How do you reverse burnout? | Hacker News Reader

How do you reverse burnout?

I've been working 50+ hours a week for the last six months. Between my "9-5" freelancing for a full-time client, and my evening personal projects, I pretty much spend 7am-10pm concentrating and mentally engaged. For the last couple of weeks I'm having a hard time caring about the client's project.

At this point I'm almost ready to go find a job working for a single company who will make all the decisions and just delegate to me "code this."

So what do you do to reverse (or prevent) burnout?

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Do something different.

You're working too much, and some of it is under your control. Stop working on your personal projects for a bit. This gives you time to rest, and think clearly.

Do different work. If that means taking a job, as you mention, then fine, do that for awhile. A compromise would be to work for a contracting agency; there are full-timish yet time-limited jobs, so you can let someone else tell you what to code, yet can still leave the job without any social disapproval. Or just work for a company for awhile.

When you're in a rut, get out of the rut. Do something different, whatever that means to you.

This thread is useful. I think I'm in this state myself. Between work (which there is a LOT of), learning new things, commuting (which I often spend learning new things or working) and working out at the gym (which isn't relaxing), I feel like I spend most of my day being "on". It's been difficult for me to think or sleep. Constructing sentences outside of making first impressions is difficult for me. I often feel like I "don't have time" or that I'm in some sort of "crunch mode."

I don't know what to do. I think I'm either burning out or burnt out some time ago but just don't know it. Either way, this thread is very enlightening.

Quit whatever you are doing. No work for couple of months (may be even a year), only fun stuff like movies, sports, exercise, good food and may be even light non-work research if you are into it.

I'm actually in the same boat as you are and am planning to quit my job and do nothing, starting next month. Just gaze at stars from high altitude and realize that this world is big. Job and stress are small things that should not matter in one's life. Then one day you might wake up and find motivation to work less, earn more. At least I hope to do the same.

I'd read a blog of your experience.

Same here!

I'd love to do this, but I depleted my savings and took on some debt from a failed company in 2014. Still digging myself out of that hole!

Your advice doesn't fall on deaf ears, though, we're working towards a leaner life so we can get out of the rat race.

Sleep. Make sure to get at least 8-8.5 hours, every night. You'll start seeing the benefits very quickly.

You may feel more rested and be tempted to stay up later. Don't do that. Get your 8 hours, every night.

It sounds like your body and mind need a rest. IDK about you, but even though I'm healthy and in pretty good shape for my age, my legs, glutes, lower back, shoulders, etc. get really tight from sitting all day and into the night (I work similar amounts and have for years).

I have a couple of techniques that work for me.

- Taking breaks. Sometimes it's reading HN, other times it's preparing a small meal, or just walking around, or whatever.

- Mental time off. When I have something stressful with a client or there is some big meeting set for a few days from now I prepare and that's it. When I'm comfortable or even if I'm anxious I just tell myself, "I'm not thinking about this again until such and such day or time." It's really empowering and works. Probably the best thing I do.

- Yoga, just a little to loosen up, I like Tara Stile's videos on YouTube, they are for all ability levels.

- Mobility work. One good example is the Limber 11. Learn about your body. A foam roller, a ball, and some light aerobic work get your blood flowing and endorphins going. It just feels good. Also a little time at the gym you get to see other humans and it can be mentally relaxing since your body is doing the work instead of your brain.

- Skydiving. It's a sport that I really enjoy. I know it sounds odd but as soon as you step on a plane the rest of the world just goes on hold. You're focused on that jump and what the objective is (4-way, competition, whatever) that nothing else really matters. It's a common theme with skydivers. Perhaps you can find something similar in your life.

- Learning. I enjoy learning about new things and it's a mental break.

Just take it easy, do what you do well, learn how to turn focus on and off. It a skill that you just have to work on like anything else.

> Skydiving.

OP will now ditch all his work obligations and move to the drop zone :-)

Ultimate frisbee works pretty well for me. It's not just the exercise. The change of mental pace from "deep, focused thought" to "read and react to what everyone else is doing in this half second" works fairly well as a mental reset. (Skydiving may be the same; I have no experience with that.)

Or just go for a walk at lunch. (I realize there are days, or maybe even months, when the weather will make that impractical.)

I survived triplets and a wife with a brain tumor - all within a couple of years. Stress does damage to your brain. Permanent damage. It may take you years to reverse the damage.

I would consult a professional (starting with a psychiatrist to get your chemicals back in balance) and consider some sort of meditative activity. Like Tai Chi, or playing guitar, or whatever. Or even meditation.

Sleep, eating well, exercise, taking the right medications, avoiding stressful situations and finding ways to destress - you hear these all of the time, and they are things that people still don't do anyway. If you don't, now would be the time to start.

Stop all your obligations, inform anyone who matters that you will be back in three weeks, and leave the country. Do not take your laptop. Go to the beach. Come back when you're ready. You'll be amazed.

This is what I have found to be useful in such situations

1> Take frequent breaks during the day. (5-10 Min for every 45 min of work).

2> Getting more organized (read Getting Things Done by David Allen) will help you get more work done in less time and also free up some time to spend on yourself.

3> Find meaning in the work you do.

4> Meditate for at least 10 min every day and try to bring mindfulness into your daily life.

5> Spend at least 1 hour each week to reflect/review and clarify your goals in life and see whether you are going in the right direction?

6> Make a plan to spend at least 1 hour each day in activities that help you grow.(eg. Exercise, Reading, writing a blog, learning new things, new hobbies, etc)

7> Practice gratitude before going to sleep. It will have a positive effect on your sleep and general well-being. It will also improve your productivity during day.

Reversing burn out is not easy. I was working crazy hours in my last job and managed to get a far better gig. I thought 2-4 weeks off would do the trick and help me reset. It took a lot longer. Stuff I did that helped:

1) Play mindless video games into the night. I kept having nagging guilt in my mind and had to force myself to ignore it.

2) Buy some books. I have them sitting on my desk. Just haven't been able to will myself to read any fiction (feel guilty about indulging myself). I did manage to read a few non-fiction books that I was interested in. So, baby steps.

3) Hang out with friends/spouse. Realize it is okay to do NOTHING for a bit.

I'm lucky this time. My passion has come back and I can code better than ever. But I am taking this experience as an important lesson. Need to be careful to not get burned out in the future.

Edit: I also let my online learning subscription (won't name it since I have nothing bad against their product) expire on purpose.

Get aerobic execise, enough to make you sweat, at least half an hour a day, ideally more like two hours. If you like to bike, run or something like that, great, otherwise use the cardio at the gym.

If you are feeling unexplained pains, consider starting an SNRI antidepressant such as Effexor, otherwise consider a plain SSRI. This provides an armoring effect against stress without interfering with the natural process of maturation.

Take a vacation.

Put your side projects on the shelf for a while or hire somebody else to do them while you bring your current engagement to an honorable conclusion if that is at all possible.

ITT - you need money to reverse burnout

Communicate with your client and tell them that your 50+ hour weeks have to become 9-5, or you won't be able to support them as a client any longer.

It boils down to a choice between saving your sanity and continuing to work in the field, or burning out and quitting-- losing a major income stream in the process.

Is this one client worth that much?

According to the thread, He spends 9-5 on his clients and the rest on his own projects

I took the "9-5" in quotes to mean that he actually works more than 8 hours, but I now see the alternative interpretation.

Agreed with the other poster: take a vacation. Go someplace.

If you're like me, sometimes that requires a self-applied kick to the posterior, but it's usually followed by "Why didn't I do this sooner?" and its sibling, "Why go home?"

Charge more and work less. Get rid of 9-5[+] stigma.

I should heed this advice. Ironically, I feel too overworked to research the best way to implement this

take a break. Go for long walks/hikes and clear your head.

If you can, go on vacation to a remote island with little communications.

This is what I need. Just like everyone else is saying--take a break--but I need to force the separation between myself and obligation.

I said it above (in my long post), but this is powerful:

"I'm not thinking about this again until such and such day or time."

If you can master it, you'll feel the weight lift off your shoulders almost immediately. The same is true for work, "I'll only work on this during these three hours and then I'm done until tomorrow at 10 AM" or whatever.

Also, burnout after a lot of work is normal. It happens to all of us. Relax, take some time off, do what you love and you'll come back even stronger and more determined than before!

Smoke a ton of weed, get lost in music / art / film / your own non-coding creative projects.

Works for me.

How does smoking weed affect one's programming abilities (later)?

It doesn't. At worst if you do it all the time you may need a week to a month for your brain to recover.

Perhaps paradoxically, I really enjoy programming a lot more when I smoke and tend to spontaneously work on things much more frequently high than sober. It's not always my best work, but otherwise I would probably be playing video games and I can always clean it up later.

It's also not for everyone and I have taken several year long breaks because it can give me anxiety.

I'd like to add that weed really doesn't have the same impact for someone who smokes all day everyday and casual users. Tolerance is a big factor in explaining the fact that pot heads can be functional.

Partially. I don't smoke much anymore, but when I do I'm still high functioning. Part of that is I know my cutoff point and part may be that I have a great deal of practice doing things high and know how to compensate for the downsides.

Good advice for some people. I don't like supplementing reality with drugs.

Fair enough! Simply subtract that clause from the sentence and I think you'll still find an effective treatment for burnout.

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