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Comment by gt2 | Hacker News Reader

Live for something else. Music, startup, reading, whatever you like. Pay yourself first (work on that thing first thing in the morning), or whenever you can give it attention. Work to get your paycheck. You can still do a great job -- this doesn't mean you need to slog through it. Just make your own life your priority.

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This is the right approach. Long days are easier when there is something else to look forward to. I would also suggest a short term ban on all electronics. Get away from your phone and laptop and try some new things, go to some meet-ups, join a gym, w/e. Just break your old routine for a bit to recover. Then add things back slowly and ask yourself if it makes you happy. I know sometimes I veg on tv, not because I'm interested but just because I need to decompress. Finding some non-tech ways to decompress is worth it.

> Music, startup, reading

One of these things is not like the others, one of these things does not belong...

Founding, or co-founding, a startup, probably shouldn't ever be on the shortlist of ways to walk back or avoid stress / burnout...

> Pay yourself first (work on that thing first thing in the morning)

What if there is obligatory daily standup early in the morning eating up the entire morning energy? Well obviously it's not explicitly obligatory but the "we are the second family", "be a good team player" stuff.

Theoretically? Get up even earlier.

In practice, it doesn't work for everyone. Some of us are night owls, and I don't mean the "likes to stay up late" kind, but "can't possibly get up in the morning without being kicked out of bed by someone else" kind.

If they were you family they would care about your health, if they were team players they would find a way to work together on the long term not just burn you out and replace you in 2 months.

When I had my burnout, I just wanted to quit, my boss told me to take as much time as I needed to get better and kept me as an employee

Then you do the "or whenever you can give it attention" part. As importantly, don't care too much about the annoying standup - just get it out of the way.

get up earlier, or do it in the evenings. if you can't do one of these things, you may want to consider what it actually means to own your own company.

I would gladly own an outsourcing hegemon charging the clients tens or hundreds of millions of USD/EUR and paying the employees anually 20-40k USD... but getting up earlier or rescheduling my hobbies for the evenings will not be enough I'm afraid.

yeah, the biggest problem with a starting a company is you actually have to start it. it totally sucks.

These kind of businesses are not just casually started by some random guy.

yeah they are. i've worked for 2 of them.

the problem is you think there's "special" people and "special" businesses... there aren't. there's just successful, and not, and you can't determine a priori which it's going to be.

furthermore, the number of $10 million - $100 million businesses (including consulting firms) operating today that you've never heard of is probably in the tens of thousands.

My team does standups on slack, it works very well for us.

sound like micromanagement without the ceremony. Still better than an actual standup. I'm glad when we get to do this instead (like when the team is in meetings).

I like the overall direction of your comment, essentially make yourself your priority for a bit, but I don't think starting a startup is a good solution for burnout :P

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