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10 Ways to Avoid Burnout as an Instructional Designer

Burnout is just as inevitable for instructional designers as for other teaching professionals. There will be multiple points in your career when you ask yourself, “Is this the right job for me?”— there’s no shame in it; we’ve all been there.

Here are some ways you can prevent or manage burnout as an instructional designer:

1. Share Your Knowledge

As an instructional designer, you come from an educational background, from stand-up training or a business field. Sometimes, it is easy for you to forget why you got into this field in the first place. Schedule regular knowledge-sharing sessions with your colleagues to rekindle your passion for training and development. Get involved in mentoring younger instructional designers. Help others with some challenging situations. Write articles or blog posts about your experiences. By giving back to the community and the profession, you will feel a renewed energy in your work and engagement.

2. Plan Your Downtime

Burnout is rife in training professions due to the constant demands of learners and organizations alike. As an instructional designer, you’ll feel the constant push and pull from those above and below you from tight deadlines, and high expectations. Scheduling time off, creating purpose outside of work, and balancing your life will not only make you more motivated during your work hours but less guilty when you’re away.

3. Set Your Boundaries

Sometimes, defining what you do to others may be challenging. The public, your administrative colleagues, and even superiors may need to fully grasp the scope of your work. Some may think training is the “cure-all” and may ask you to complete tasks outside of your expertise. Don’t be afraid to say “no” If someone is tugging on your sleeve and asking you to do things outside of your job duties. Become a leader by explaining the role of training and educating those around you on what you can and cannot influence.

4. Minimize Multitasking

Discard the myth that multitasking is a valuable skill in the workplace. Multitasking is inefficient and exhausting. Despite instructional design being a complex profession, there’s no need to tolerate the mental clutter caused by trying to do everything at once. Stick to one task at a time, use scheduling and blocking off time slots to manage your time wisely, and prioritize your time to ensure the most important things get done first. Everyone has the same amount of time each day, so control your time so it will not control you.

5. Expand Your Immediate Skillset

Even a seasoned instructional designer can’t expect to know everything. Schedule regular study time to learn unfamiliar learning models, take classes or workshops, or brush up on your design or project management skills with an online course. Become a student of your profession. Always keep learning and growing

6. Explore Other Learning Arenas

Examine how people learn in areas that are not learning. For example, how do people learn how to play a video game, do simple home repairs, train their dog, or perfect a hobby? Sometimes, learning is found in areas we may not expect. Also, explore areas that involve design, such as User Experience Design, Graphic Design, and even Fashion Design. You might find new inspirations.

7. Keep On Top Of Tech Trends

Much like the previous point, keep on top of technology and look for new tools and innovations to streamline your workload. Machine learning innovations, for example, can do your work for you if you put the time into mastering them.

Another more recent technology that has applications in learning is Virtual Reality (VR). VR offers escapism and entertainment and a new medium of learning by putting learners into real-world situations and having them perform tasks in that world. In situations where experimentation and learning on real systems or in real environments could prove dangerous, VR can open new doors of opportunity.

Not to be confused with VR, AR (augmented reality) is arguably more relevant and accessible than its counterpart. The critical difference is that AR uses the real world as a backdrop and introduces virtual elements into it. In contrast, VR is a fully immersive experience that requires specialized equipment (such as VR Glasses and hand devices.

 

Pay attention to global trends, such as the explosion of artificial intelligence. We won’t list any here because they probably won’t age well, but you should read forums and news sites to find the best-quality information sources for instructional designers.

8. Learn To Code

Instructional design is programmatic by nature. If you learn a simple programming language like Javascript, you’ll be surprised by how much of your skillset is transferable. A skilled programmer can automate many mundane, repetitive administrative tasks contributing to burnout. Also, simple programming scripts can enhance your eLearning courses to be more engaging and effective.

9. Get More Data Literate

Even if you’re not a math person, you can’t escape from the fact that you need to analyze the performance metrics of your courses. If you’re unaware of how students are responding to your courses, then there’s no indication that your iterations and tests are effective. Decide what to measure and how you will acquire that data. Then, acquaint yourself with analyzing the data, finding correlations, averages, outliers, and key interpretations. From this data, you can gain insights into the effectiveness of your courses, where they need to be improved, and what decisions need to be made based on those interpretations. Knowing that your work is impactful and demonstrates results is a great morale boost.

10. Expand Your Vision

Take a look at your work with fresh eyes. Decide on where you want to apply your skills to be of greatest benefit. Realize that you are part of a profession that can impact people’s jobs, careers, and lives. You are the architect of your career, so use those design skills to create one where you can find purpose and meaning for yourself.

Conclusion

Remember that denial is a symptom of burnout, so if you often wonder, “Am I in burnout?” then you probably are. Either way, consider one or more of these actionable suggestions, as they’re all bound to improve something, no matter how small. 

Some of the suggestions are more time or cost-intensive than others and that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ll be more impactful than the cheaper or quicker wins. Pick changes that make sense to you and follow through like a good golf swing. Make your career what you want of it, not what your circumstances dictate.

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