We’re already in the second quarter of 2025, and for many professionals — particularly women in demanding roles — the pace has barely eased. It has become normal to move from task to task, meeting to meeting, without time to pause, recalibrate or reflect. The danger? We begin to normalise overextension. We see constant output as a non-negotiable — and rest as optional.
Operating in this mode over the long term comes at a cost: mentally, physically, and professionally. The signs are often subtle at first — a shift in perspective, a sense of fatigue, a dip in creativity. By the time they become impossible to ignore, the effects are already deeply embedded.
Recognising when you’re functioning in unsustainable overdrive is the first step. Knowing how to pull back — and design rhythms that protect your wellbeing — is what allows us to maintain longevity in leadership and performance.
What Does Operating in Overdrive Looks Like?
Dr Monica Vermani, clinical psychologist and author of A Deeper Wellness, notes that prolonged stress doesn’t always present in dramatic ways.
“When your daily output continuously exceeds your recovery, the body adapts — but not without consequence. Over time, you develop symptoms that quietly erode focus, mood, and motivation.”
Recent surveys support this. A Deloitte report revealed that 46% of women in the workplace feel consistently overwhelmed, while the Global Wellness Institute reports that chronic stress now contributes to more than 60% of workplace health issues.
This isn’t simply about tiredness — it’s about the cumulative effect of never stepping back.
Five Signs You Need to Hit Pause — and How to Respond
1. You’re Always Working, But Rarely Present
Your diary is full, your inbox never sleeps — and yet, something feels disconnected. You’re completing tasks but not engaging with them. This gap between doing and feeling creates emotional fatigue and ultimately affects your quality of thought.
Preventative practice: Build intentional pauses into your day. Begin and end your day with quiet check-ins. Block time for deep work without interruptions, and protect short, regular breaks to recharge attention.
2. You’ve Become Increasingly Cynical
The mindset shift from curiosity to criticism can happen gradually. Where you once approached ideas with energy, you now default to scepticism or frustration. This is often the emotional manifestation of being mentally stretched too thin.
Preventative practice: Reconnect with meaning. Revisit your personal ‘why’ and take time to engage in conversations or content that uplifts your perspective. Peer support, coaching, or journaling can help reframe your thinking.
3. Your Body is Speaking Louder Than Your Schedule
From regular headaches and digestive discomfort to poor sleep and jaw tension, the body often signals what the mind is trying to suppress. According to the British Psychological Society, physical symptoms linked to chronic stress are among the most overlooked workplace health risks.
Preventative practice: Prioritise physical decompression. Step away from screens, create movement rituals throughout the day, and give attention to hydration, breathing and posture.
4. Decision Fatigue and Delays Are Creeping In
What once felt manageable now feels mentally draining. Routine decisions are exhausting. You’re either procrastinating or rushing — and both are signs of cognitive overload.
Preventative practice: Structure your work around your peak energy periods. Make key decisions in the first half of your day. Delegate where possible, and avoid stacking too many critical decisions without pause.
5. You’re No Longer Energised by What Used to Inspire You
Tasks feel monotonous. Even your passion projects feel like obligations. If you’ve lost the sense of reward or enthusiasm in your work, it’s time to check in.
Preventative practice: Create space for inspiration — whether through reading, learning, mentoring or simply spending time with people or projects that energise you. Build time for strategy and creativity, not just execution.
Explore more signs via Women’s Health UK
Prevention is Leadership in Practice
An article from Harvard Business Review, Schedule a 15-Minute Break Before You Burn Out, argues that short, intentional pauses built into the workday can dramatically improve focus, resilience, and performance. Leadership today demands more than strategic execution — it requires the ability to model sustainability.
Dr Jenny Brockis, author of Thriving Mind, explains:
“Resilience isn’t about pushing through. It’s about knowing when to pause — and having the systems in place to allow it.”
Ways to prevent the slide into chronic overdrive:
- Protect deep work windows: Block off times in your diary that are meeting-free and distraction-free.
- Model boundaries: Leaders who visibly prioritise rest and recovery set the tone for healthy workplace culture.
- Define communication rhythms: Reduce the need for constant availability. Clarity on when and how people are expected to respond eases pressure.
- Normalise checking in on energy, not just output: Make wellbeing part of leadership conversations — not an afterthought.
Reframing Sustainable Success: Why Workplace Structures Need to Evolve
One of the more overlooked — yet compelling — perspectives on overdrive and fatigue lies not just in how we work, but how our work is structured. Much of what we experience today as burnout is less about personal weakness and more about legacy systems that no longer serve the demands of modern life or leadership.
Traditional workplace models, many of which were designed during the industrial era, prioritised linear careers, fixed hours, and visible productivity. These systems rewarded constancy and compliance — not creativity, agility, or wellbeing. While the world has evolved, many of our organisational frameworks haven’t kept pace. The result? People are under pressure to function in environments that were not built for sustainability.
In Harvard Business Review’s When Executives BurnOut, the argument is clear: performance fatigue isn’t an individual failing — it’s often a structural one. Leaders are pushed to deliver more with fewer resources, operate at speed, and remain constantly available — without space to pause, recover or reflect.
Contemporary data reinforces this. The McKinsey Health Institute reports that senior leaders are 1.5 times more likely than their teams to experience exhaustion, with workplace design, culture, and pressure playing key roles. Gallup’s global workplace research further reveals that only 21% of employees are engaged, with inflexible systems and reactive leadership contributing to a widespread sense of disconnection.
If we’re to reimagine sustainable leadership, we must look beyond surface-level interventions. It requires shifting the architecture of work itself.
What does that look like?
- Moving from presenteeism to outcomes-based leadership: Redefining performance by the value of results, not hours logged.
- Replacing rigid hierarchies with adaptable systems: Empowering people with autonomy, flexibility, and choice.
- Designing cultures that support recovery, not just resilience: Wellbeing shouldn’t be a programme — it must be integrated into the rhythm of work.
- Encouraging reflection as a leadership skill: Time to think isn’t a luxury — it’s a necessity for decision-making, creativity, and strategic foresight.
At a personal level, it also means questioning inherited career expectations. What does success look like for you — in this season, in this context? Sustainable leadership is not linear, and it’s rarely loud. It’s about pacing yourself for impact that lasts.
In truth, protecting your energy is not just a personal win — it’s a radical act of leadership in systems that still glorify overextension. And perhaps that’s where the reset begins.
Final Thoughts: Strategic Rest is Smart Leadership
The McKinsey Health Institute has shown that improving workplace wellbeing can lead to a 21% increase in productivity. But more than that — sustainability is about clarity, not just capacity.
We can no longer afford to treat recovery as an afterthought. It must be part of how we lead. Rest is not a retreat from success — it’s what fuels it.
As we navigate the rest of 2025, take a moment to reflect: is your current pace aligned with the kind of leadership you want to model? If not, start now. Protect your energy. Rethink your rhythm. And give yourself the space to pause — not because you’ve earned it, but because it’s part of what makes long-term impact possible.
