Burnout advice: try to sleep 10+ hours a night for some time.
Ask HN: Any freelancers here? I need burnout advice
31–40 of 80 posts
Re: Ask HN: Any freelancers here? I need burnout advice
#32Take a vacation. Get outside into nature, whatever takes your fancy. Mountain, coast, woods, wildness. Do something with animals. Start a new hobby. Buy a telescope. Build an aquarium.
Part of the reason contractor hourlies are so high is that you’re not meant to bill 2100 hours a year. Aim for north of 1500 and south of 1900. Burnout on contracting gigs was always a problem for me because W2 contracting does tend to expect 2000 hours a year. But I hate job hunting so I steered clear of 6 month engagements.
What does W2 mean? I have seen it twice in this thread now.
Re: Ask HN: Any freelancers here? I need burnout advice
#33Mental health is your biggest asset, and without it, you can't function in life let alone job. Taking care of that is anyone's number one priority. Took a career break last year, and it was one of the best decisions I made.
It's important to also have a plan so you know at least roughly how long you can have your break for ($ wise), and what you will do in that time. I've come back to work feeling much better and knowing what/how I want my career to look like/unfold. Job hunting is hard especially now, but clearing your mind of burnout is important to build your resilience and confidence in your skills and conveying that in interviews.
Re: Ask HN: Any freelancers here? I need burnout advice
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
Part of the reason contractor hourlies are so high is that you’re not meant to bill 2100 hours a year. Aim for north of 1500 and south of 1900. Burnout on contracting gigs was always a problem for me because W2 contracting does tend to expect 2000 hours a year. But I hate job hunting so I steered clear of 6 month engagements.
What does W2 mean? I have seen it twice in this thread now.
Regular payroll employment, as opposed to independent contractor status. Its from the tax form on which wages from that kind of employment are reported.
Re: Ask HN: Any freelancers here? I need burnout advice
#35[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Any freelancers here? I need burnout advice
#36Everyone saying, take a vacation, but most people can’t easily afford that. Can you risk it when you might go back, hole in your bank account, the burnout possibly not cured? But a part time job, for a year or two, doing non software work? Especially something social and physical? That might be viable, if you can get your expenses down enough. But most jobs outside software pay so badly, you won’t be able to afford r…
If you don't have a rental agreement in place, then the costs for travel is largely from flight travel. And many places locally are easy to fly for just several hundred $. If you have more of a budget, you can travel overseas in relatively cheap economic countries. It can be done if you plan accordingly within a budget.
Also helps if you are solo, and can cook. And I also think it's a great energy recharger and helped me when I was burnt out.
Re: Ask HN: Any freelancers here? I need burnout advice
#37If you can afford to take time and do a less demanding job, go for it. Restaurants are great for addressing programmer stress for a few reasons:
- when you're done for the day, you're done for the day
- you make a thing and then immediately see people smiling and happy
- interfacing with many people of many walks of life, everyone eats.
The fact that you noticed a pattern, or a problem, and knew the steps to address it in a way that wouldn't leave you idle is significant and shouldn't be disregarded. For that reason, I think you'll find your peace and it looks like you already know the way. Take care and good luck on the next leg of your journey!
Re: Ask HN: Any freelancers here? I need burnout advice
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Part of the reason contractor hourlies are so high is that you’re not meant to bill 2100 hours a year. Aim for north of 1500 and south of 1900. Burnout on contracting gigs was always a problem for me because W2 contracting does tend to expect 2000 hours a year. But I hate job hunting so I steered clear of 6 month engagements.
What does W2 mean? I have seen it twice in this thread now.
It also usually means you’re using an agency. Most people hire contractors 1099, which in contrast to W2, you’re responsible for most of the legwork of tax collection and also self employment taxes.
Re: Ask HN: Any freelancers here? I need burnout advice
#39Burnout comes from reward != work/effort put in over a long period of time.
Building your own thing can be very conducive to burnout b/c most of the time you’re not really getting a lot of positive ideas.
Everyone likes to say that vacation is the solution to burnout, and it can be, but it’s not the end all be all. Your brain needs to feel contentment at the end of a typical day. Contentment indicates you’re filling all your emotional needs. Just like relaxing is a need, being told your work matters is an emotional need too.
You want something “real” - eg tangible evidence that what you are doing matters.
If you have financial means - I’d recommend taking a part time job where your output is immediately visible (bartending, carpentry, landscaping, (I personally load bags on airplanes)). Remember the goal is not to make money, it’s to have people tell you what you are doing matters. Eg, have someone notice the extra 5 mins you put in to make the lawn lines straight. See the smile on a regular when you remember their order. Etc.
Re: Ask HN: Any freelancers here? I need burnout advice
#40I spent about 2 years doing something similar.
I found a startup that couldn't afford a full time dev, but needed someone to keep the lights on and ship a feature or two per week while they looked for customers and fundraised.
I worked 15-20 hours per week for them. Their work actually was the foundation of my day. If I _just_ work on my startup, I tend to spend time going to the gym, relaxing, and socializing instead of actually working. Their 7am meetings helped me get up and get started.
They paid $100+/hr or ($7,200/mo pre-tax), which was more than I needed for my lifestyle.
One word of caution though is that if your startup fails, you are knee-capping your career. The 2 years I spent freelancing put me 2 years behind my peers that jumped directly into big tech companies. Meaning I was 1-2 levels below them and I missed some of the equity surge in 2021-2022.