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If you’re experiencing burnout in your architecture role, you’re likely not alone. In 2023, Archinect’s Mental Health Survey found burnout to be a common theme among those who told us they were experiencing stress at work. Our community has also raised the issue among themselves, with an Archinect Forum post titled ‘Burnout Check-In’ prompting almost 100 comments by users describing their own experiences.

Building on our previous feature articles on the subject, which focused on both the architecture work culture and architecture workplace, we have assembled below a series of tips for those currently experiencing and seeking to overcome burnout in their work setting.

Do you have advice for overcoming burnout beyond those set out below? Let us know in the comments.

Recognize that creativity is prone to burnout…

As noted above, burnout is a frequent fixture in the architecture profession. This can partly be attributed to cultural phenomena within the profession, which, as our previous article described in detail, includes architecture’s tendency towards long hours, rigorous deadlines, and the view that such efforts are not worth the reward. However, research has shown that burnout is also particularly prevalent in artistic, creative, and design-orientated disciplines more broadly.

“As an industry, we have a tendency to use creativity as an excuse, as if working in a creative field was reward enough to forego such mundane notions as annual reviews, career paths, functioning processes, and fair pay,” creative agency TBWA commented in a study on burnout that they recently ran. Meanwhile, Staffordshire University’s Agata Lulkowska recently observed that creative industries are less able to adopt a ‘9–5’ mentality due to the tendency to “carry ideas and to-do lists with you even when you’re seemingly out of work,” as well as “carry a sense of uncertainty about whether you will satisfy the expectations and deliver on time.”

…and become a creative ‘pro’

Steven Pressfield’s book The War of Art offers a pathway to overcoming this tendency for creativity to breed burnout. Pressfield presents the idea of becoming a “pro” in your creative work, rejecting the view that creativity is hampered by the rigidity and discipline of a structured workday. On the contrary, Pressfield believes that adopting a business-like approach to work allows the artist to establish an effective but sustainable routine for producing creative work.

In the book, Pressfield notes: “Someone once asked Somerset Maugham if he wrote on a schedule or only when struck by inspiration. 'I write only when inspiration strikes,' he replied. 'Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o’clock sharp.' That’s a pro.”

Emptying your mind of work-related thoughts on vacation is easier than it sounds and takes a dedicated effort, but it is crucial to keeping burnout at bay.

Make a ‘grand gesture’ to reset…

In his book Deep Work, Cal Newport introduces the concept of ‘grand gestures’ for those striving to overcome burnout and fatigue. Newport’s examples are extreme, such as J.K. Rowling booking an expensive hotel suite to finish the Harry Potter series or entrepreneur Peter Shankman purchasing a round-trip flight to Tokyo purely to deliver on a two-week book deadline while on the plane.

“By leveraging a radical change to your normal environment, coupled perhaps with a significant investment of effort or money, all dedicated toward supporting a deep work task, you increase the perceived importance of the task,” Newport writes. “This boost in importance reduces your mind's instinct to procrastinate and delivers an injection of motivation and energy.”

Your ‘grand gesture’ does not need to be as absurd as Rowling or Shankman and could instead involve changing the position of your work desk in the office, switching to a different project, or, if you work remotely, setting yourself up in a cafe or library for a week.

…including time away from work

Your ‘grand gesture’ may be as simple as taking a break from work, particularly if an intensive project means you have not used vacation days from the office in some months. However, it is important to remember that a vacation from the office will only allow you to reset if you leave your work at the door.

If your vacation involves even light monitoring of emails or thinking about design problems facing you upon your return, burnout will soon strike again. Emptying your mind of work-related thoughts on vacation is easier than it sounds and takes a dedicated effort, but it is crucial to keeping burnout at bay.

The more we sacrifice time in favor of quality and quantity, the more likely burnout becomes, and the more likely it is that our future work will suffer in quality and quantity.

Make time your master…

In The War of Art, Pressfield offers readers an insight into how he prioritizes time over the quantity and even the quality of his work. Reflecting on his typical day as a writer, Pressfield notes: “How many pages have I produced? I don’t care. Are they any good? I don’t even think about it. All that matters is I’ve put in my time and hit it with all I’ve got.”

This is not an invitation to entirely disregard the quality of your work. Instead, it is a recognition that establishing a clear, consistent window for work is essential to sustaining yourself as a professional creative and avoiding burnout. It is also a recognition of Parkinson's Law, which states: “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” As the examples littered throughout Pressfield’s book show, prioritizing time over quality and quantity will, in fact, lead to an improvement in quality and quantity.

…and stick to it religiously

In architecture, maintaining time discipline is easier said than done. Archinect’s editorial has often explored the failure of the profession at large to address the prevalence of long hours, particularly unpaid overtime, in architecture offices. While unsustainable work hours are sometimes outside the worker’s control, it is also true that those with more autonomy over their time, such as sole practitioners and students, are equally prone to burnout. We always fall into the same trap: “A drawing might be better if we give it an extra couple of hours.” “A design problem might be solved if we work on it through the evening.” “Our competition entry might have a better shot at winning if we work on it through the weekend.”

Keeping our work inside a dedicated time window sounds easy and desirable in theory, but in practice, the temptation to break it “just once” is strong. For a discipline as engaged with ‘problem-solving’ as architecture, it is also challenging to develop the skill of leaving design problems at the door when the workday is finished and not dwelling on them overnight. This skill, however, is vital. The more we sacrifice time in favor of quality and quantity, the more likely burnout becomes, and the more likely it is that our future work will suffer in quality and quantity.

Any star performer, from athletes to musicians to artists, will tell you that performance inevitably rises and falls over time and that attempting to perform at your maximal efficiency over a sustained period is neither desirable, effective, or healthy.

Beware the cult of efficiency and ‘the grind’...

While Pressfield’s book emphasizes the importance of making productive use of your work window, we currently live in the midst of a ‘cult of efficiency’ driven by an obsession with making time ever more optimized and hackable, and looking down on those without the “#grindset.” As a side note, it often amuses me how the loudest and most passionate proponents of this ‘cult of efficiency’ movement are found not in offices, studios, or places of work but on social media.

Any star performer, from athletes to musicians to artists, will tell you that performance inevitably rises and falls over time and that performing at your maximal efficiency over a sustained period is neither desirable, effective, nor healthy. It leads only to injury and, yes, burnout.

…and recognize the need for balance

Instead of striving for sustained maximal efficiency in yourself or in your colleagues as a manager, recognize the importance of recovery. In addition to preventing burnout, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s book Flow: The Psychology of Happiness argues that unstructured, unplanned events in our day and life are important avenues for inspiring creativity.

For architects, this need for balance becomes more important for those who not only work in practice but include architectural activities beyond the office, such as freelance work, competition entries, drawing, or skill development. When experiencing burnout, it is worth asking yourself if a brief pause in architecture-related activities beyond the office may afford your creative mind a chance to rest and recharge.

Minimizing burnout among staff is important not only for the well-being and health of those in the firm but for the financial health of the firm itself.

If you’re a manager, pay attention to burnout among staff…

If you are in a management position in your firm and notice signs of burnout among staff, such as a decline in productivity or increases in fatigue, it is important to examine whether structures in the office are contributing to that burnout. Such scenarios could range from overloading colleagues with work, not offering enough variety in the nature of work, or not addressing tendencies towards overtime. It is also important to note that colleagues will not always raise concerns over burnout uninvited for fear of drawing attention to any slowdown in their productivity.

Minimizing burnout among staff is important not only for the well-being and health of those in the firm but for the financial health of the firm itself. An increase in burnout inevitably leads to a loss of productivity and a decline in the firm’s output, while a failure to address burnout may also lead to dedicated, hard-working staff seeking to alleviate burnout by searching for roles elsewhere.

…and take inspiration from your peers

In a previous feature article on burnout, our editorial explored the tactics deployed by a series of firms to minimize burnout in their offices. While New Haven-based Gray Organschi Architecture maintains a maximum work week of 40 hours, Boston-based Saam Architecture affords its team flexibility over their time and schedule.

As we noted at the time, such firms “are profitable, they have clients, they’re completing projects, and they have lives outside of work.” Meanwhile, as our profiling of firms from The Architecture Lobby’s Just Design initiative demonstrates, adherence to fair labor practices and work-life balances serves not only to decrease burnout and fuel a healthy office culture but to strengthen the firm’s architectural output.

Finally, follow our ongoing Archinect Tips series for advice and guidance on navigating your architectural career.