Hacker News Reader

Comment by staunch | Hacker News Reader

Tell your co-founders you need a week off. They should probably take one too. Go find a beach and read a book there every day. Don't think about work.

Despite how it may seem there's no chance your company will die or suffer any irreparable harm in a week. Just do it.

When you come back have a discussion with your co-founders. Try to talk through (calmly and without resentment) the problems you see. Focus on finding the best solutions to the problems. Don't get into arguments about the past. Everything before is water under the bridge. You will have to accept that certain things probably can't be fixed, and that's okay. Fix the things that hinder your company's ability to succeed.

Also, make sure you sleep enough every day. Don't skimp on sleep at all. Nothing will make you burn out faster than chronic sleep deprivation. Everyone can get 8+ hours of sleep per night if they make it a priority.

View on HN

I would like to point out meditation. I got started with meditation because someone recommended it as cure for burnout here on HackerNews and I feel like I need to return the favor. Meditation is like taking a week off compressed into 30 minutes. The idea is that you do nothing for some time - not even think. I know it sounds wierd, but if you do it corrrectly you fell more balanced, less agitated and happier in general afterwards. You will get a fresh view on your problems and be able to put them into perspective. Just like taking a week off meditation won't fix your problems for you, but it will get you into the right mindset to do so or for accepting that curtain things can not be fixed.

There are different kinds of meditation, but I am talking about mindfulness meditation in the Buddhist tradition. When people hear the word meditation, they often associate it with some kind of new age non-sense. This kind of meditation has nothing to do with that. It also does not require to convert to Buddhism either. If you are interested I would recommend the book Mindfullness in Plain English. It's also available for free as an e-book on the internet.

I'm the kind of guy who would immediately think of meditation as some hippy activity, but i've actually found my own way that works for me which is to go and do a repetitive task that required no brain power, it helps clear my mind and makes me much more productive.

Miraculous power and marvelous activity– Drawing water and hewing wood! http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/zen/poems.htm

That's actually what meditation is mostly about. With a breathing meditation, you just pull your focus back to your breath every time you get distracted. That's it. All the stuff about having to close your eyes, or sit with your knees behind your head while a guru throws a bucket of water at you is just dogma. So, funnily enough, you already do meditate.

I signed up so that I could post that I strongly agree. I'm the CTO at a startup that depends way too heavily on me, and I use Tai Chi to stay sane. Tai Chi is about a lot of things but the part that keeps me sane is the meditative aspect of running my body through a "program" of movements, which requires a specific amount of attention. If your mind wanders during a Tai Chi form then you'll screw it up. And if you focus too MUCH then you'll also screw it up. So Tai Chi becomes a tool for practicing the mental state known as "flow".

Aside from it being a form of moving meditation for the mind, it helps the body, especially for a tech nerd. I began studying Tai Chi, I came near burnout partly because my body was always in a similar posture all week. I developed RSI in my neck and my shoulder from constantly tensing muscles to use a mouse or trackpad. If I worked through a weekend, or two in a row, then I might spend 20 or 30 days in a row with my shoulder tight. Tai Chi is not intense exercise, but it moves all of your muscles through their full range of motion. Simply having that "program" that I can run with my body eliminated my RSI. Even though I still have to spend way too much time at the keyboard.

Nice timing with this post. Yesterday my thumb was twitching uncontrollably for half the day due to what looks like RSI and I was wondering what my options were. Thanks for the tip!

Don't forget, there's an element of focus in meditation, though. Just doing a hobby, while beneficial and relaxing, isn't really meditation... unless your focused on what's happening in the moment while you're doing it.

The everyday experience closest to meditation is probably when you're in the zone while doing something athletic.

Cooking and washing dishes work for me. My wife loves it.

I used to hate doing dishes, but now that I'm full-time freelance I love it. I get to listen to podcasts, take a break from work and do something mindless that needs doing. Ditto for going to the grocery.

Sometimes I wonder, can't exercise, for example, going for a run outdoors, or even just working out with weights, be a form of meditation? This assumes that you are in good enough shape / have exercised long enough to where its basically routine, you hardly have to think while you're doing it, so you can just let your mind go blank. I think this is part of the appeal for exercise for me sometimes, I find that if I have 30 minutes to spare I like to do something active rather than quietly meditate.

Take what he says to heart: "there's no chance your company will die or suffer irreparable hard in a week."

Or put it another way: If you taking 1 week vacation to heal your spirits leads to the demise of the company, it means that it wasn't viable in the first place. Is what you've built really that fragile that it can't take a breather for one single week? I doubt it.

Take at least a week off, and come back rejuvenated. You're worth more to your company well-rested and in the right frame of mind rather than burnt out and ineffective.

How many of you are there? If you can, have a company holiday. Everyone disconnect for a week (separately, of course). It may be primarily for you, but this serves to eliminate any anxiety that may occur due to being away. For example, you might feel out of control if your partners are working while you're not. Especially if you are already feeling a little resentful, it's pretty easy to begin to misinterpret benign things as subversion.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com