will for one application, make it the one that counts and give your best effort.

Now you have an idea of how many spoons you have available you can structure your day, like you would a work day, using the appropriate tools and resource:

• Plan your day accordingly. Lots of breaks. Check in with peers.
• Substitute commute with exercise or sudokus or such, to set yourself up for the day and defrag at the end.
• Set short, medium and long-term targets - SMART is probably best for a jobsearch. Set your daily to do list, including the grimy work you don't like but you know is needed.
• Reward yourself when you hit milestones, be it 5 applications, 10 new connections, one door knock, one speculative enquiry, one checkin with a peer from the past, one new recruiter engaged, or any of the other tactics you should be using

Keep track of what you are doing and how it impacts you. Tweak your strategies to get the most out of it. If you’ve hit the wall, take baby steps while your energy levels are difficult to manage.

You may find you return to full speed after a time – great! But if you don’t, don’t blame yourself, just be mindful of what you have available and use that as your guideline for how much you do.

In Summary

If you are struggling with energy levels, spoon theory is one proven way to get the best out of what you have. It certainly stops what can be a destructive cycle.

I encourage you to read further about spoon theory, about mental health, and about how they apply to you. Understanding the challenges within you are the start to overcoming them.

About Me

I’m no psychologist, nor an expert in mental health. I’m a 20 year recruiter passionate about delivering solutions that effect a transformation in people and business. I’m a mathematician that is strong on analysis, pattern recognition and linking together seemingly unrelated information – one of the reasons I like recruitment.

This article is based on a little knowledge of spoon theory, a good insight into effective jobsearches, and many conversations with jobseekers in the coronavirus economy that are facing the same issues.

With Thanks

A big thank you to the various people I have spoken to recently that have been candid about a range of mental health issues, ranging from bi-polar to depression, and illness such as MS. Hearing about how spoon theory works for them gives great insight into how it can work for you.

I won’t name call, but you know who you are and I am grateful for your help and input.