I know the easy answer to my question is "just take a rest and don't think about it," but how would you really know? Do you have a personal acid test to know if you're really tired or just plain undisciplined?
Ask HN: How do you know if you're burnt out or just being lazy?
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Re: Ask HN: How do you know if you're burnt out or just being lazy?
#2By whether what you do in your downtime is neutral+ or negative.
Re: Ask HN: How do you know if you're burnt out or just being lazy?
#3By whether what you do in your downtime is neutral+ or negative.
elaborate?
Re: Ask HN: How do you know if you're burnt out or just being lazy?
#4I think if you can't do the things you love then you're probably burnt out.
If all you want to do are the things you like then you're probably being lazy.
Not fool proof - but a starting indicator.
Re: Ask HN: How do you know if you're burnt out or just being lazy?
#5Re: Ask HN: How do you know if you're burnt out or just being lazy?
#6[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: How do you know if you're burnt out or just being lazy?
#7FOr me, if I am burnt out I just take a nap or go for a walk. If I am lazy, I keep browsing my fav. websites(HN, reddit) again n again..F5 comes handy here :)
Re: Ask HN: How do you know if you're burnt out or just being lazy?
#8Laziness is a virtue
Re: Ask HN: How do you know if you're burnt out or just being lazy?
#9If you wanted to take a scientific approach you'd need to be able to do something like the following: (A) measure your actual work output and (B) some way of measuring your 'maximum expected output capacity'.
if A much less than B you are being lazy. if A is close to or equal to B then you are burnt out.
[The short answer of course is, if you are reading Hacker News you are being lazy]
As an aside; Pivotal Tracker - the feature / dev tracking software manages to define output using average number of work blocks completed over the past X weeks. How you measure your maximum expected output capacity might be more tricky to define.
Re: Ask HN: How do you know if you're burnt out or just being lazy?
#10FOr me, if I am burnt out I just take a nap or go for a walk. If I am lazy, I keep browsing my fav. websites(HN, reddit) again n again..F5 comes handy here :)
I feel like being burnt out is more endemic than just being a bit tired (and thus a nap fixes it). It permeates everything to do with your job. All tasks even when interesting feel like a burden very quickly. There is a sense of being intellectually tired. A loss of confidence leading to self doubt and thus begins the downward spiral in productivity.