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The Burnout Instinct: Why Working Past the Point of Diminishing Returns Feels Like the Only Safe Option
Paperback
CareersGeneral PsychologySelf-Help
Publisher Price: $29.99
ISBN13: 9781804281598
Publisher: Readers First Publishing Ltd
Published: Aug 4 2026
Pages: 232
Weight: 0.70
Height: 0.49 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
In The Burnout Instinct, author Jordan Ellis explores the hidden reflex that keeps you working long after the
work stops helping-not as a productivity problem, but as an automated response to a deeper fear. Rather than
another time-management framework or guide to setting boundaries, this book uncovers the pre-conscious
mechanism that makes stopping feel riskier than continuing, even when you're past the point of diminishing
returns.
Jordan Ellis reveals how performance degradation happens below the threshold of awareness-you lose the
ability to perceive when to stop one sense at a time, so gradually you don't notice until you're navigating entirely
by reflex. You will discover how the yes leaves your mouth before your decision-making brain registers a
question was asked, how effort becomes performative when there's nothing left to accomplish, and why the
push past exhaustion isn't a battery running down but a defense against confronting what your value would be if
you weren't producing anything.
The Burnout Instinct provides a framework for identifying the specific moment the reflex fires-the flinch that
sends you back to the laptop, the dashboard refresh that serves no purpose, the late night when you could have
stopped three hours ago. By learning to recognize the behavioral loops running underneath burnout, you can
interrupt the automation, reclaim the ability to perceive when enough is enough, and build a life where your
worth isn't fused to continuous output.
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