Ask HN: Has anyone managed to find enjoyment in their work after burnout?

I've been completely burnt out several times to the point of rancid bitterness. And I have completely bounced back to innocent like joy.

Find a healthy environment with a truly meaningful mission and work with people who are sincere, care and are not there for the money.

It is possible to get joy back into your working life.

I took 3 months off and didn't look at a computer when I was burnt out. When I was interviewing for jobs after my break I felt pretty good, but less than a year into my new job I'm right back where I started.

I do think it's important to work with a psychologist to understand what aspects of your work are making you burn out. Simply taking a break and then diving back into a similar environment is a recipe for failure.

I found that just moving teams and dropping a load of baggage made a huge difference and a huge improvement.

I also found that regular physical exercise outside (running for me) is a game changer and totally allows your brain to disconnect.

Finally, don't guilt trip yourself on your free time. There is nothing you "should" be doing on your spare time. Want to code? Fine. But do you really? Want to just veg out and watch Netflix? Also fine. Want to do some "junk food" gaming? Do it. Hang out with friends family and loved ones? I encourage that. Don't pressure yourself about open source projects or side hustles etc.

Also, like me, you may have to accept that you are getting older and can't rely quite so much on having that super-sharp working memory to hold an entire codebase in your head and stay focused for hours on end. A lot of my burnout came from putting unreasonable expectations on myself. Once I started taking a lot more notes, drawing a lot more diagrams, and asking a lot more questions I actually found I became more efficient than when I was relying on mental capacity alone. And it became much easier to take breaks and tolerate interruptions.

Burnout is kinda like an injury, it makes new injuries more likely and you need to train around it.

I think there are a few things that I've found that always help:

* Removing the source of frustration or the thing that is burning you out -- this might mean quitting a toxic job, reducing hours, whatever. But be honest with yourself, ask for somebody who you talk to a lot to give input on what they think it is and listen.

* Rest. This doesn't have to mean "do nothing" but it can. I think a lot of people do nothing for not enough time. A 2 week vacation and then back to the grind, you may find yourself feeling fresh and re-burnt out in less time than you were gone. I'd say rest more accurately means "do something that is easy but keeps you active" or "do things you've neglected, but don't push the area you're frustrated". I find that working on something that's lower stakes or requires less back and forth and allows me to think through and fix without questions of my dedication or intention are most helpful for me, but for you it might be something else. If burnout is around coding, managing a complex, non coding problem might be helpful. I have friends who have done home improvements or setup beer brewing etc to focus their skills on somewhere lower stakes.

* Do recovery "exercises". If big projects or coding has burnt you out, slowly introduce it in a healthy manner, accounting for the changes you made by removing frustration. This should feel like the most difficult part, because you're attempting to do something new. Introduce the thing you want to do but you've been prevented because of burn-out and try slowly to do it while addressing any strains the source of your injury immediately. This might mean having more candid discussions with managers or team members to prevent toxic patterns from emerging. This may mean tempering expectations early or setting clearer boundaries. Do the hard thing and prevent re-injury. Taper, and don't increase capacity until you're sure you're gaining energy rather than losing it again.

* Be patient. I've been burnt out pretty badly with projects and it's taken several months of healthy, quiet coding in the back seat of a good team to feel well rested again. It's given me a lot of time to assess what went wrong, what I liked and what I have missed about my time resting. I'd say probably 6mo for just a single terrible 2 months of work. Be patient and trust the process.