Are you suffering from burn-out?

Modern technology makes it so much easier to flirt with burnout without even realizing it. The laptop is always open on the kitchen table. The cell is never out of reach. There's no conscious thought to the work day or work week having a beginning and an end. It's amazing how easily all of this just becomes "normal."

My personal test for preventing another burnout:

    Can I do this forever? (Y/N)

    If you answered N, stop making excuses, realize you deserve positive changes 
    in your own life, and do it.

An abstract is a reduction, I tried to write this with some context so that it becomes easier to figure out if this is something that you might be flirting with or not, to make it live. As a person that has come pretty close to burning out (not quite ready to admit that I did) I figure I can sketch the situations a bit clearer than if you've never experienced this first hand.

I know we just had a burn-out discussion on the first page, that's exactly why I wrote this.

Please note that it is very well possible to be well on the road towards being burned out without realising it and that by showing what is and what is not burn-out related it might help a few people to realise what is going on.

Sometimes the 'normal' lack of inspiration or drive for a while gets mistakenly labelled as burn-out, sometimes you get the notice that person 'x' is no longer because they and those around them failed to notice the seriousness of the situation until it was much too late.

If you feel that it is a waste of space and time to write this you're welcome to use the 'flag' option, I thought it was relevant and that's why I spent the time on putting it together.

I my early 20s, after getting out of the service, I worked as an assistant manager at a fast-foot restaurant in the evenings while I did college during the day. It was a full load of credits, and the food place I was working was very busy too, so it made for a long, hard slog.

One day I was talking to another of the assistant managers. I asked him about burn-out. Do you ever feel like you might be burning out?

"Not me. Can't happen"

"Why"

"Because I got burnt-out a year or two ago. I just pushed through it."

He was smiling. Sort of in a fatalistic way.

I'm not denying burn-out: I get it all the time. But I do think we over-emphasize it. As Jacques points out, if you live a life of leisure you have little danger of burning out. You also have little danger of living a life of challenging yourself to do new and complex things.

I think, as my friend pointed out so many years ago, that the problem is viewing burn-out as an yes-or-no situation. In fact, there are degrees of burn-out, and you can drift into burn-out land and drift back. What people really need to do, in my opinion, is learn their own rhythms. Personally, I like working hard for a few months then skating for a month or two. I find I get more done. I find when I am working hard, taking a ten minute break every hour helps. Sometimes I take all day on Saturday and watch movies. Or go for a hike.

So the trick isn't avoiding burn-out. The trick is learning your own rhythms so you maximize your productivity while you're stuck on this rock. Burnt-out? Back off, sure. But note your rhythm, and next time you won't burn out as much.

Life is a marathon, not a sprint. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't get your kick on.

EDIT: That didn't come out exactly as I wanted. It sounded as if I were just telling folks to buck up. But that's not what I meant to say. The point was self-reflection.

This gets back to learning yourself -- your rhythms and values. I find that if I immerse myself in something I am deeply committed to, burning out is a learning experience. But I immerse myself in something I hate -- working for some other guy, doing something because I am forced to? Burning out can really hurt and require lots of time to recover from.

That's why I don't do that.

Burning out early and for a long time -- indication that you are putting a lot of effort in something you resent.

There is literally nothing I have ever done that I could do forever, even things I LOVED.

The fact that somebody doesn't want to do something forever doesn't mean it's a bad thing for them to do right now.