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Comment by NineStarPoint | Hacker News Reader

As a counterpoint to your edit, personally work exhausts me to a level where weekends are mostly spent recuperating/doing chores and not being productive. It’s a week or two into the breaks I’ve taken from work where I start being productive in ways I rarely manage during my working periods.

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Yes that part didn't ring true for myself. I have found that burnout absolutely kills my weekends. I don't have energy for anything besides doom scrolling. And it takes at least several days off to feel my intrinsic motivation come back. After a week I'm ready to learn Japanese, not go back to work.

Weekends exhaust me because kids and wife vs work and colleagues.

Family meeting time?

Sounds healthy. How do you do it?

Just get everyone together and talk about the problems and how you can fix them.

Totally. One thing I don't miss is hating my Sunday evening just because next day I'm back at it. I never hated work, but some Sundays were terrible.

Yes, a thousand times yes. Recalling Sunday evenings is giving me PTSD.

The part for me was having to go to sleep early every night so the next day wouldn't be an early morning drag... I hated it even way back in my school days. Quitting a job is liberating, but it's also terrifying if you can't financially sustain a full or comfortable retirement into the future.

Getting a paycheck means surrendering your ability to wake up and live your life based completely on your own internal clock, and it can be a big drain on your mental health and physical well being. There are ways of charging your battery, but it's not always possible without risk and/or sacrifice if you weren't born rich or somehow otherwise financially lucky.

Health is wealth too though... We're usually born with a "glass full of water" that represents our health - mental and physical health. Over time we drink from that glass until it's gone... Once you burn out, you're toast. It's important to always be cognizant of where your water supply is, and to try to stop letting people drink from your glass before it completely runs dry... If you're lucky, you'll turn your water into a nice vintage wine.

The 2 weak break spurts you talk about are mostly temporary and happens because you do them so rarely. Long term it will likely look more like those weekends.

Best case you keep your work habits and can continue working on your hobbies like you did work previously, but worst case it will all look like those weekends.

Two weeks is how long it takes me to be somewhat recovered from work burnout, I’ve taken a much longer break and kept up productivity for the duration. You’re not wrong about the need to be mindful of habits thoughts. They’re not quite work habits, but no longer needing to spend energy maintaining work habits creates the room for me to maintain other habits instead. I do still have to be mindful of what it is I want to be achieving over a period of time and work to maintain habits that will push me towards those goals, but it’s a lot more pleasurable to get to choose on your own what those goals and habits will be.

Edit: A side note being, between the changes to work culture and me gaining the experience to be more desirable to work places, I’ve managed to move to a more flexible remote position that gives me a fair bit of control over my day to day. This has definitely increased my ability to be productive in my off time, due to the lowered stress on my general energy levels.

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