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It's alright to take a break

Chris Bongers on January 24, 2021

Yes, I'm here to tell you, you should take a break. Breaks are important they help us see things from a different perspective. It doesn't mean one...
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Alex Lohr

With 2 kids and the pandemic, I had to reduce my work time to 50%. I made the mistake of mismanaging my expectations and thus caused unnecessary stress for myself and my team. Especially in transitioning phases, allow yourself more breaks and use them to reflect on your expectations.

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Chris Bongers

Hey Alex,

Can imagine it was quite hectic with kids and working from home.
Did you manage to get the percentage breaks alright now?

I still find it hard some days to say ok now I need a full break.

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Alex Lohr

After realizing what had happened, I first took a break of one day to redefine my expectations. Everything else just followed automatically.

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James Schleigher

Thanks for sharing! Surely, taking short breaks can help me focus more. I thought this was not important until I experienced burnout. So I scheduled my short breaks along with other tasks, which really helped remind me of break time. I use task management software so that I can track my progress. I like Tick Tick and Quire.

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Chris Bongers

Nice, i'm glad to see you are taking action.
Burnout is so real, and often a first one can really take you by surprise.

Thanks for these apps, i'll check them out.

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jstewart8053

Coming from the man who has my notifications filled up with daily articles...lol! I'm thankful you don't take too many breaks though. :) Oh, and if you ever need any inspo on what to write about can I make a personal request for Amazon Database services and analytics. (specifically RDS and Quicksight). I need someone who speaks human to help me make sense of it. Thanks for all you do though!

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Chris Bongers

Haha, you'd be surprised I do actually take breaks!
I try and write ahead of time to be able to have some weekend off, or go on a holiday :).

Awesome! I only did Azure table storage as a database, but will definitely write this down!

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jstewart8053

And as for breaks, I wish. My break was working from home for 3 days while I had strep, awaiting my Covid results. I also have two kids, and just started my first dev position the beginning of the year (not remote :( ), and it is hard! I did take a hiatus from an outside project I was working on for a small start-up, because I was spreading myself too thin. But many employers aren't so understanding, even during these hard times. My employer could let me work from home, but he doesn't. Maybe bc I'm new.

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Chris Bongers

Yeah especially seeing this when you're new, they sometimes expect another rock star dev from the line, since that's what they have.

It's such a toxic environment really.
But good to move your side projects to the side, and perhaps even talking to a manager can be helpful?

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Margo McCabe

This is a really great reminder - thank you! Since I've been working from home and have very few distractions, I sometimes have to remind myself to take a break to go eat lunch in a different room or walk the dogs, etc. I always feel much better afterwards!

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Chris Bongers

I think especially when working from home it's becoming more important.
I find myself doing only 15 minute lunches and get back to work.

However need to tell myself, stop, it's a break you earned it.
Just sit and relax for a bit.