What the heck is millennial burnout—and do you have it? 9 Charlotteans weigh in.

There are reasons why adulting is so difficult, Buzzfeed reported earlier this month: a phenomenon called millennial burnout. Although successful in other aspects of life, some people are failing in the regular tasks: to-do list items are not getting checked off, the packages don’t get mailed, the errands don’t get run.

“When it came to the mundane, the medium priority, the stuff that wouldn’t make my job easier or my work better, I avoided it,” reporter Anne Helen Petersen wrote. Buzzfeed even created a quiz so you could determine if you have millennial burnout.

[Related: How Charlotteans make their side hustles work for them]

Millennial burnout is a product of the mentality that enough is actually not enough, according to psychotherapist Jessica Busick. “There is always more to be done, and there is always something to be accomplished.”

Tasks that feel purposeless don’t give people a sense of accomplishment when complete, Busick said. “It doesn’t count as something to consider a success — because to them it is small and insignificant, ultimately leading to lack of motivation or desire to follow through.” Busick works at Teen Health Connection, a partner of Levine Children’s Hospital. She has worked with patients of all ages — and she is a millennial herself.

There is a solution — and it doesn’t involve checking off your to-do list faster. “Millennials need to practice forgiving themselves when they feel burned out — recognize it, own it and feel no shame in admitting that burnout is a natural consequence of everyday life and all of the tasks associated,” Busick said.

Since misery loves company, we wanted to know: Which tasks are Charlotte millennials putting off because of burnout? So we asked 9 Charlotteans. Actually, we asked a few more than that, but they didn’t get their answers turned in on time, probably because — well.

(1) Malia Brown, 23

Founder/CEO of UrbanSocial TV

Which tasks are you putting off because of millennial burnout?

• Getting a gym membership and working out.
• Creating a meal plan so I can stay consistent with my transition into a vegetarian diet.
• Getting out and networking to meet new people.

Honestly, I just feel like I have a “go, go, go” mentality where I’m just focused on working and climbing the ladder to success. I have so many goals that I’m working to accomplish that I prioritize those things mentioned above lower than others. It’s taxing to be in that mindset all of the time, but I just feel like in this stage of my life I have to be on my grind, and put all of my energy into the harder tasks.

(2) Adam Cozzolino, 26

Owner of 15th Street Market, Lifted and more

Which tasks are you putting off because of millennial burnout?

As a 26-year-old business owner of three brick-and-mortar businesses, I may understand “millennial burnout” a little more than most. It quite simply, is the mundane aspect of tasks that just aren’t “top priorities”, that lead to my personal “millennial burnout”.

[Related: 15th Street Market has CBD coffee, snacks, and local beer and kombucha on tap]

What’s stopping you from doing them?

As millennials, we have a deep urge to do a lot at one time, important things to us, so when it comes to do mundane tasks like going to the post office or finding time to do laundry, we don’t even blink an eye at putting it off until the next day, week, and sometimes even months later. (Sorry, Troy, I still haven’t sent your engagement gift from October.) When I do decide to tackle the not so fun tasks, CBD has really been helpful for me in easing stress and anxiety to complete these tasks. I believe it’s a priority thing for most, and after a long day, or week, who wants to do laundry anyway?

(3) Kenna Ehman, 27

owner of Kenna Kunijo 

Which tasks are you putting off because of millennial burnout?

I’ve always been the one that “has it all together” one the outside but i was straining myself to do small tasks like grocery shopping, dry cleaning, cooking, housecleaning, and other errands. I realized that since the more I work the more I make I just budgeted in the proper amount of extra clients per week to be able to hire someone to do all my errands. For me, I love doing hair and it takes me about 2 hours to do a cut and color. That one client allows me to be able to have 12-15 hours of help per week to help with my tasks. I think millennial needs to learn to hand tasks they don’t enjoy over in order to do more of the things that drives them. Let’s be honest, most millennials are entrepreneurs after all.

What’s stopping you from doing them?

I would rather have a huge pile of laundry than miss out on an opportunity to work, host an event, or show face at some sort of networking thing. I care a lot about being visible, as a business owner, in the community, For me, it’s easier to buy new underwear on some store’s app than take time to simply wash them. It’s messed up, I know.

(4) Davita Galloway, 38

Owner of Dupp+Swatt, founder of Crownkeepers and more

Which tasks are you putting off because of millennial burnout?

• Grocery shopping.
• Washing dishes.
• Washing clothes.
• Sorting mail.
• Cleaning out inbox/replying to emails.
• Replying to text messages — I formulate an entire response in my head.
• Getting an oil change — I continue to add 2 quarts every now and then.
• Creating pieces for upcoming art show.
• Self-care regimens: massage, working out, beauty upkeep.

What’s stopping you from doing them?

• Life — it comes at you fast. Unpredictable moments are real!
• Juggling too many responsibilities. Being an entrepreneur doesn’t have specific work hours.
• My professional life is poppin’, my personal life sucks.
• Sleep. When I do get time to myself, I’d rather chill out and do nothing.

(5) Corey Inscoe, 31

Digital content manager at Compass Group

Which tasks are you putting off because of millennial burnout?

I’m not sure millennial burnout is the culprit, but there are a few mundane things around the house that I’ve been putting off for far too long.

• I’ve had a bag of clothes meant for Goodwill sitting in the corner of my bedroom for at least six months, if not longer.
• There are two burned-out lights in the kitchen that i’ve been meaning to replace for weeks.
• This I managed to accomplish, but I almost missed my window of opportunity to roll over my 401k after changing jobs because I took forever to actually call the bank and initiate the transfer.
• And, every year, I’m late getting my car inspected and the registration renewed.

What’s stopping you from doing them?

Nothing, really. But with all of the other things I’m thinking about throughout the week – work, family, friends, making sure my 18-month-old daughter survives another day – tasks like these get pushed down on my list of priorities. They only get done when two things match up perfectly: the perfect window of time and the right motivation. And that’s rare.

(6) Taylor Russell, 21

Barista, bartender, and student

• I have been loading and unloading a bunch of stuff from my car to donate to Habitat for Humanity and Salvation Army for the last 5 months. Apparently vacuuming my car makes it higher on the to-do list so I spend (probably more time than just dropping it off) taking it out and putting it back in.
• I have had to change the dates on a few letters I wrote, because they sat by my door waiting for a stamp so they could be mailed. I even opened one to make sure the information was still relevant.

(7) Nichelle Sublett, 36

Physician Liaison for Atrium Health

• I’ve been meaning to return a pair of dance shorts to Amazon for the last 3 weeks.
• I also need to mail a friend a package that I was supposed to send her back in November.
• I also need to pick up my dry cleaning from 3 weeks ago.

Those are just the top 3 items I have on my to-do list currently, which has over 10 mundane, boring items on it that I keep putting off week after week. Pretty pathetic, I know.

[Related: Why Mrs. North Carolina 2018 is sharing her deepest secret with the public]

• I think what stops me is the pain of having to drive to a local post office, stand in line, wait in a potentially long line, and make sure I’ve picked out the correct size of boxes to complete the tasks.
• The other thing that’s holding me back is I’m still trying to decide if I should include an additional gift I’m sending to my friend, or just include the one gift I already have picked out. The indecisiveness is driving me nuts, and I’ll probably end up just sending one gift, since I can’t make up my mind about what else to put in her package.
• Regarding the dry cleaning, I like to pick a time to stop by there when I’m already headed in the general direction. Over the past few weeks, I haven’t had a reason to head that way, so I would rather not go out of my way for routine stops like that. Plus, there’s nothing I dropped off that I urgently need to wear. It’s simply not a priority.

(8) Brit Turner, 34

Founder at Fit Atelier

Which tasks are you putting off because of millennial burnout?

I had no idea I was suffering from millennial burnout, but now I know why I can’t ever seem to find the time to take my very expensive, “dry clean only” clothes to the dry cleaners.

[Related: 5 local fitness fashion retailers to check out. Because why not look good while you sweat?]

What’s stopping you from doing them?

My knee-jerk explanation is that I don’t have enough time between running a business, building a new location, the constant meetings with trainers and our teams, all while juggling home-life with a hot husband and cute toddler. It’s also probably because I own an activewear store where our comfortable, functional outfits are just as cute (if not cuter) than my favorite designer dresses.

(9) Dammit Wesley, 32

Artist, designer, curator

This story was originally published January 23, 2019 at 12:03 AM with the headline "What the heck is millennial burnout—and do you have it? 9 Charlotteans weigh in.."