Oh well - maybe if I can get our sprint velocity even higher this year, I can get a bonus and go on a vacation to /really/ recover!
1) Learn something.
2) Get a small win after a big loss.
The ideal project to do when you're feeling burnt out is something that is well inside your comfort zone and can be completed in a couple days, but also teaches you something new. Something like learning a new framework, or building a quick new "toy" that isn't really critical to the business but users would find interesting, or doing a refactoring that you totally know how to do but have been putting off for months because other stuff is more important.
I've also had managers put me on projects like this after slaving away for months on a project that gets canceled. In hindsight they knew exactly what they were doing, and the fact that it was kinda fun and not critical to the business was actually a long-term investment.
Burnout happens when stress isn't followed by rest. When stress feels endless. And when stress feels like it's pointless.
The solution therefore is to make sure you always know why you're working so hard, build in reward for your hard work, and take a break after a specific period of stress.
Always have the end in sight. Always know your goal. Always make sure you feel progress toward the goal.
Crucially, when the specified period of stress comes, take a fucking break. Whether you're done or not. Very important.
I myself often fail to follow these lessons. So I write them here to help me remember :)
PS: for a more in-depth exploration of these 3 rules, read Peak Performance. It helped me a lot.
There's a whole sub-type of burnout which comes about even in relatively low stress environments.
In fact jobs I loved and cared about have often brought much more stress exactly because I cared about the outcome, and when I failed to live up to my expectations at that job it felt like a personal failing and I was letting everyone down.
If you or anyone you know feels like that, then it's a serious outlier condition worthy of academic study.
Why not? Let's bet a few people do. There are certainly people who live their life in a permanent joyous state, no matter what. Rare, perhaps but I wouldn't dismiss their experience as a condition.
It can be boring, mundane, unfulfilling, uninteresting, repetitive, etc... That doesn't generally produce a traditional "stress" but does wear on you emotionally.
Edit: oh I see now your suggestion is to craft an invariant as reward for your labor after a specific period of expected stress whether or not it's successful. That's probably not a bad choice, as long as the choice to go on a break precedes the stressful period
Human brains arnt built to withstand the onslaught of meaningless emails and endless reports and presentations. Offices are just awful in many instances.
The cure is rest. Since it was identified by Freudenberger and elaborated by Maslach this has been the accepted treatment.
Of course, this isn't much use to you if you can't rest due to your external commitments, but sometimes even just identifying that you have a problem can help.
Some folks have pretty good in-band home remedies, or at least growth inhibitors, for burnout. Bringing them to bear isn't done by everyone, or may not even be universally applicable, but I'm not sure rest will bear out to be the only cure for this ailment in the long run.
What is a good alternative to capitalist production that doesn't involve slave labor and or millions of deaths?