5 Ways to Find Purpose at Work in 2026
As we head into 2026, I want to address a few questions I’m hearing from a lot of managers I work with:
“Is it bad that I don’t feel inspired by my job anymore?”
“Sometimes I just want to work in a coffee shop and not take work home with me.”
“Can I go back to being an individual contributor?”
The individuals asking this question are capable, thoughtful people. Many care deeply about doing good work, and almost all of them are tired.
Not the kind of burnout that a long weekend fixes! The deeper kind of burnout, where everything feels heavier and more challenging than it should, physically and emotionally.
This doesn’t come as a surprise — 43 percent of managers are completely disconnected from their work and nearly 30 percent are actively working on their exit strategy.
At this point, burnout is the new baseline. But, I’m here to tell you it doesn’t have to be.
Here are five ways you can start addressing burnout and reconnecting with a sense of meaning at work, even if you’re not the one setting strategy or managing others.
1. Prioritize your workload for clarity before speed
98.2 percent of people have trouble prioritizing tasks at work.
Yes, you read that statistic correctly.
Unclear priorities drain energy faster than hard work ever will. When people don’t know what matters most, everything feels urgent and nothing feels meaningful.
Designing work with fewer, clearer priorities gives people a sense of direction, and this is one of the strongest foundations for finding purpose at work.
Try this
At the start of each week, write down no more than three priorities for yourself. If this makes you feel uncomfortable, good, It should! This is just an experiment, you don’t have to stick with it forever. These should be the outcomes that matter most, not just the loudest tasks in your inbox.
2. Reduce unnecessary cognitive load
Oftentimes, burnout is less about how much work you have on your plate and more about work fragmentation. In fact, a study published by Harvard Business Review found that the average digital worker toggles between applications and websites nearly 1,200 times per day!
The same study found that these people spend almost four hours per week reorienting themselves after switching apps. Over a full year, that equals about five working weeks or around nine percent of their annual work time lost to context switching. The cost of context switching is real.
Purpose grows when you can focus and feel progress (actually feel it!) instead of living in perpetual catch-up mode.
Try this
Run a quick “friction audit” with by asking yourself this one question:
What part of my work creates the most unnecessary switching or rework?
Then remove or simplify one tool or meeting this quarter.
3. Normalize working at a sustainable pace
Urgency culture at work has a severe impact on burnout, and it exposes the body to chronic stress, deteriorating mental and physical health.
To combat this, be sure to pay attention to your natural work rhythms, including time for reflection, recovery and realistic timelines (you heard me, I said realistic!). Putting these types of boundaries in place with your leaders will signal that long-term contribution matters more than short-term output.
Try this
Build buffer time into at least one project timeline and say out loud why it exists. Treat that buffer as intentional.
A different way to think about burnout
More often than not, burnout is your system telling you that something in how you work needs to change. That might be slowing the pace a little, or setting stricter boundaries with your employer. It might also be how your strengths are being used, or how little control you have over your time.
Meaning at work doesn’t usually come back in one dramatic moment. It returns gradually, through small decisions that protect your energy and make your contribution feel intentional again.
If you’re at a point where you want help making sense of what your burnout is actually telling you, individual coaching can give you the space to think clearly without judgment or pressure. And no, you don’t need to show up with a five-year plan in place. You just need a single starting point.
To learn more about how coaching or training can help you burnout, productivity, or even finding purpose, explore our individual coaching packages or request a complimentary 30-minute consultation so we can meet each other and chat.