Mindless Performance at Work: Why It Leads to Burnout

2026-03-02

Today I joined in sipping a colleague’s retirement coffee. At the same time, I was thinking about what state I will be in, physically and mentally, on the day I leave working life. It’s clear that sleep, healthy habits, and exercise are already necessary just to physically survive the long haul of today’s demanding work life.

And what about mental alertness and the brain? Will sleep, taking breaks, self-compassion, and the ability to ask for help be enough to eliminate mindless performance and keep you sharp all the way to retirement? What counts as mindless effort, and when is the optimal time for work that requires concentration?

Brain researcher Kiti Müller, in an interview (Helsingin Sanomat 18.5.2025), estimates that today’s retirees are in better shape than previous generations and that the upper limit of retirement age could be raised to 75! But what about those younger than me—the ones who have lived their entire working lives in an age of information overload?

Survival Strategies For the Brain – Move and Take Breaks

I am assessing, for myself, the four coping strategies raised by Müller:

Move, even when you don’t have to
Take breaks – for real
Accept that a person cannot be productive all day
Dare to share even difficult things

Exercise – I’m all for it! Apparently, it increases serotonin release, and lactate released by muscles strengthens neural connections. So the benefits of exercise are undeniable, not just for physical fitness but also for brain well-being and learning. I’m seriously considering starting tomorrow to do bodyweight squats, stretches, and other light movements during work! Maybe this way I could avoid the pressure of having to exercise when already tired, since my daily step goal would be met and I’d get some strength training during work hours…

The importance of taking breaks – I have to admit, skipping breaks only leads to deeper pressure to perform! The criticality of breaks relates to the threatening maximum limit of human capacity, which shouldn’t be reached constantly. Especially when workdays are the standard 8–10 hours. There should be movement once an hour, a small break, and it’s best to keep a consistent daily rhythm. A brain pause doesn’t have to be a social event in the office kitchen or thinking about fun leisure activities – it could be as simple as staring blankly out the window!

Why Does Performance Become “Mindless”?

The Pretended Demand For Efficiency

Accept that a person cannot be productive all day! Reading this advice already felt like an exploitation on the scale of all humanity! At least if you honestly reflect on today’s competitiveness and efficiency demands and compare them – not to what a person is capable of, but to what a person is naturally built for.

It’s not really about unreasonableness or high demands. It’s about collective pretending, where people go along so that competitors don’t look better. Müller notes in his article, referring among other things to precise work-time management systems, that “from the brain’s processing capacity perspective, a person has four to six hours of effective work per day. If a person has to pretend that every minute of the workday is used efficiently, that’s a bit false. Management should say that work time can also be used freely for brainstorming, development, and recovery”.

Of course, no one really has work time for that. It may happen for a tiny fraction of people at the peak of innovation – in fields that are at the very core of pioneering work. AI helped me and came up with some fitting terms for this era on my behalf, like “the Age of Cognitive Boundlessness”, “Result Tyranny” or “the Era of Metrics Power”! We’re all built in roughly the same way, even though our personalities, traits, and thus abilities differ.

And no… we’re not supposed to be in performance mode for two-thirds of the day. Yes, I even counted the hours spent on modern parenting and consumer-life performance on top of the workday! Now I’m curious about how much our ancestors really labored – in a time focused on getting food and averting immediate threats to survival.

The exact “work hours” of Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) are not known, but based on archaeology and comparisons with modern hunter-gatherers, their time use can be estimated:

Actual hunting: often only a few hours a day – and not every day.
For all subsistence activities (hunting, gathering, tool making, fire maintenance, food processing): on average an estimated 3–6 hours per day.

Neanderthals did less work, but it was immediate, concrete, and tied to survival. Modern humans spend more time and energy, but the results of their work are abstract, and the responsibility for endless information processing and decision-making is pushed onto the individual. Physical strain has largely shifted into cognitive load.

In other words:

The Neanderthal human managed to survive with little, clear use of time. In our performance-driven society, we are often constantly on-call information retrieval and decision-making machines, without a clear boundary between time for performance and relaxation. I can’t vouch for myself, but I suppose the intellectual capacity of humans has also increased quite a bit through evolution.

Structures and Boundaries That Support Work Well-Being

Stick To the Framework

How then could you influence your performance and give your brain a chance to succeed in the flood of information, confusion, or constant process of browsing and filtering new information, which is supposed to culminate in learning, a decision, or some other output?

For example, by doing the most demanding, most concentration-requiring tasks in the 4–6 hours your body has available, and trying to do them soon after their short breaks! And don’t try to force that performance when you’re no longer at your best. Make sure you’re not often in a situation where you have to do demanding work tomorrow while you’re already at or beyond your capacity limit.

The Strong Show Their Weakness

The fourth tip was “Dare to share difficult things too.” Müller once said he received news at work that a relative had passed away and shared the information immediately with others, so he wouldn’t be misunderstood because of his serious expression.

I do believe that during “Metrics Power-time,” tensions arise more easily, when everyone is measured at a higher frequency and ultimately accountable for their personal performance. Willingness to work in a team is easily the first to be cut off because it’s optional, voluntary, and your performance isn’t ultimately measured through it. At worst, hoarding of information and skills increases.

As a counterbalance, nurturing collaboration certainly requires more human, connecting experiences and a deeper understanding of colleagues, extending beyond work-related matters. Turning to someone else may then focus not only on tasks and skills but more on showing or seeking empathy, as well as tips for workplace well-being.

Being yourself is certainly easier and more pleasant than constantly wearing a strict role while running your own interests through your mind. “Development and ideation get going best when psychological safety prevails in the work community.” No one’s actual professional skill or respect diminishes by admitting ignorance, asking for help, or showing fear.

Nothing changes if you don’t do anything differently. So I’m trying to instill these “new” routines to be tried out:

No snooze alarms, always go to work and bed at the same time!
Take a short break every hour whenever possible.
Choose the most demanding tasks for the mornings.
Show emotion, ask for help, and demonstrate empathy! (Instead of pretending to be efficient or performing as a high achiever)

Let me know if you tried these and succeeded!
Br, Jukka