When your brain is soup and your body’s wrecked, the last thing you want to do is think about opsec.
That’s exactly when you should.
Burnout doesn’t cancel your exposure. It magnifies it.
And the truth is most people don’t get hacked when they’re alert and paranoid. They get hacked when they’re tired, grieving, sick, or distracted.
So you need a fallback protocol. Something muscle memory. Something dead simple. Because the world won’t pause just because your mind did.
The “Too Fucking Tired” Protocol
Here’s how to protect your privacy when you’re running on fumes.
1. Power Down What You’re Not Using
Shut it all down. Literally.
- Phone off or airplane mode
- Close the laptop
- Turn off Bluetooth and Wi-Fi
- Unplug smart gear you don’t need
The less signal you’re emitting, the less anyone can grab.
You’re tired. Let that be your shield. Silence is a weapon when you’re low on bandwidth.
2. One Device, One Purpose
This is fallback territory. Simplify.
- If you must have a phone on, use only one app at a time
- If you’re online, keep just one browser window
- Don’t multitask. Don’t toggle. Don’t check five feeds.
Each extra app is a mouth talking about you. Shut them up.
3. Use the Simple Defaults That Work
When you’re burned out, don’t get fancy. Just run the basics:
- Use a VPN, one tap, done
- Encrypt your phone (should already be on)
- Use a privacy browser like Firefox Focus
- Disable location, mic, and camera by default
If you’ve got better tools but don’t have the energy to use them right now? Fine. But fall back to these.
Minimal. Not zero.
4. Set Your “Sick Day” Lockdown
Make this a checklist you can do half asleep:
- Enable airplane mode before bed
- Cover the webcam
- Log out of all social media for 24h
- Mute group chats and messaging apps
- Do not post, react, or overshare
Even when sick, you still choose what exits your system. Same with data.
Shut the exits.
5. Automate the Protection Layers
You won’t feel like making decisions. That’s the point.
- Set auto-VPN on all networks
- Turn on “always-on” app tracking protection
- Enable scheduled app blockers
- Keep backups on autopilot
So when your body crashes, your setup doesn’t.
Your Worst Day Is Their Best Window
You don’t need to be a spy to need fallback protocols.
It’s the breakup. The hospital visit. The 2 AM insomnia scroll. The caffeine crash. The travel delay. The “I can’t deal with it today.”
Those are the moments when you’ll say yes to default settings. Say yes to quick logins. Say yes to sharing something you shouldn’t.
And they’re watching for it.
They count on you being too tired to read the fine print. Too burned out to resist the nudge.
That’s the real surveillance economy: timing the breach when your defenses are down.
Personal Confession
I’ve posted things I regretted because I was sleep deprived and raw.
I’ve left my VPN off for two days because I was sick and forgot.
I’ve responded emotionally to DMs that I should’ve ignored.
None of that makes me a failure. It makes me a human.
So now I plan for that version of me. Not the well rested me. Not the ideal one.
I build for the worst version.
And that’s made all the difference.
The 5 Minute Burnout Protocol
If you’re reading this and feel like you can’t handle anything right now, just do this:
- Airplane mode your phone
- Close every tab except one
- Turn on your VPN
- Log out of socials for 24 hours
- Cover your webcam with a sticker
- Sleep
That’s it. That’s enough.
You don’t need to win today. You just need to not bleed.
Not Perfect. Just Better.
You can’t be on point every day. No one is.
But your fallback tactics? They can still hold the line.
Make them simple. Make them automatic. Make them idiot proof.
Then when the crash hits mental, physical, emotional you’re still covered.
Even your lowest self deserves privacy.
Claw it back.
-GHOST
Written by GHOST, creator of the Untraceable Digital Dissident project.
This is part of the Untraceable Digital Dissident series — tactical privacy for creators and rebels.
Explore more privacy tactics at untraceabledigitaldissident.com.