Are you running on fumes as the year comes to a close?

In this solo episode of the Happier at Work podcast, Aoife O'Brien gets real about end-of-year exhaustion, sharing her personal experiences and lessons learned after a hectic, relentless year without a truly restorative break. Drawing from her own journey juggling business demands and book writing, plus research for her upcoming book, Aoife O'Brien explores why so many of us struggle to press pause, and how cultural norms, productivity mindsets, and always-on tech contribute to burnout. She offers practical psychological insights and actionable advice for prioritising rest, recovery, and self-support so we can finish strong and start the new year feeling truly refreshed.

In This Episode, You’ll Discover:

1. The causes of end-of-year fatigue: Many people feel depleted as the year wraps up, often because they haven’t scheduled proper restorative breaks.
2. The pressure to stay busy: Social norms, the "Protestant work ethic," and hustle culture make it hard for us to take time off without guilt.
3. The importance of scheduling breaks first: Prioritising holiday time and support for your business ensures you can fully detach and recharge.
4. How to recognise when your body and mind are telling you to slow down, then take action before burnout hits.

Related Topics Covered:

Managing Workload, Workplace Wellbeing, Entrepreneurial Challenges

Connect with Aoife O’Brien | Host of Happier at Work®:

1. Website
2. LinkedIn
3. YouTube

Related Episodes You’ll Love:

122: Cultivating a Mindset for Success with Brennan Jacoby

249: Embracing Failure & A Growth Mindset with Kelly MacDonald

241: Exploring The Phases of Burnout with Aoife O’Brien

About Happier at Work®

Happier at Work® is the podcast for business leaders who want to create meaningful, human-centric workplaces. Hosted by Aoife O’Brien, the show explores leadership, career clarity, imposter syndrome, workplace culture, and employee engagement — helping you and your team thrive.

If you enjoy podcasts like WorkLife with Adam Grant, The Happiness Lab, or Squiggly Careers, you’ll love Happier at Work®.

Website: https://happieratwork.ie LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aoifemobrien/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HappierAtWorkHQ

Mentioned in this episode:

Thriving Talent book

Book

Are you running on fumes? If you're listening to this podcast episode in real time, then you can probably hear it in my voice. I have not been well for the last couple of weeks. I'm still not 100% and this episode was supposed to be something completely different than what it turned out to be. From conversations that I've had, from posts that I've seen in my feed, especially on LinkedIn, I see that people are running on fumes. We're heading towards the end of the year and I want to acknowledge that. I want to share my own personal perspective because it made me realize that I hadn't had a proper restful break all year. I took a full three weeks off at Christmas time last year, which was great. It did admittedly take the cogs a little bit of time to get working.

When I came back to work in January, it meant also that I took a break from writing the book over Christmas time last year and and then that break extended and extended and extended and it didn't really get back into writing until around April or May time of this year. Also a reminder that the book is coming out in March 2026. The pre sales will be announced really soon. If you want to find out more about the book, you can head to thrivingtalentbook.com so the purpose of this episode is to acknowledge you if you're feeling this way, if you're running on fumes, if you feel like this is how I imagine it. Indiana Jones, when he's last minute rolling the closing gate or door or whatever you want to call it, and he has to reach back in and grab his hat. It feels like a sprint to the end of the year. And I know so many people who are looking forward to taking that proper break. I most certainly am.

This is, you know, something I'm definitely looking forward to. Like I say, I haven't been well. And I think the reason I haven't been well is because I haven't taken a proper break. I'm at the very last stages of editing of the book and I'm working with my editor, my publishers about getting that over the line. And it has meant that I've worked over weekends and haven't had the break at weekends. And I think that's my body's way of saying you need to slow down, you need to look after yourself. So reminder to anyone else who's feeling that way, then you're definitely not alone. I think a lot of people are feeling that they're feeling just overtired overstimulated and really can't wait for having that break, I think especially if you work in an industry, you know, and I have my own business.

So obviously end of the year is the end of the financial year for me. So I'm looking at the numbers and I'm trying to do what I can to make sure that I have a better year than I had last year. Although you could argue that it's all very arbitrary as well. What happened this year for me. Yeah, I didn't take that long restorative break that I had in 2024. I had a proper break from for at least a week, 2024, where I took the apps off my phone, I didn't have my laptop with me, I was not checking into work at all. I wasn't even thinking about work. And it's made me realize that going into 2026 I need more support in my business.

So that's one thing. And I need to book in those time off periods first because I know next year is going to be a busy one with the book launch. I'll be doing a book tour around the US as well and I want to focus a lot of that. I have no doubt that there'll be lots of opportunities, media opportunities to go along with the book launch as well. So I want to make sure that I have rest time because although it might sound like a jolly, it might sound like it's a lot of fun, I know it will take a lot out of me, especially being an introvert and being around people all the time. It will definitely take its toll on me. So I had no kind of proper, proper. I had long weekends and I typically, most of the time don't have meetings on Mondays and Fridays, which definitely makes a difference.

And I tend not to have meetings before 11 in the morning either. A lot of this year though, as well. Remember on top of my day job, I have been writing the book. So I have somewhat of an excuse for why I was working so hard. The other thing to consider is that it was kind of a relatively quiet start of the year from a financial perspective. So it didn't have a huge amount going on at the start of the year, which caused a bit of worry, which probably caused me to work a little bit harder to try and get some more benefits, let's say, or some more income coming in throughout the remainder of the year. I probably could have taken time in summer because that is typically quieter when people are not necessarily around. So these are all reminders to myself and maybe to yourself.

As well to take that. That break and to plan around when you need to take that time off. Now I want to kind of go into some of the psychology around this as well. Why do we find it so hard to actually take breaks? Like why is it hard? And for the book I researched, it's only a small part of it, but it was really interesting to read into some of the reasons behind it. And one of the things is the Protestant work ethic and the morality around work. And work needs to be hard and work needs to be effortful. And the more effort we put in, the more worthiness we have and the kind of moral around all of that sort of stuff. It was really interesting.

Obviously then there's social media and there's the hustle culture and to be seen to be working hard is seen as something that's quite virtuous as well. Just want to put all of that into the context. Then there's also the identity of productivity and worth and how we identify ourselves with being productive. Even if we take time off, we want to make sure that that time off is filled with stuff. It's filled with things that are producing that are somehow productive, whether that is cleaning or organizing, rather than just rest for rest's sake, rather than just doing nothing. And I know for me, in my case, if I can kind of think about this, it would be that not being able to sit still, it will the reading books so that then I can count that towards my. I have read X number of books this year, so I had a goal of 52 books and I'm over 60 at this stage. So I'll go, you know, I'll be more than 10 over my target for the year end.

But it means that I do something that fulfills a purpose and that has some sort of productivity and associate that with worthiness then as well. So I thought that was quite interesting. Then there's the guilt around having that recovery time. So why can't we be like robots? Or why can't we be always on? And why do we need to recover? And feeling guilty for taking breaks, feeling guilty for needing to rest at all. Then there's the always on culture. So we're available via usually our mobiles. You don't necessarily have your laptop open all the time, but I certainly have access to my emails on my phone. It was a choice of mine not to have my emails on my phone for a very, very long time.

And then when I put them on my phone, it meant that if I was expecting one important that I would be able to check whether that email has come without having to open my laptop. But what that means now is I can be lying in bed and going, oh, I wonder, has anyone replied? And it's just a habit, and a habit I need to absolutely break. But this always on feeling of I'm always accessible. People can get me on the phone, they can get me via WhatsApp, they can get me via email, and the phone is always in my hand, or at least nearby anyway. Then there's the invisible load that we carry as leaders. So all of the additional emotional labor that we have to put in that we don't really factor in, that we don't really think as work, but we're carrying other people's stuff as well. So it's not just our own that we have to carry, it's the stuff that we have to carry for other people. I mean that from an emotional perspective and from, you know, whatever other people are dealing with, we're the ones that carry some of that load as well.

Then there's the busy delusion. I love this one because I get it all the time in my line of work. There'll be a better time in the future when things are less busy and we delude ourselves with the fact that things are going to be less busy, because when have they ever been less busy in the future? And again, if you're listening in real time, we can think of this as, you know, we're coming into the holiday period, as they call it in the US and you know, typically in Ireland, we call it Christmas time or the Christmas. The Christmas. So we're coming into that period where a vast majority of people will have a couple of weeks off, let's say at the very least a week. I myself will be taking at least two weeks off, if not a little bit more, but I'll get onto that in a second. But we think this time of year, it's a sprint to the finish. I have to close the year out.

I have to close it out. Well, we get to the end of the year and we think things are going to be so much calmer in January. And then we come back in January and. And it's the same story again, that we're busy and we're trying to chase our tails and we're trying to catch up with all of the stuff that we potentially missed out on. So just a reminder that things in the future are not necessarily going to be less busy than how they feel now. So don't delude yourself that sometime in the Future things are magically going to feel less busy for you. There's also then the dopamine hit that we get when we feel like we're important because we're getting messages, because people are asking stuff of us. So don't forget the importance of that.

And that feeling of being needed, being required, being understood. All of that serves to perpetuate this idea that we can't take a break because it actually feels kind of good to be busy and to have all of this stuff to do. I want to talk about this idea of rest as well, and the fact that rest doesn't have to mean doing nothing. It can just be a change. It can just be doing something different. I want to talk about our cycles as well. So I again, there's a small section in the book about this where I talk about the different cycles that we have. So there are for women, obviously we have the monthly cycles that we have with menstruation.

There are also the daily cycles that we have. So the circadian rhythm, but then there's the ultradian rhythm. So that is typically 90 to 120 minutes of when you have high energy, when you can focus, and then you need to take a break. So all of this to say it's about knowing your energy, knowing when you feel energized, allowing yourself to take those breaks throughout the day. So obviously within reason, if you have back to back meetings, maybe, you know, separate podcasts need to check out. I can put some recommendations below. But just being aware of those things and managing to the best of your ability, knowing your own energy peaks as well, whether you're a lark or whether you're an owl. So do you do your best work in the morning or do you do your best work in the evening? But then also knowing your energy throughout the different phases within the month as well, or even days of the week, is there a time do you come in on Monday and you're able to do much more focused work because you feel really energized.

And then Fridays maybe for admin and things because you're feeling a bit more depleted and it requires less thinking on your part. So thinking about those types of things, there's also this idea of the psychological detachment from work and why we need that, why we need to take those proper breaks. And if I think back to my corporate days, it's like when I took a two week holiday instead of a one week holiday, I notice a huge difference. So after one week it's like, oh, now I finally feel relaxed. And then the Second week was for, like, purely enjoying my holiday. Slight side note that I hadn't planned to talk about, but there's also this idea that if you're gone for a week, someone else is not going to pick up your work. It's just going to be still sitting there for you when you come back from holidays. Whereas if you go for two weeks, typically someone can step in and get that work done for you while you're not around.

What can we do about this? So the first thing is take a real break. And like I said, I, for one, am looking forward to having a proper break at Christmas. I'm at the final, final stages of writing the book at the time of this recording. And because I've been not so well, I'm recording this later than I normally would. So normally I would have it recorded at least two weeks before it's being released. And this is just over a week to go before this is being released. I will be working on the book this evening, so I'm recording it in this podcast episode in the evening. I'll be on the book.

Continue to work on that this evening until, basically until it's ready for me to hand over to my publishers. They will very likely have some things to come back to me. We've been editing as we've been going through, I've been getting feedback on the entire manuscript, and I've been making changes for the last maybe month or a couple of months anyway. And so there's probably not a huge amount to do, but I'm sure there will be some things that need to be moved around or some things that need to change or they need my input on. So I'm here for that. But for the most part, I am taking a proper break at Christmas. And if required, I will make myself available because the book is so important to me. I will make myself available to answer any questions that come up about that, but take a real break.

And my lesson as well is to book off some proper time next year. Have a proper break. Like two weeks of not thinking about work. And for me personally, because it's me in the business that will require some levels of support. So I will be looking into that as well. The second point is to have a landing week. So again, like I mentioned, when I came back after the Christmas break in January of this year, I felt the cogs were taking a while to kind of warm up and get back into work mode. And so when I'm thinking about January, I'm not planning too much.

I also have family visiting me in Tenerife over Christmas. I'm going to be back back in Ireland for Christmas by the way. So that's another thing to look forward to and another detachment that I can have. So I'm not going to be in my office necessarily in over the Christmas. So when I come back to Tenerife in January I will have family visiting here. So that will kind of provide a little bit of that landing week. But think about not overloading yourself or not kind of. There's this tendency I think to say, oh, that seems like a January problem and pushing everything into January.

It's like you can push it further into later January rather than the first week that you come back. Another thing to do is plan recovery. So what are the kinds of things that really fuel you? And I think again this is probably something I've neglected a lot this year and it made me realize I need to get out there and get some more hobbies in the evening, not just be sitting in front of Netflix. Find something, some activities to do, find some alternative things to do, find some socialization, find some things that, that I used to really enjoy doing, probably pre pandemic and get back into doing those kinds of things. Schedule your rest now. So your non negotiables for me, like I say, I typically don't have meetings on Mondays or Fridays, which is good and it's great that I can do that because I have my own business. But what does that mean for you? Can you schedule a day or can you block out two hours a week in your diary that is just for you. That is time for reflection.

That is time that you can give to yourself. What, what does that look like for you? Does it mean blocking out time that you don't have it booked yet but you're blocking out time to take a holiday or you're putting the request in to take that time off. Notice the signs of depletion. So for me this has shown up in well it's in my body. You can hear it in my voice. I'm sure it's in my body. I feel tired, I find hard to sleep. Sometimes I'm really slow on catching up with people or with whatsapps.

And I've noticed it not just in me, I've noticed this with other people as well, that they're slow to reply to me like that was a sure fire way because I was always the person who was on fire with the WhatsApp replies reaching out to people. But even if I reach out to someone, I've noticed that they will reply even if it takes them, you know, if they reply straight away or if it takes them a couple of days. I just find it so difficult to to reply to them and I don't know why. It's kind of a this like blocker. Whether it's this is associated with burnout, I'm not sure is it on the way but but it is definitely a sign of depletion for me and so notice those signs in yourself and do something about it before it gets to that stage. That is it for this week's episode. Probably went on a little bit longer than I anticipated. I hope I gave you some flavour of these were two tiny fractions of things that I talk about in the book.

I'm starting to feel excited about it now because I'm nearly, nearly there. As I mentioned, if you want to check it out, go to thrivingtalentbook.com I'm both excited and nervous to put it out there. You'll be hearing a lot more from me about that. My plan is for the solo episodes from January to March when the book is released. I'm going to be sharing insights from very specific chapters as we go into that time period. So I have, I have it kind of mapped out already what I'm going to talk about, but I'll be talking about insights from parts of very specific chapters as well. To give you a flavor of the kind of of thing that I talk about in the book and the kind of insights that you can get when you buy it or when you read it. If this resonated with you, I would really appreciate it if you would share it with a colleague who you think may also need to listen to this kind of rambling or this kind of advice that I have to share.

Or just this collective awareness that we are exhausted, that we are tired and it's coming to the end of the year. The end is in sight and we don't have to to take on the full responsibility ourselves either. We don't have to shoulder everything ourselves. So do share it with a colleague who you think needs to hear it. I always appreciate seeing anything popping up on Apple as a review or any of the other platforms and also Spotify. How easy is it to just leave a five star review on Spotify? It's super easy. It takes all of about one or two seconds. Thank you so much and I will be back again in the new year.