I can't seem to dig my way out of this Burnout. I do not know what to do. I feel like I am letting my Capstone partner down. Any advice is welcome

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#1

Hello,

I am 33 and am in my last year of school. By the time I graduate it will have taken me 8 years to get my BS in biomedical engineering. I have a 14 yr old and i work 2 part time jobs.

I have become burnt out before but normally there are some things i do that can bring me out of it to be my normal productive self . What i consider productive . Over the summer i was on a internship which is kind of when the burnout started. My manager was very impressed with me and my productivity which i find odd because i was doing at most half of what my norm is.

Fast forward to the 3rd week of the fall semester and I realize that in part this is due to depression so i let my therapist know. I am on anti-depressants and they help me not feel horrible and i can at least keep my apartment clean now.

However, I am currently sitting on campus trying to get my part of my capstone project done.
I have been trying to make myself work on this for 3 days now. Tomorrow morning (it is currently 9pm) I meet with my partner to review the project as a whole so that we can turn it in at 5pm tomorrow at the latest.
I have my checklist done. I know what i need to do but I just cat get there. I know it is really important and i have never let a group member down like this before. Yet i still can’t get started.
I need some advice I am at my wits end.
I do not want to let my partner down but somehow that isn’t enough to get me started.

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#2

Someone here on the forum mentioned a process/technique called task degrading. You can probably look it up online for a better explanation, but I haven’t been able to find one. Not sure where the thread is that it’s mentioned in either any longer.

You label your page with the goal or task that needs completion. You have 3 columns. Column one is a list of subtasks you need to do to complete your goal. Column 2 is how much time you need to do each subtask. Column 3 is how confident you are, up to 100%, that you can complete that step. If any subtask or step has 85% or less, then break it down even smaller. No task is too small. Subtask 1 could be as small as “Turn on the Computer”. 100%. “Open document x”. 100%. “Insert footnotes” 60%. OK, probably should break that down into smaller parts.

I find I have a fear of doing things wrong or feel overwhelmed when there are too many steps or choices, and this method can help me to get started.

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