Australian burnout specialist and founder of The Big Refresh Nick Orchard urges industry professionals to prioritise prevention over recovery, and shares the early signs most people ignore.
As Australians return to work in 2026, Orchard says it’s time to scrap the resolutions. Instead, he’s urging professionals to install ‘burnout blockers’: simple, preventative systems to protect against rising stress and exhaustion.
The advice comes as burnout has hit crisis levels across the country. In 2025, Bupa reported 70 per cent of working Australians experienced burnout. The 2025 TELUS Mental Health Barometer found 41 per cent were under constant stress, and more than one-third at high mental health risk.
“Burnout doesn’t hit us like a truck. It’s an insidious creep that takes hold slowly over time. It begins to shape how we perceive ourselves, our work, the people around us, our ability and our worth,” Orchard said.
With the cost to Australian businesses estimated at $14 billion, Orchard says most workplace wellness efforts miss the mark by focusing on recovery rather than prevention, addressing the problem only after the damage is done.
In 2020, while in a senior government role, Orchard experienced a near-fatal burnout episode – waking behind the wheel at 130km/h on the wrong side of the road with no memory of how he got there. That crisis led to the creation of The Big Refresh, an evidence-based coaching program now used by executives, creatives and leaders across Australia.
According to Orchard, burnout starts well before exhaustion with subtle shifts that many professionals ignore. These include needing praise to feel competent; imposter syndrome or fear of failure driving decisions; information overload making simple tasks hard; struggling to get out of bed in the morning; relying on caffeine and sugar to fuel the day; skipping restorative habits like sleep, nutrition, exercise, journaling and socialising; taking on too much because delegating feels mentally harder; growing cynicism and detachment about work that once energised you; ‘Sunday scaries’ starting earlier and lasting longer; staying busy but achieving less – productivity theatre.
“In this age of likes, instant feedback and being ‘always on’, we can get hooked on external validation to prove our worth. Like we’re sunflowers, basking in the glow of praise. But when the clouds come, we droop. We’ve forgotten how to nourish ourselves from the inside,” Orchard said.
Instead of pressure-filled resolutions, Orchard advocates for ‘burnout blockers’, simple systems that build boundaries and protect energy. Orchard’s suggestions are:
Boundary rituals: End your work day with a clear signal – a walk, shower or outfit change. Shut devices off. Silence work email notifications after hours.
The Daily Win: Break larger tasks down into small one to two-hour tasks with a clear start and finish, so you finish what you start and build momentum.
Focusing on what’s in your control: Write two lists: what’s within your control and what’s not. Now, throw the ‘out of control’ list in the bin, and focus exclusively on things within your control for the week to come.
Broccoli time: Invest 15–30 minutes each morning in your most avoided but important task – like strategy, budgeting or a difficult email. Then no matter where the day takes you, you’ve already ‘won the day’ before it’s even begun.
Hard conversation habit: It’s the hard or uncomfortable conversations we avoid, the ones about boundaries, relationships, or expectations, that bite us down the track. Build the habit of “just saying the thing” in the moment so it doesn’t fester.
Circuit breakers in routines: Schedule micro-breaks to interrupt long stretches of intensity. Take a 10-minute walk between meetings. Set a hard stop time in the evening.
“Just like sunscreen protects us from getting burned, burnout blockers shield us from burnout. 2026 can be the year of high performance, sustainability, wellbeing and joy, with just a few minor shifts to your daily practice,” Orchard said.
As professionals gear up for the year ahead, Orchard is calling for a fundamental shift. He says the industry has normalised exhaustion as the price of success, but burnout isn’t a badge of honour – it’s a warning sign that’s been ignored for too long. Prevention, he insists, doesn’t require massive lifestyle overhauls. It just requires paying attention to the early signs and acting on them.
