02/15/2024

Why We are More Exhausted Than Ever

Americans are now in the era of "The Great Exhaustion"

People are tired. Like, really tired. As evidenced by recent trends such as Quiet Quitting, Coffee Badging, Bare Minimum Mondays and most of all, The Great Resignation—when more than 47 million Americans voluntarily resigned from their positions—people are feeling a strain on more than just their work calendars; they're feeling it on their spirits. We’re now in the era of "The Great Exhaustion," what writer and computer science professor Cal Newport has called a time when people are looking to reestablish their relationship with work in order to reduce their pervasive sense of drain.

Most people aren't surprised to hear about "The Great Exhaustion." We know that we are tired, and we see it in the choices we make every day: ordering dinner because we don’t have the energy to make it, trying to find ways to work from home so we don’t have to add a two-hour commute to our day, infrequent social outings because it is impossible to coordinate busy adult schedules, complete de-prioritization of hobbies—the list goes on and on.

People feel so fatigued that they are cutting out activities that used to be commonplace and low stress, like working out and going to the supermarket. Factor in recovering from the pandemic, inflation and global stressors, and you’ve got a recipe for complete physical, mental and emotional exhaustion.

Please select this link to read the complete article from TIME.