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Reflection Tool · 8 Questions · ~2 Minutes

Recovery Half-Life Check

A reflection tool created by J.R. Hernandez, psychotherapist at Baseline Psychotherapy. Not a psychometric test, and it doesn't pretend to be: for validated instruments, see the screeners.

Recovery has a duration. After a demanding day, a hard week, or a real vacation, your system takes a certain amount of time to return to its baseline: to feeling like you. This check looks at one thing only: whether that duration is stable, stretching, or no longer completing. Eight questions, two minutes. This is a reflection tool from this practice, not a validated clinical instrument: for validated numbers, the CBI and WHO-5 are one click away.

The Check

Eight questions about one variable

Pick the answer closest to your last few weeks, not your best week. Your reading appears below as soon as all eight are answered.

0 of 8 answered

Q1After a normally demanding workday, how long until you feel like yourself again?
Q2What does a normal weekend buy you?
Q3Think of your last real vacation (a week or more):
Q4When does the exhaustion show up, relative to the demand?
Q5Things that used to feel good (dinners, sport, trips):
Q6Sleep:
Q7Compared with six months ago, recovering takes:
Q8When did you last feel fully at your baseline: rested, present, yourself?

If the pattern you see here matches what you live, the burnout therapy page explains how sustained dysregulation is treated, and the screeners give you validated numbers.

Nothing you select here leaves your device or is stored: the check resets when you close the page.

Half-Life Check FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions About
the Recovery Half-Life Check

Recovery half-life is a working concept from this practice, taken from the founder's writing on burnout: the time your system needs after a demand to return to its baseline, to feeling like yourself. The image is borrowed from physics: not how much energy you have, but how long the return takes. When that duration stretches, it is often the earliest visible signal that regulation is under strain.

It is a reflection tool, not psychometrics. A validated burnout instrument such as the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI) has been tested against large samples and gives you a scored result with known properties. This check has not been validated: it asks eight honest questions about one variable, recovery time, and returns a reading, not a score. Use it to notice a pattern, and use the CBI for the number.

First, put a number on it: the CBI and the WHO-5 take a few minutes and are validated. Second, treat the trend seriously rather than the label: a stretching recovery is the stage where structured changes to load, sleep, and boundaries work best; a recovery that no longer completes usually needs more than rest. Talking to a professional, here or anywhere, is a reasonable next step in both cases.

Yes. The check runs in your browser: nothing you select is stored, sent, or seen by anyone, and everything resets when you close the page. There is no account and no record on this site.

Get Started

When Rest Stops Doing Its Job

A recovery that no longer completes is a pattern, and patterns are workable. A free 15-minute consultation is a low-stakes way to look at yours. No referral needed, no waitlist.

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