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Ask HN: Has anyone managed to find enjoyment in their work after burnout?

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Re: Ask HN: Has anyone managed to find enjoyment in their work after burnout?

#91

Post by thdespou »

mattlondon wrote: post #16

I found that just moving teams and dropping a load of baggage made a huge difference and a huge improvement. I also found that regular physical exercise outside (running for me) is a game changer and totally allows your brain to disconnect. Finally, don't guilt trip yourself on your free time. There is nothing you "should" be doing on your spare time. Want to code? Fine. But do you really? Want to just veg out and wa…

+1 Start doing Callisthenics. 100 pushups, 100 pullups, 100 squats and 6 miles of run every day will help you immensely. Eliminate excuse's.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone managed to find enjoyment in their work after burnout?

#92

Post by jnovek »

I’m on a slow upswing from a long burnout after (over)working a similar timeframe.

I tried everything I could imagine and read about, no matter what I did the two most important ingredients were “time” and “therapy”.

I guess “exploring other things that I enjoy” would be a third ingredient. E.g. I started playing music again for the first time since college. Music eventually led to (necessary) MIDI hacking which got me programming again.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone managed to find enjoyment in their work after burnout?

#93

Post by aspyct »

I think working 5 days a week, 8h a day on the same topic is insane. I can't think of anything I would want to do for so many hours a day, almost every day.

For me, switching to 4 days a week was a huge improvement in my quality of life. Now I've switched to 3, and have a completely different second job 2 days a week. And two days of rest.

I love both, for different reasons, but could never go back to a full week of IT, or switch to a full week of my new job. They balance fine, but I don't think they can exist on their own.

After going through 7 different jobs in 12 years, I realize the only thing that keeps me happy is the team itself. Great team? Great job. Bad team? Bad job. Your mileage may vary, but if you're in a rut, maybe try finding a better, more humane team.

And by all means, scale back to 4 days a week. You'll have way less disposable income (especially because some costs are fixed: rent, food, health...), but you'll have more time.

Essentially, you're trading time against money. What's most valuable to you?

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone managed to find enjoyment in their work after burnout?

#95

Post by [deleted] »

mritchie712 wrote: post #78
mattlondon wrote: post #16

I found that just moving teams and dropping a load of baggage made a huge difference and a huge improvement. I also found that regular physical exercise outside (running for me) is a game changer and totally allows your brain to disconnect. Finally, don't guilt trip yourself on your free time. There is nothing you "should" be doing on your spare time. Want to code? Fine. But do you really? Want to just veg out and wa…

+1 on exercise. I find HIIT better for breaking out of mental slump then most other forms of exercise. Sprints are best for me[0]. 0 - https://twitter.com/thisritchie/status/1426215815175680001?s...

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone managed to find enjoyment in their work after burnout?

#96

Post by highwaylights »

This advice is going to be hated by a lot of people but.. care less.

You’re in an industry that values your skills and seems to always have demand. Whether or not that’s true in the future, it certainly is today, so the best thing you can do is put yourself first and worry less about work as a whole. Especially if it’s not your own company.

Spend more time on you, on activities with friends and family, on hobbies. If you don’t have particularly healthy hobbies, maybe start some. Getting away from your work more and more will make it all the more bearable.

These days work is close to the bottom of my list of concerns, which sounds really bad - BUT - I find I’m more productive than I’ve been in years because I’m not worrying if something takes longer than expected or is bigger than I realised. I can just enjoy the problem solving and shipping without the stress.

If you’re burned out this badly I’d suggest it’s your soul’s way of telling yourself “hey this isn’t working for me”. As someone who has been to some pretty messed up depths with the anxiety monster, I’d heed that voice. Life isn’t long enough to stay stuck in a rut like this for any amount of time at all.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone managed to find enjoyment in their work after burnout?

#97

Post by bornfreddy »

mattlondon wrote: post #16

I found that just moving teams and dropping a load of baggage made a huge difference and a huge improvement. I also found that regular physical exercise outside (running for me) is a game changer and totally allows your brain to disconnect. Finally, don't guilt trip yourself on your free time. There is nothing you "should" be doing on your spare time. Want to code? Fine. But do you really? Want to just veg out and wa…

+1 on regular exercise - it makes a huge difference! We are not built to sit all day.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone managed to find enjoyment in their work after burnout?

#98

Post by bsenftner »

ryandvm wrote: post #67
Version467 wrote: post #48

I'm still pretty young so this might not apply, but I tried to skip university and make it as a freelancer. Worked out fine money wise, but got severe burn out working on a project that I shouldn't have taken on in the first place, but needed the money. I recovered fine, but it was pretty brutal. For a while I couldn't even look at code without getting nauseous and a having a splitting headache. I'm not exaggerating…

As a society we should figure out some sort of systemic work exchange program where people suffering from burnout can leave their career for 8 months to work in a brewery or be a fire watcher or herd goats or whatever until they figure out that, "damn, my old job wasn't so bad after all." Either that or they become a full time goat herder...

You do realize, illegal work environments and unreasonable expectations on developers is "best practices" in software development. As a society we need to end illegal best practices that require developers to work so hard they have physically damaged brain issues from the overwork and stress afterwards.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone managed to find enjoyment in their work after burnout?

#99

Post by Madmallard »

I enjoy programming things I want to program. Working for X company making their veiled crud app but linking it with 900 different things just sucks the joy out of it.

Working towards becoming a pianist now.

Tutoring prospective students as well remains interesting, provided there’s genuine interest on their part.

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