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Now how about an article on how to recover from burn out, doing nothing all day for a couple months doesn't seem to be working out.
My list would be more like -- How to Burn Out Programming: 1) Do it too much for too long while being under stress. The same way you burn out doing anything. 2) See #1 I do agree with some of the points laid out in the post, but disagree with #2 and #4. #2 ("Have a negative attitude toward everything") is a bad thing for team morale and should be avoided but I don't believe it has anything to do with burnout. #4 ("Sw…
I agree about #4 and many of the things he lists are a bit subjective and for some could be again result of being burnout. Your career stagnates even if you persist remaining in the same useless place forever and sometime starting anew somewhere else, on new problems, could at least temporarily help someone suffering from burnout.
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I've never been burnt out(yet). What does it feel like?
That's ignoring the random bouts of crying for no particular reason and things like that, because I'm pretty sure they're unique to each individual.
My list would be more like -- How to Burn Out Programming: 1) Do it too much for too long while being under stress. The same way you burn out doing anything. 2) See #1 I do agree with some of the points laid out in the post, but disagree with #2 and #4. #2 ("Have a negative attitude toward everything") is a bad thing for team morale and should be avoided but I don't believe it has anything to do with burnout. #4 ("Sw…
I've had to quit a couple of jobs due to the fact that
staying there maintaining the same old code base ...
would have been what resulted in my burnout.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've never been burnt out(yet). What does it feel like?
Well its a form of depression. If you'r feeling unmotivated for longer periods time, frustrated at all the stuff you still need to do but still can't start, often procrastinating for days/weeks before you can make small progress.. Then you are probably burnt out. A project with big ambitions, tight deadlines and a small team and budget will get you there some time.
One thing I always avoid is depriving of enough sleep which will cause physically burned out and it's hard to recover as other people mentioned. It may cause long term negative effect. If it happens in a short term, make it up quickly to fully recover yourself and come back to the energy level soon.
Psychologically if we are burned out for a certain task, we can switch to some other type of tasks instead of doing nothing productive. But sometimes, it's hard to keep the engine running without burning out of fuel. For most of the startup teams, after reaching a certain milestone, it will be followed by a lot of lip service or brain storming before they gear up towards a new target.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've never been burnt out(yet). What does it feel like?
The most relatable way I've found to describe it as that after burning out it takes 100% of your current effort to achieve 10% of your previous output. That's ignoring the random bouts of crying for no particular reason and things like that, because I'm pretty sure they're unique to each individual.
Burn out - for me - means a shorter temper and less productivity.
This is true, but the other extreme is also true - being too loyal, stuck in a soul sucking boring job dominated by internal fights and politics, can also lead to burnout. Sometimes it gets tough to find work you enjoy doing.
> "5. Work long hours, ignore your life"
This should be the number one reason for burnout. I think it happens most often with young developers in their twenties that don't have a family to get back to at the end of the day. Personally I now have a wife and a 3 year old son and I'm always happy to return home at the end of the day or to engage in various activities over the weekend. And because I do that, I enjoy most Mondays.
Of course, we are software developers, we like what we do, many times we want to work outside regular hours. But personally I have a general rule that I always apply -> I never work overtime or on weekends, unless I'm in the mood for it or if there's an extreme emergency. Therefore, I never cared when some manager or client told me that the deadline is probably going to be late, so maybe we should pull longer hours. When asked, I always say "No, sorry". My overtime is for things that bring me pleasure - implementing a cool feature that I wanted, or learning something new, or implementing something reusable and pushing it on GitHub ... you know, works of love.
There's a tremendous difference between working overtime because you're in the mood for it versus because you have to.
Also missing from the list:
> "6. Be dishonest, never ask for help
I've decided some time ago that I should always be honest with my colleagues, managers or clients. In my language we've got an expression that more or less means wasting time - "rubbing the mint". Sometimes I rub the mint - and in scrums and daily meetings, I now feel no shame in admitting that the other day I did basically nothing. I also recognize when I'm having problems, like when I'm not understanding a concept well enough or when I can't find the root cause of a problem and do ask for help ... though, because of the ego-tripping or other reasons, this is something that's often difficult to do.
It does help being honest and nobody is bothered when you admit that you were lazy the other day or that you're having problems, because everybody have the same issues in their job, even if they don't admit it.
Being honest and recognizing your own flaws helps with not feeling guilty. If you're lying to your peers that you got work done, that you're close to solving the problem, etc... that's accumulating debt that you have to pay in the days that follow and it can lead to a snowball effect.
Now how about an article on how to recover from burn out, doing nothing all day for a couple months doesn't seem to be working out.
Ouch. My theory is that it's related to ego depletion. [1] If that's correct, you should find things that you want to do, and do them. Start small. And do your best to not focus on the burnout; focus on what you can enjoy about what you are doing. Look for little victories; I'm convinced that accomplishing things, anything , can help recharge you. I also think social connections can recharge you. Not the kind on Face…
When I think of the kid who used to tinker around with computers and electronics, I always see him as another person. There's no way that guy would ever find learning a new programming language boring, or find it difficult to get out of bed for classes he was really excited about.
I appreciate the post and will try some of the stuff you suggested out. Glad to hear you had your first really good day! This isn't the first time I've felt stuck in a rut and I know how great it is to feel that way. :)
Now how about an article on how to recover from burn out, doing nothing all day for a couple months doesn't seem to be working out.