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
BekahHW -
mahdi -
Sophia Semga -
Kevin Naidoo -
Latest comments (47)
Work towards a goal and respect your health (body, mind, soul).
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
Pace yourself. There's always more work tomorrow no matter how much you get done today. Don't set an impossible pace dealing with the queued up work you can't meet, because you will try and hold yourself to it, and so will those around you. It's better to finish something earlier than promised once in a while than to be behind once in a while. Don't let the burden of being a superhero at delivering things fast, and the worry of what happens when you finally can't, wear you down.
1) Collaborate with humans who know you will be offline sometimes and are ok with that.
2) Curate your online news such that it doesn't spend all its time trying to convince you that you're supposed to feel bad. This might require muting some people on Twitter. This does not make you a bad person; refuse to feel guilty about it.
3) Cultivate a hobby where the progress you've made is visually obvious. Crafts ("That used to be a ball of yarn and now it's a scarf!"), running ("I used to be over there but now I'm here!"), gardening ("that used to be a bunch of dirt and now it's food!") are great for this -- progress that's visible to both you and to humans without your technical domain knowledge is important to have.
Make a point of leaving the office on time every night. Rather get in earlier than stay late into the night.
How to identify burnout?
Serious question, I have been spending every spare minute in front of a computer for the last seven months and the last week I haven't been able to focus on anything...
Don't work a job you hate. Are the User Stories shit? Is the management shit? Is the app shit? Go somewhere else. You will get more money anyways.
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...
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. :)
Usually I turn back to some pet projects for a while. This makes me turn a big frustration into small accomplishes.
This!
I've found a sport I really like, happened to be judo. Add a group of people you can play this sport with, happened to be a bunch of great guys.
Each time I am on the mat all problems just go away.
Good 4 U my Friend. I am a former Judoka in the USA----still love to talk about it and be involved in some way.
Take care
I stop doing any form of code work. I work out, spend time with my loved ones, sleep, go out... Something I haven't indulged in a while. I break away for a few.
Stand up from my workstation after every hour on the hour. Sometimes it goes for more than 1 hour but i do my best to stay within the hour
The short answer: Side Projects
As with most things in life there are varieties of burnout and I use side projects to fight off the variety that stems from feeling stuck in an "enterprise-y" environment where your day to day tools and frameworks are long overdue for modernization. The kind where the day to day monotony of keeping systems running and implementing dry feature requests just wears you down. OR - trudging along as a systems integrator where your third implementation starts to signal all this work is always the same and you mentally and emotionally start to wither away. For these kinds of problems having a few no pressure, no deadline side projects that let you explore the technologies of your choosing can really help remind why it is you do what you do.
I wish I knew... A first, very important step one can take is recognizing when burnout is coming. This alone will save you a lot of time, grief, money, and health. If you feel burnout is coming consider it an emergency: drop everything you're doing and address it! Check if your company has an EAP, or talk to your GP and get a referral to a counsellor/psychotherapist.