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Ask HN: How are you getting through (and back from) burning out?

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Re: Ask HN: How are you getting through (and back from) burning out?

#51
Agree with what others have said here. Stoicism, meditation, diet, and exercise all help. If you're ultimately unhappy with your work, though, your life may require deeper change.

When in doubt, make art (broad definition) about your feelings. Draw, write, or compose music to get your feelings into a tangible format you can look at. If you decide to go this route, let your art be shitty. Just let it be shitty and make it anyway. I've made some super crappy beats in Garageband that nobody else will ever hear, but they helped me process through feelings.

Re: Ask HN: How are you getting through (and back from) burning out?

#52
Depends on the type of burnout, but I would caution about doubling down on exercise.

For two reasons:

1: It can be an attempt to avoid working through the issues that led to the burnout. Sometimes it can be like replacing one addiction with another.

2: Exercise is stress, and burnout is a reaction to prolonged stress. Moderate exercise can help, by elevating mood. Heavy exercise in burnout can lead to prolonged fatigue and CFS like symptoms.

Re: Ask HN: How are you getting through (and back from) burning out?

#53

One word: perspective. At 53, with ~30 years in the industry, I've been through this a few times. The key has always been to step back and look around me. Look at other things I could be doing, and maybe do some of them. Focus more attention to family and friends, hobbies, exercise and other forms of self-care. Look at what other people are doing, what I'd do for a living if I couldn't or didn't want to keep programm…

You are a true Sage, sir!

Re: Ask HN: How are you getting through (and back from) burning out?

#54
See this site:

https://www.mind-body-health.net/

I have suffered many burnouts, because of my background which I won't go into here, and because of too many life stressors.

I have found that site to be spot on, both in the description of the syndrome, and in its suggestions for recovery.

Re: Ask HN: How are you getting through (and back from) burning out?

#55
You should see a doc for a physical, you want to be sure your blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose, and particularly thyroid hormone are in check.

If you are experiencing irritability (blowing up at people) then you definitely want to take an SSRI. Self-loathing would justify a heavy dose.

Definitely exercise more. The 20 minutes a day advise is way too little for lifelong fitness.

Re: Ask HN: How are you getting through (and back from) burning out?

#56

Just like the other comments here I'd suggest focusing on mindset and health. For mindset, I'd recommend looking at stoicism such as with "A guide to the good life." In particular, the parts about accepting reality as it is, sort of like the serenity prayer. I like to think that I go into work with the mindset of giving 100% and should therefore not feel dejected by negative occurances. If I'm not fit for a task, tha…

Can confirm that this book helps. I read "A guide to the good life" and practised stoicism at a time when my anxiety and stress levels were high. Very useful comment and it's great to be reminded of the book here.

Re: Ask HN: How are you getting through (and back from) burning out?

#57
"high-performance knowledge worker that places a lot of self-worth in the quality of his work "

I have a very similar story to yours and it took me a few years to figure this out. You may have to learn to accept a lower level of performance from yourself. You may need to accept that you can't put out the type of quality that you used to, and at the speed you used to. Burn out is _serious_ and it can drag you down a pretty dark path. Beating yourself up over not being who you know you are will make things a lot worse. It isn't easy to do, but it also isn't permanent. It's better to let things go for a while (maybe even a year or two) until you are in a place mentally where you can handle the load of your own expectations (in combination with the load of all the different stressors in your life).

Move slowly and accept a long timeline for recovery. I'm finding that it is still quite easy to slip back into burnout if I push too hard. Spend time working on basic self care. Are you sleeping well? Are you eating healthy food? Are there any chronic health concerns that you could take this time to address? Are you depressed? Consuming too much alcohol? You might find that the way back starts with just taking care of yourself, and doing what you can to shield yourself from internal and external stressors.

"I plan and I scheme"

Before I started to recover I had a list of all the things that I expected myself to do. I even broke it down into the quarters of the year that I expected to achieve things by. That list, and the consequences of planning and self expectation had nearly terminal consequences. Consider that, and be gentle with your own expectations. I still record my ideas and the things that I want to do, but they aren't actionable. They'll still be waiting for me when I'm ready.

Re: Ask HN: How are you getting through (and back from) burning out?

#58
What works for me is learning to have fun (again). That means discovering a new activity (or an old one that I haven't done in years). It has to be something non coding related like cooking, painting, playing an instrument, a video game, exercise, a writing project, maybe a couple of those at the same time.

My hypothesis is that the little spark of having fun at something will trigger something in my brain that will fuel my passion and energy after a couple of weeks.

Personally meditation has never worked for me. I did it daily for years when I was younger. It's possible I was too young, or maybe I wasn't doing it properly.

Light exercise and good sleeping habits also work great.

Re: Ask HN: How are you getting through (and back from) burning out?

#59
post #29

I really hated lifting weights for the first 30 years of my life, but I've come to enjoy it. Well, I mean, I still dislike doing it in the moment sometimes, but overall I enjoy it. Aristotle said something like it's a shame to focus only on the mind, and not bring your body to its full potential. Modern psychology says exercise leads to greater sense of well-being. This isn't a magic bullet that will make stressors g…

Not sure if Aristotle said that but here are a couple of other quotes “No citizen has a right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training…what a disgrace it is for a man to grow old without ever seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.” - Socrates “In order for man to succeed in life, God provided him with two means, education and physical activity. Not separately, one for the soul and the…

Thanks for the correction!

Re: Ask HN: How are you getting through (and back from) burning out?

#60
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you exercise first thing in the morning (like myself), I'd say breakfast is essential shortly afterward.

I exercise shortly after getting up 5 days a week. I don't eat food until hours later. Depending on your exercise goals, you may want to eat before or after exercise but it certainly isn't essential. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/eating-before-or-after-...

Eh, for retaining muscle density & mass I'll defer to sports medicine tradition and what I learned from trained coaches there—

Healthline also posts articles saying it's important to eat right after exercise, so I gather they aren't speaking unilaterally in either case:

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/eat-after-workout

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