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Peer Writing Tutoring

When the Writer’s Wellbeing Becomes a Global Concern: How to Combat Burnout

Discussing burnout and self-care is absolutely crucial for peer writing tutors. These issues affect tutors and writers. If tutors don’t know how to deal with burnout, they will not be able collaborate with their writers, and if writers can’t deal with it, they will leave themselves unable to learn with us.  I did some research in some scholarly journals and other online resources, and I turned up some info on Mindful Meditation and Cognitive Load Theory. First, I will share some information about these two concepts; then, I will wrap up with some discussion of more common methods of dealing with stress.

The first thing I’ll go over is Cognitive Load Theory. In order to counter burnout, one should understand a few of the theoretical aspects that have been used to study it. Cognitive Load Theory suggests that stress or strain is caused by over-expenditure of the brain’s mental capacity. In this context, it can also be looked at as the amount of mental energy exerted by an individual when learning and processing information. The theory looks at information and cognitive faculty as pieces of information for the brain to stack on top of each other. Depending on whether or not the brain is already under a great deal of stress, the additional mental strain can worsen a person’s burnout and make working even more impossible for them.  

In addition, I think that a brilliant way to measure how light or severe one’s burnout may be is the use of Maslach’s Burnout Inventory, a test that measures burnout with scales of 1-7 per item. As tutors, we can use these items as a mental checklist to evaluate ourselves and our writers in the moment.  The items are:

  • Emotional Exhaustion: Feeling emotionally overworked (in the case of peer writing tutors, this can be caused by a combination of home and school factors)
  • Depersonalization: Unfeeling responses towards clients or customers
  • Personal Accomplishment: Feelings of competence or being able to do their job well collaboratively
  • Cynicism: Indifference or distant attitude towards one’s work
  • Personal Efficacy:  Lack of feelings of competence and accomplishment in one’s work in general

If you see an increase in any one of these items within yourself or others, a plan of action should be made and implemented. Fortunately, there are many very useful solutions that can help a diverse range of people.

The first of these methods is mindful meditation. This sort of meditation involves truly being aware of one’s situation and environment, as well as acknowledging the amount of cognitive load. Mindfulness and meditation within the writing center context involve listening to the writer’s concern, taking some time to calm them down, and then making an agenda to help them with a clear mind.  Here is an example of a mindful meditation exercise that one can incorporate:

  1. Begin by bringing your attention into your body.
  2. You can close your eyes if that’s comfortable for you.
  3. You can notice your body seated wherever you’re seated, feeling the weight of your body on the chair, on the floor.
  4. Take a few deep breaths.
  5. And as you take a deep breath, bring in more oxygen enlivening the body. And as you exhale, have a sense of relaxing more deeply.
  6. You can notice your feet on the floor, notice the sensations of your feet touching the floor.
  7. Notice the weight and pressure, vibration, heat.
  8. You can notice your legs against the chair, pressure, pulsing, heaviness, lightness.
  9. Notice your back against the chair.
  10. Bring your attention into your stomach area.
  11. If your stomach is tense or tight, let it soften. Take a breath.
  12. Notice your hands. Are your hands tense or tight ? See if you can allow them to soften.
  13. Notice your arms. Feel any sensation in your arms. Let your shoulders be soft.
  14. Notice your neck and throat. Let them be soft. Relax.
  15. Soften your jaw. Let your face and facial muscles be soft.
  16. Then notice your whole body present. Take one more breath.
  17. Be aware of your whole body as best you can.
  18. Take a breath. And then when you’re ready, you can open your eyes.

There are many mindful meditation techniques, but this is a relatively simple one that can be condensed to leave enough time in the appointment for work to be done. I advocate this as a tool that tutors should try to utilize at least once if either they or the writer start to break down. Doing it before the start of appointments is also an ideal way for the tutor to clear their heads during a stressful period. However, if mindful meditation isn’t one’s speed, there are other ways to prevent or lessen the effects of stress so that burnout is not an obstacle for writers or tutors.

In fact, curbing procrastination is probably the most notable way. Procrastination seems to be one of the most common factors contributing to stress and burnout among college students. Procrastination is often driven by lack of motivation, evaluation anxiety, and fear of success or failure; in a funny way, burnout and procrastination can cause each other. When someone is too tired or anxious to carry out a task, they procrastinate on it, and when someone procrastinates and then has to go through a time crunch, they contribute to their burnout. Solutions to this cycle include making a schedule so that work doesn’t pile up on you, cultivating a productive environment that makes it hard for you to be distracted (or finding an environment where that’s already the case), and, most importantly, building an effective support system. We tutors are never alone in our journey to build better writers. To that end, collaboration is not just one of our main principles, it’s a life support for us when we’re at our lowest. And it’s the key to helping our writers when they’re at theirs.

Lastly, remember that dealing with stress and burnout is an individualized process (there is no one size fits all solution!). For example, my de-stress plan is watching YouTube and playing video games after getting good chunks of my work done. However, others like different techniques. For example, our Writing Center’s Outreach Coordinator, Jen Finstrom, likes to exercise and visit the Art Institute. She explains:

“I changed my morning routine and tried to keep that change going even when I wasn’t as busy. I always get up early (6 am is sleeping in for me), but I used to just get immediately to work. Now I try to do a bit of exercise (it’s really nothing very much, but at least I’m doing something) and some sort of reflective practice like freewriting that helps me focus and stay grounded and present. I also like to go to the Art Institute, even if only for 15 or 20 minutes. Since we can all get in with our DePaul ID, there’s no reason not to take advantage of that! Just looking at art for a few minutes is one of my favorite things to do, and sometimes I just dash over there on my break in the Loop. ”

There is no definitive right way to manage one’s stress; you just need to find the right activity or technique for you.

I encourage everyone to keep in mind, though, that there is one wrong choice: to not take care of ourselves and forget the most important unspoken way to help our writers. It’s very easy to get lost in a haze of anxiety and exhaustion in college. Even I forget that stress isn’t something that you always have to power through, and writing and revising this blog post reminded me that there are ways to manage it. However, easing our burnout takes collaboration among all three parties in our infrastructure: writers, tutors, and administrators. Writers, you are never alone–and tutors, as long as you continue to put passion into supporting the community’s health, the UCWbL and its staff will do its best to support yours.

 

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