When working in a fast-paced industry, especially as an individual contributor across multiple teams, burnout is a significant risk. Burnout is defined as exhaustion caused by prolonged emotional, physical, and mental stress, often associated with work. Strategies to help prevent burnout include communicating project roadmaps and realistic expectations with colleagues, offering "positive no" responses to requests that cannot be prioritized, treating all asks as requests before committing to them, and prioritizing tasks using the boulder/pebble metaphor to manage workload effectively. By adopting these strategies, individuals can protect themselves from over-committing on projects while still making a significant impact in their work.