The Weekly Warning Sign You’re Ignoring (That Leads to Burnout)

Apr 21, 2025

By Lisa Imel

Founder & CEO, EdSolutions Group
Author of Unleash Your Potential

Most people don’t call it burnout. Not at first.

They just start dreading Sundays.

Not the kind of dread that announces itself loudly—but the kind that simmers. That cancels plans. That creeps in the moment you wake up Sunday morning. By midday, unease builds. By evening, your chest tightens and your mind races. You’re physically tired, but mentally on alert. You’re reliving last week—and already bracing for the next.

We’ve normalized this and given it a name: The Sunday Scaries.
But behind that phrase is something more consequential: a misalignment between your nervous system, your values, and your week.

And when left unaddressed, it doesn’t just affect your mood—it compromises your performance, your leadership, and your well-being.

A Cultural Pattern We’re Not Talking About Enough

More than 75% of professionals report experiencing burnout in their current role (Gallup, 2023). But burnout doesn’t always begin with collapse. For many, it begins with a quiet, weekly pattern of dread.

A study in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology found that anticipatory stress—anxiety about upcoming demands—is one of the strongest predictors of decreased engagement and reduced cognitive capacity in the workplace. The Sunday Scaries, then, aren’t minor. They’re a mirror of disconnection.

At EdSolutions Group, we’ve worked with school districts, nonprofits, medical professionals, real estate professionals, educational leaders, and corporate leaders and teams. And we’ve seen this pattern repeatedly:
The most driven, mission-aligned professionals are also the most likely to normalize chronic overload.

They don’t disengage because they don’t care.
They disengage because they’re exhausted—and no one taught them how to reset.

Burnout Doesn’t Start With Monday. It Starts With Overload.

Most high performers don’t dread their work—they dread their depletion.

What shows up as stress on Sunday is often unprocessed overload: too many tabs open in your mind, too few meaningful boundaries, and a nervous system stuck in overdrive.

Research from Stanford University’s Mind & Body Lab confirms that ongoing exposure to stressors—without psychological recovery—leads to decreased motivation, reduced immune function, and a loss of executive functioning over time. Even small anticipatory stressors, when repeated, change the way we show up.

It’s not that we’ve lost our passion.
It’s that we’ve lost our margin.

The Burnout Onset Loop: How the Sunday Scaries Take Hold

In our leadership intensives and consulting engagements, we’ve identified a recurring cycle that quietly fuels burnout:

Misalignment → Mental Clutter → Nervous System Overload → Loss of Clarity → Emotional Disconnection → Sunday Scaries → Reactive Week → Reinforced Misalignment

This isn’t about lack of motivation.
It’s about being trapped in a cycle that rewards output, but punishes recovery.

Without rhythm, your brain doesn’t reset. Your emotions don’t process. Your energy doesn’t replenish.

And that’s when leadership becomes labor.

The Science Behind the Dread

From a biological perspective, the Sunday Scaries are the result of accumulated stress responses.

When your brain doesn’t receive a signal that a task is complete—a process known as cognitive closure—it stays in what researchers call “goal activation mode.” This mode keeps the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis engaged, spiking cortisol levels and disrupting sleep, mood, and cognition (Psychoneuroendocrinology Journal, 2022).

Even more concerning, research from Harvard Business Review found that unstructured weekends filled with domestic labor, digital distractions, and multitasking contribute to what’s called recovery deficit. In short: your body never exits survival mode.

And when that becomes your baseline, burnout is not just likely—it’s inevitable.

The Real Problem Is the Lack of Closure

Most professionals don’t end the week—they leak into the weekend.

There’s no ritual for reflection. No structure for integration. Just a bleed of unfinished tasks and unspoken stressors into your only time to rest.

And this isn’t just inconvenient—it’s neurologically costly.

The Zeigarnik Effect, first studied in the 1920s and recently validated by neuroscience, shows that our brains fixate more intensely on unfinished business than completed tasks. That means when we don’t formally close the week, we carry it with us—mentally, emotionally, and physically.

This “cognitive residue” depletes emotional bandwidth, compromises sleep quality, and erodes presence with family, friends, or even yourself.

But when professionals begin using our Friday Focus Monday Motivation reset rhythm with fidelity, something powerful happens:

Significant reduced anticipatory stress within the first week

Feel more emotionally grounded and energized

Experience increased clarity, confidence, and sustainable weekly performance

Closure isn’t indulgent. It’s essential.
Without it, the nervous system stays active—and leadership suffers in silence.

This Isn’t a Time Problem. It’s an Integration Problem.

We live in a culture obsessed with time management. But time isn’t what’s broken—integration is. And this is where Joyful Leadership Institute comes into play.

When your to-do list multiplies but your values aren’t reflected…
When you meet deadlines but lose direction…
When you’re productive but no longer present…
That’s not success. That’s misalignment.

There is a direct link between integrated weekly rhythm practices of our system and reductions in burnout-related absenteeism and turnover— we expect a 40% improvement in retention among participating leadership teams over 12 months.

This isn’t a productivity hack.
It’s a human restoration strategy.

You Don’t Need More Time. You Need a Rhythm That Restores You.

You can’t outsource your nervous system.
You can’t grind your way into clarity.

The path forward requires rhythm. Ritual. Realignment. And a structure that protects the leader—not just the labor.

That’s what we teach through EdSolutions Group’s coaching programs, district-wide trainings, and strategic implementation partnerships.

Because when your rhythm works, your energy returns.
And with it, your ability to lead with presence, clarity, and joy.

The Transition Is Where the Power Lives

Most people treat Friday like a crash landing and Monday like a minefield.

But when you build a deliberate transition—a minimum of 30 minutes of structured closure and intentional planning—you reduce anticipatory stress and elevate emotional control.

This small shift has compounding results.

You start the week calm, not chaotic.
You enter meetings prepared, not panicked.
You lead with clarity, not confusion.

In short: You stop surviving your week—and start designing it with intention. With just 30 minutes of reflection every Friday, our clients routinely reclaim 25 to 30 hours of lost time, energy, and focus each week.

The Sunday Scaries Aren’t a Flaw. They’re a Signal.

They’re not a weakness.
They’re a whisper from your nervous system—telling you it’s time to reset.

At EdSolutions Group, we help school systems, leaders, and organizations build rhythm-based structures that reduce burnout, increase capacity, and drive results. From customized wellness intensives to year-long leadership alignment strategies, our work is centered around one truth:

Burnout doesn’t begin with exhaustion.
It begins with disconnection.
And transformation begins with rhythm.

Let’s Build a System That Supports Your People

Whether you’re an executive, district leader, or leadership team committed to well-being, we’re ready to help.

Schedule a confidential 45-minute strategy session to explore how our research-backed systems can support your team’s energy, presence, and performance.

This conversation is not for everyone—it’s for courageous leaders ready to move beyond survival and create sustainable impact.

👉 Click here to schedule your strategy session
(or email us at [email protected])

References

Gallup. (2023). State of the Global Workplace Report
Harvard Business Review. (2021). Why You Feel So Busy (and What to Do About It)
American Psychological Association. (2022). Stress in America Survey
Baumeister, R. F., & Masicampo, E. J. (2011). Considerations of task closure and the Zeigarnik effect. Current Directions in Psychological Science
Sonnentag, S., & Fritz, C. (2015). Recovery from job stress: The stressor-detachment model as an integrative framework. Journal of Organizational Behavior
Muraven, M., & Baumeister, R. F. (2000). Self-regulation and depletion of limited resources. Psychological Bulletin

About the Author

Lisa Imel, M.Ed. is the Founder & CEO of EdSolutions Group and Balanced Powerhouse. A former principal, superintendent-licensed leader, and national speaker, she’s coached thousands of educators and executives through high-impact strategies to reduce burnout, realign leadership, and create systemic transformation. Her book Unleash Your Potential guides high-performers in reclaiming clarity, presence, and purpose. Lisa is also the creator of the Rise Above Burnout Blueprint™and host of the Balanced Powerhouse™ podcast.