Burnout has had quite the rise. In a handful of years it went from an obscure occupational phenomenon to a household name. Chances are you know someone, or are someone, who has been laid low by a relentless workload or toxic relationship with productivity. “The always-on nature of modern work, where emails ping at 10pm and Slack messages arrive on weekends, has obliterated the boundaries that protect downtime,” says Dr Claire Ashley, a GP and author of The Burnout Doctor: Your 6-step Recovery Plan. It’s little surprise that the 2026 Burnout Report by Mental Health UK shows that 91% of UK adults have experienced high levels of pressure and stress in the past year.
But there’s one upside to reaching breaking point: a chance to rebuild the way we work for the better. If trends such as quiet quitting and Bare Minimum Mondays were the headlines of this culture shift, the real story is in the thousands of small rebellions happening in meeting rooms and home offices across the UK. Laptops closing at 5pm on the dot. Polite pushbacks when a boss is asking too much. A move away from wearing busyness as a badge of honour, and towards the concept of working smarter, not harder.
It’s a change that Jayne Morris, a leading executive burnout coach and author of Burnout to Brilliance: Strategies for Sustainable Success, has witnessed first-hand. “There is generally more awareness of the need for work-life balance and people are thinking differently about wellbeing,” she says, noting that younger generations in particular are role modelling how to say “no” and refusing to compromise on fair working practices. “I do think we’re heading in a positive direction, because rather than surrendering to the notion that ‘this is just the way it is and there is nothing I can do about it’, people are taking personal responsibility for making changes in their own lives.”
While many risk factors for burnout are systemic, recalibrating your own approach to work can be transformative. As someone who turned their passion into a full-time job, I was once one of hustle culture’s most fervent foot soldiers. I believed that the hours I spent writing at my desk directly correlated to my ambition. And then I burned out. Suddenly I couldn’t come up with a single decent idea or muster the energy to make my work shine. The thing I loved doing the most became a chore I could barely manage.
Morris likens this to getting caught in a spin cycle. “Every time we go through burnout, a shade more of ourselves is washed out in the process. Like the colour draining out from our favourite clothes, life becomes less enjoyable and it becomes harder to return to work and keep going.”
Ashley, a survivor of burnout herself, stresses how important it is to catch a slide into chronic stress early. “If you’re at high risk but not burned out yet, you need to stop and make changes to how you’re working,” she says. “You need problem-focused coping strategies that address the actual source of stress, not just your reaction to it.” In short, a block of yoga classes and a hot bath is not enough.
Like most of us, I have to work – and I actually want to. Which means I’ve had to figure out how to do it in a more sustainable way. As a self-employed creative juggling multiple projects each week, I’ve learned to treat my time and energy like the finite resources they are, and have a toolkit on hand that helps me preserve them.
One of those tools is Adobe Acrobat Studio, not just a place to go to access a PDF, it’s more like a trusted assistant, researcher, content creator and graphic designer rolled into one. The things that so often hold up projects – say, trawling through complex documents to pick out the information you actually need, or translating ideas into pitches, proposals and social posts that fit your branding – suddenly take minutes, enhanced by an AI Assistant you can customise based on the level of input you want. It makes remote collaboration so much easier, too. Where once I might have spent days sending a document back and forth with a colleague, now we can work on it together in Acrobat Studio thanks to a feature called PDF Spaces. It’s a way to be just as creative without the speed bumps.
Using tools such as these to dial down unnecessary busywork has freed up my brain for the things that matter. Expansive brainstorms. Inspiring conversations. And, crucially, space to nurture the person I am outside my job, which has made me far better at it.
One of the biggest falsehoods peddled by hustle culture is the idea that if you’re not constantly slogging away, you’re not committed. “Self-care isn’t about being selfish; you simply can’t pour from an empty cup,” says Morris. “Build micro-moments into your day to soothe your nervous system; things that bring you joy, that fill you with awe, that feel good to touch, smell, look at or listen to, and allow yourself to enjoy the benefits they bring you.”
Perhaps the sweetest side-effect of breaking the burnout cycle, though, is the fact that you’re not the only one who’ll reap the rewards. “There’s a ripple effect,” says Morris. “The more of us who model this kind of care for ourselves and others, the sooner we can turn the tide on burnout.” Who doesn’t want to be part of that sea change?
Find out how Adobe Acrobat Studio can help you work smarter not harder
