For further actions, you may consider blocking this person and/or reporting abuse
For further actions, you may consider blocking this person and/or reporting abuse
TheDev -
AIRabbit -
JLarky -
ANIRUDDHA ADAK -
Top comments (47)
Drink lots of water. Not coffee, not Red Bull, just plain water.
Take frequent breaks from work. A few minutes every hour is good.
Walk / run / jog / exercise everyday.
Talk to a human being face to face for a few minute. Do not leave touch with your human side.
Eat balanced food.
Pick a day to engage in other activities that you do not consider work to ensure that feel rested.
Aw man I have to talk to another human being? Dang I guess I'll burnout /jk
Burnout doesn't come in a week. It takes years of accumulated frustration piling up. Once you become burn out is already too late. So if you are already burned out, take a sabbatical and consider a new job. I did that and worked for me.
If you think you may become burned out, you need to figure out what is causing it. Maybe is how your company works, maybe are your customers, maybe is a single project that keeps coming back. Seek a way to remove that from your life. In my experience changing the way teams and companies work is impossible, so consider switching jobs if you can't avoid what causes you stress.
Burnout had little to do with coding, and more with how you feeling your work. I am happier when I code than when I am doing management. Time off is also important, but if your work suck you will still feel miserable and depressed. Is rather work on something cool 50 hours a week than do something I hate for 30.
The biggest tip I can give is to allow yourself to take time away from it. No matter was is causing the burnout it will be there when you come back to it. I can honestly say staying later or dwelling on an issue has never solved an issue faster than leaving it and coming back to it refreshed. One way I try to allow myself to shift focus is to have concurrent projects. This allows me to pick up something new and move it forward as I clear myself of the frustrations of the first project.
Another good tip is to reach out for help. In almost every case someone has been there and can provide guidance. There are all of people out there that are willing to help you just need to be open to asking for it.
+1 on both points
Deal w/ anxiety + PTSD, things piled up and I was super overwhelmed around August and didn't touch any programming language for 3mos. Was honestly the best choice I could have made.
When I started up again, one of the first things I did was get on Twitter. 0 followers, wasn't aware of the world of Twitter-famous developers, just started tweeting out questions with hashtags relating to the topic I was struggling with. Lo and behold, people a lot smarter than me helped! I became engaged in conversations! I got a 🤘🏾 from @thepracticaldev (<3)! I contributed to open source! I found a mentor!
Don't overload yourself, take a break if you need it, openly ask questions. All around great advice.
"I got a 🤘🏾 from @thepracticaldev (<3)!"
Aww ❤️
I also really like this advice. Yesterday I was feeling overwhelmed by having a lot on my plate, and I just reached out to a friend for some help getting it all together. I rarely do that, and I want to learn to be faster to ask for help.
Walk away from it every night.
If you're working on a side project in addition to your normal job, keep most of your nights free.
Go enjoy some nature. Kayaking has really helped me disconnect and recharge.
I think another keyword is disconnect. I've felt 1000% better since removing email from my phone, turning off most notifications, and staying off my phone after 7pm. Give my eyes some non-screen time. :)
Don't feel obligated to work on your "side projects" you work on in your free time or even have any side projects, especially if you're already getting paid to code. Stop reading and thinking about coding all the time, unless you feel like doing it.
There can be an immense pressure to try to do and read all the things all the time. But you don't have to. Very few people live and breathe coding and software design patterns and the latest frameworks and are just fine! Have a hobby that isn't what you're already doing for 8 hours a day!
This is a very personal topic, and there are many good answers to the discussion already. I'd like to add a little perspective, as someone who's experienced burnout.
Many refer to burnout as work-related, but there isn't a guarantee that's the source. Quite often work can be a contributing factor, and also a trigger, but the source of burnout can be some place else. This was the case with me. A combination of many factors. Personal health, diet, work-pressures, raising small children, an ill wife. Things many people deal with on a regular basis, but for me the pressure built up over time, and bubbled over.
The thing is it often happens to people that are passionate. People who care about the things they are doing that are also the source of that burnout. It's a double-edged sword.
It's like doing the right things for the wrong reasons.
My way back from burnout has been a long one, and I'd like to share some things I've learned that makes all of the difference, for me.
To recover from the initial incident, only one thing helped:
Disconnecting from all external commitments, and taking rest. Huge benefit for me was paid time away from work. A perk everyone has in Norway. Gardening became therapy for me in this period (not so much now 😉). Spending time with my family and children. Doing more things I wanted to vs had to.
After that initial "recovery" (I wasn't ready to start working) I found, and Embraced Empathy. This is a very personal one, but this has been a guiding principle in my life ever since I experienced burnout. Show empathy for myself has allowed me to show it to others. Reaching out to others has allowed me to show it to myself. It's a positive, self-enforcing cycle. which has built up my own resilience,
Other things played a major factor in the time since, and I tend to balance and weigh these practices differently based on actual needs:
There are more than enough points here to dig in to.
I've shared my story of burnout here, if you're interested: codingwithempathy.com/2016/04/12/m...
Get regular sleep. Even if you have to tear yourself away sometimes. Notice when you feel compelled to sit in front of your computer, but aren't accomplishing anything.
Find something you can do, and like to do, regularly away from your desk. It should involve light exercise and limited focus. Swimming, gymnastics, dancing, and gardening come to mind.
Besides the obvious benefits of activity, these sorts of things can induce a daydreamy state - Theta brain waves. This level of consciousness is ideal for letting your thoughts coalesce. I often think of my best ideas, or suddenly discover the next thing I need to do to solve a problem while showering, or mowing the lawn.
For the past 2 years I have been doing a 4-day workweek from Mon-Thur - 32 hours a week. One of my mentors put me onto the idea and asked me to write about it -> unicornfree.com/2014/guest-post-ho...
Thanks for this 😊
I think the best way is to use your creativity for activities outside of programming or computers. Music, art, sports, dance, gardening, wood working.
It is a tough balance to strike due to the fact that many of us feel pressure to be productive at writing code. Some days just won't be productive, and your best bet is to rest your mind and prepare for tomorrow. The main cause of burnout is maintaining too fast a pace, and taking work a bit too seriously.
If you're normally a workaholic that needs calendars, todo lists, and productivity apps: schedule blocks of time during your day for relaxation. Don't be specific. During those blocks, do not try to be productive. If you can't think of anything to do, sit and do nothing.
Also: drink water, stand up often, stretch, and walk/run/bike.
Good advice