How to Burn Out Programming

I sometimes have to pull off tight deadlines that require me to go three or four days with only a couple hours of sleep each time (it's grad school, it sucks).

Burnout for me feels like the third day of that all the time. A fatigue so deep it's almost an ache. The thought of booting up your IDE feels like the equivalent of sitting through a lecture after that third day of little to no sleep. Sure, you can do it, but it just seems like such a chore.

That's burnout. It takes the things that invigorate you and turns them into chores. Then it breaks both your legs. Have fun getting your chores done.

This post makes a lot of sense in a general context too I think. This is the way I read it:

How not to burn out doing X:

1. Don't obsess over X

2. Stay positive!

3. Learn new things, experiment

4. Maintain a healthy life outside X (i.e dont obsess)

You know that drive to get things done? The emotion that pushes you to accomplish amazing things, to build the product that you're being paid to build -- or the product of your dreams? To work long hours because you Need This Feature To Be Done Before Friday?

That part of you feels dead. You can barely convince yourself to get out of bed. You just feel numb. Tired all the time, but unable to get enough sleep to feel better.

It's not the same as depression, though if you put enough of your self-worth into your ability to be awesome, it can lead to depression.

It probably is related to just being under-slept, but it requires about 2-3 months of good sleep (probably longer if you can't take that much time off work and really relax) to recharge your brain.

It also may be related to the psychological concept of "ego depletion." [1] At least that's how it has felt to me.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego_depletion

> It takes the things that invigorate you and turns them into chores. Then it breaks both your legs. Have fun getting your chores done.

This part of your description was much better than my whole post.

Where's "Don't exercise?"

That'd be pretty close to the top of my list.

A quick 2-3 mile jog around the neighborhood can help get me out of work-related funks. (I work at a home office, though, so it's easier for me to say "fuck it" and go do something sweaty in the middle of the day...)

My theory is that, since the only real item on your jogging to-do list is to put one foot in front of the other, your brain is freed up a bit to wander. Which is helped by the light stimulus of the changing environment around you. And this brain wandering helps shake out cobwebs and generally make you feel like a free individual again.

And, of course, it gives you an energy boost, which helps with the simple exhaustion side of things.