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Ask HN: How do you know if you're burnt out or just being lazy?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you know if you're burnt out or just being lazy?

#21

Post by ekidd »

First, check the essentials: Are you sleeping, eating decent food, and exercising regularly? If not, you may be neither burnt out nor lazy. Take care of this stuff first.

Second, have you spent the last year working so hard that nothing short of a physical illness will make you slow down? Do you regularly push through problems with sheer willpower? Do you crave the next "green" unit test result beyond all sanity?

If so, you're almost certainly burnt out. Don't try to push through it. Take a vacation. Get outside. Allow yourself to be distracted by a pointless and amusing hobby for a month. You can't fix burnout with willpower. You need to take time off and refresh.

If you haven't been mistreating your body, and you haven't been pushing yourself too hard for too long, then it's possible you're lazy, or depressed, or something else. If you think you might be lazy, commit to making some useful progress every morning for 30 days, no exceptions. Or try a Pomodoro timer. These might be enough to tip you over the edge and get you moving. But don't do this until you've ruled out burnout, because it will only dig you in deeper.

Re: Ask HN: How do you know if you're burnt out or just being lazy?

#22

Post by srazzaque »

This is a great question. For me, my "acid test" would be: "is the task that I feel like doing now DIRECTLY related to my goals/projects/objectives?". Several successive "no's" over a long period (like constant "no's" over a few days or weeks) MAY indicate burn-out. A few successive "no's" in isolation MAY indicate laziness, or it may indicate that you're just not in the right state of mind to be doing the particular task you've assigned to yourself.

It's worth mentioning that it's very important to consider energy levels too. Not all tasks are equal, so for instance, it'd a be a silly idea to embark on a 3-4 hour coding binge at 1am, when I know that if I had a good sleep and was wide awake, I could get the same work done in maybe 1-2 hours with a higher level of quality. I'll do some lower energy work instead, or I might even decide to call it quits for a day, wind down and just read a book - and I wouldn't consider it laziness at all. At all costs, I want to keep the quality of work up - even if it means not doing it right now. I know myself, and I trust myself that I'll get up the next morning and hack and slash away in a much better state of mind, and produce better quality work (most of the time!)

For me, forcing myself to do work that my mind just isn't in the state to do is a fast path to fatigue, unproductiveness, burn-out and "far out there's not enough time in a day, the universe is against me!"-type delusions.

Re: Ask HN: How do you know if you're burnt out or just being lazy?

#23

Post by madaxe »

ekidd wrote: post #21

First, check the essentials: Are you sleeping, eating decent food, and exercising regularly? If not, you may be neither burnt out nor lazy. Take care of this stuff first. Second, have you spent the last year working so hard that nothing short of a physical illness will make you slow down? Do you regularly push through problems with sheer willpower? Do you crave the next "green" unit test result beyond all sanity? If…

What you describe there is laziness. Burnout is this weird concept that developers have invented to describe "I can't be bothered to keep going". 5 years, no days off, one 5 day holiday per year, on call 24/7 for the duration, and I'm just fine. Depressed and exhausted, yes, but the work keeps flowing in and the code keeps flowing out, which is all that matters.

I guess what I'm getting at is that people have forgotten that work is supposed to be hard. You're supposed to work your nuts off until you lose all track of time. "Free time" is a misnomer, because every moment that you're not working, you're costing yourself time, and time is precious, and should therefore be spent working.

If you can't hack back-to-back 80+ hour weeks, you need to keep throwing yourself into them until you can.

Re: Ask HN: How do you know if you're burnt out or just being lazy?

#24

Post by srazzaque »

ekidd wrote: post #21

First, check the essentials: Are you sleeping, eating decent food, and exercising regularly? If not, you may be neither burnt out nor lazy. Take care of this stuff first. Second, have you spent the last year working so hard that nothing short of a physical illness will make you slow down? Do you regularly push through problems with sheer willpower? Do you crave the next "green" unit test result beyond all sanity? If…

Agreed. Regular exercise, good health and good sleep - would just like to re-emphasise that there's absolutely no substitute for it.

Re: Ask HN: How do you know if you're burnt out or just being lazy?

#26

Post by derwildemomo »

madaxe wrote: post #23
ekidd wrote: post #21

First, check the essentials: Are you sleeping, eating decent food, and exercising regularly? If not, you may be neither burnt out nor lazy. Take care of this stuff first. Second, have you spent the last year working so hard that nothing short of a physical illness will make you slow down? Do you regularly push through problems with sheer willpower? Do you crave the next "green" unit test result beyond all sanity? If…

What you describe there is laziness. Burnout is this weird concept that developers have invented to describe "I can't be bothered to keep going". 5 years, no days off, one 5 day holiday per year, on call 24/7 for the duration, and I'm just fine. Depressed and exhausted, yes, but the work keeps flowing in and the code keeps flowing out, which is all that matters. I guess what I'm getting at is that people have forgott…

That code you're writing in the 79th hour must be of astonishing quality! Seriously, I don't see how anyone can be productive after, say, 50 hours or so..

Re: Ask HN: How do you know if you're burnt out or just being lazy?

#27

Post by hobbes »

madaxe wrote: post #23
ekidd wrote: post #21

First, check the essentials: Are you sleeping, eating decent food, and exercising regularly? If not, you may be neither burnt out nor lazy. Take care of this stuff first. Second, have you spent the last year working so hard that nothing short of a physical illness will make you slow down? Do you regularly push through problems with sheer willpower? Do you crave the next "green" unit test result beyond all sanity? If…

What you describe there is laziness. Burnout is this weird concept that developers have invented to describe "I can't be bothered to keep going". 5 years, no days off, one 5 day holiday per year, on call 24/7 for the duration, and I'm just fine. Depressed and exhausted, yes, but the work keeps flowing in and the code keeps flowing out, which is all that matters. I guess what I'm getting at is that people have forgott…

"...I'm just fine. Depressed and exhausted, yes..."

I can't decide if your post is a joke or if your lifestyle is the joke.

Re: Ask HN: How do you know if you're burnt out or just being lazy?

#28

Post by jplmelanson »

compay wrote: post #20

If you have to ask yourself this question, I think there's a chance you might be suffering from the kind of self-esteem issues that often plague bright people. Take a peek at this Wikipedia article on the "Dunning Kruger Effect" to have an idea of what I'm referring to. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect Have you generally been a hard working person your whole life but are now going through a…

I didn't know that Dunning-Kruger effect, but it seems quite interesting! Thanks for the sharing.

Re: Ask HN: How do you know if you're burnt out or just being lazy?

#29

Post by madaxe »

derwildemomo wrote: post #26
madaxe wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you describe there is laziness. Burnout is this weird concept that developers have invented to describe "I can't be bothered to keep going". 5 years, no days off, one 5 day holiday per year, on call 24/7 for the duration, and I'm just fine. Depressed and exhausted, yes, but the work keeps flowing in and the code keeps flowing out, which is all that matters. I guess what I'm getting at is that people have forgott…

That code you're writing in the 79th hour must be of astonishing quality! Seriously, I don't see how anyone can be productive after, say, 50 hours or so..

Lots of caffeine, and flogging myself as hard as I can to keep going.

Re: Ask HN: How do you know if you're burnt out or just being lazy?

#30

Post by MJR »

madaxe wrote: post #23
ekidd wrote: post #21

First, check the essentials: Are you sleeping, eating decent food, and exercising regularly? If not, you may be neither burnt out nor lazy. Take care of this stuff first. Second, have you spent the last year working so hard that nothing short of a physical illness will make you slow down? Do you regularly push through problems with sheer willpower? Do you crave the next "green" unit test result beyond all sanity? If…

What you describe there is laziness. Burnout is this weird concept that developers have invented to describe "I can't be bothered to keep going". 5 years, no days off, one 5 day holiday per year, on call 24/7 for the duration, and I'm just fine. Depressed and exhausted, yes, but the work keeps flowing in and the code keeps flowing out, which is all that matters. I guess what I'm getting at is that people have forgott…

Depressed and exhausted, yes, but the work keeps flowing in and the code keeps flowing out

You call that just fine? This is not fine. This is not healthy and this is the attitude you should be fighting against. If you honestly think that you are a better person and you produce your best work when you're exhausted and depressed, you should probably get some other opinions on that, because I have a strong feeling that the people around you will disagree - whether that's co-workers or family members.

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