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Discussion on: What having a programmer burnout at age 21 feels like

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Dian Fay

"In general, on a working day I (easily) spend 12+ hours working. This has been going on for the past couple months." <- this is the problem. Your brain isn't built to go full bore on problem solving for the bulk of your waking hours. You can do it for a while, but it's like redlining an engine: you go faster temporarily, but it's not free energy. An engine's components degrade and it eventually breaks down; a person burns out, and, not to put too fine a point on it, eventually breaks down.

Attending university and holding down two jobs, part-time or no, is a lot. If you can dispense with one of the three, do it, and replace the time you formerly spent on it with something that isn't programming. Maybe take a short break from development entirely to recharge, go camping or something; it sounds like you might need it. Take stock of your passion projects and evaluate how much time you can spend on them without running yourself ragged, but don't give them up entirely! They are work in their own way so you need to watch your commitments, but it's important to have things you do for yourself.