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

I understand that it can be annoying to have the same question asked often. It is likely the effect of having a constant influx of new HN readers.

Perhaps if we closed the doors to new users we could solve this problem. I doubt we'll see much support for that solution, and justifiably so

10 years ago, I went through an intense period of burn-out after 2 consecutive death marches at work. Just the thought of work gave me stomach cramps.

I told my manager at the time that for the foreseeable future, I'd be coming in at 10:30am and go home at 4 or 5pm and to give me an assignment that was isolated (as in: something that could be developed without many interactions with critical pieces of the rest of the system). It was either that or just quit. My manager was very understanding so that's how it went.

I decided to dive into new hobbies and classes that took a lot of time, often 5 days a week, and often starting at 5pm.

After about 6 months I could bring myself to occasionally read an email after work again and I was my old self again after about a year.

To avoid these issues in the future, I simply stopped working as hard as I did. It helped that I also met my now-wife at the end of my recovery year, which forced me into a better work/life balance. (E.g. dinner at 6pm.)

    But you should consider not trying so hard.

I suspect that's not going to be a popular thing for a lot of people. I agree with the advice but I'd re-word it slightly because -- at least for me -- it's not about trying. I'm paid, so I will do the work and it will be solid but I might also destroy myself in the process which kind of defeats the purpose. So I'll go with "Do something that the effort/reward properly matches how much it will drain out of you to complete"

I used to be an absolute minimum 50-hours/week guy, often around 60-80, and I did it without much pain, but I also didn't realize what I was missing out on. In my last two positions, I have managed to rarely work more than 40 hours (he says coming off of a 75 hour week last week). I'm accomplishing more on every front. This would not have been possible a few jobs ago. My new responsibilities are no "less important" in the grand scheme of what I think of should be "important in life" and they're far more important/fun for me, personally. I found an employer that operates in a more Agile fashion, with fewer deadline emergencies and I'm mentoring more, writing less code but getting to tackle much more difficult problems (which is why there's less code -- it takes a lot longer when you have to refer to docs/RFCs because there's no answers from the usual corners of the web).

I've learned that if at least two out of every five days of the week (averaged over a month, maybe?) I don't get out of bed at least reasonably motivated to work on the thing I'm working on, it's time to evaluate where things are in my life. The last two jobs I've had, "reasonably motivated" has typically been "bolt upright excited" to get up and start work.

    Don't put everything into your job

It's probably not a good idea, especially if you work for someone. They won't put everything in to you, so it's going to be a very uneven relationship. But it is a stupidly important thing in your life (especially if you're supporting a family and working full time). It occupies a large portion of your waking hours so if you're miserable there, the rest of those hours are probably not going to be great, either.

You should read notacoward’s profile. I think you are the type of person he or she is talking about. If OP is offended by being called Sir then let them say so.

Why are you passing judgement on behalf of someone else?

Was the sir really necessary? Nothing in the comment or profile indicates gender, regardless of what the reality is. And if people keep making this assumption then how do female members who statistically encounter this error far more often feel like this community is equally welcoming of them.