Here's something nobody tells you about recovering from burnout: it often doesn't feel like anything at first. You take the vacation and feel a bit better, then guilty, then just kind of tired in a different way. You try sleeping more and still wake up tired. You do the thing people say will help and wait for the shift and the shift doesn't come, or comes so slowly that you miss it.

Recovery from quiet burnout is a slow accumulation. It's not a single experience that flips the switch. It's more like: you feel five percent less flat than you did three weeks ago. You notice something is slightly interesting. A small thing makes you laugh in a real way, not a performed way. These are not dramatic markers. You could easily miss them and decide the recovery isn't working.

It is working. Slowly, in the background, the same way it developed slowly and in the background.

The most important thing in the recovery period is protecting it from the demands that caused the burnout in the first place. Which is hard, because those demands don't stop because you're recovering. But even small acts of protection — one morning kept clear, one evening without the phone, saying no to one non-essential thing — compound over time.

You can't recover in the middle of the thing that burned you out. But you can create enough margin that the recovery can happen around the edges, which is usually the best available option. You're not behind on recovering. Recovery takes the time it takes.