You're asking how to drive a car when it's run out of gas. You don't. Maybe you can push it slowly, but really you should fill up, even just a little. It's a lot easier to drive a car to the next fill station than it is to kill yourself pushing it there. Take some time, even a just a little, and put some gas in your tank.
Ask HN: Working through burnout?
21–30 of 96 posts
Re: Ask HN: Working through burnout?
#22Do you have a hobby? If the answer is no, then you need to do some soul searching and find something external to technology that you would enjoy. My wife is a psychiatrist (well not yet, she is finishing her doctorate) and doing a study on burn out, she believes it is a undiagnosed form of temporal depression. Many times it's onset comes when a developer feels there is nothing more to learn, what she has named masters syndrome. Many times the very thing to break it, is to become a novice again. But the trick is a novice at something totally unrelated, my first one was ballistics. I bought a reloading bench and learned everything about the accuracy, power transfer of bullets. Fishing and Hunting have always been big for me as well, so I took time to do both. My wife believes that burn out is a product of a specific personality profile that likes to learn, but may feel that they have mastered their field. I stress that she is still collecting data and at this point it is conjecture, until the data validates it. But I can say developing new interests broke it for me and it certainly worth a try.
Re: Ask HN: Working through burnout?
#23Solve the "fuzzy brain" complex: Take time to evaluate your situation. Understanding your current position relative to your goal is incredibly important to maintaining having a clear mind during stressful circumstances. If your to-do list isn't logged somewhere, get it into the medium of your choice (physical or electronic). The cognitive load of those tasks is undoubtedly weighing on you. Keep paper nearby when you're going to sleep so any sudden thoughts can be offloaded immediately without the glowing allure of a display panel.
Prioritize: Are there some to-dos which have blockers? You might need an image from a 3rd party, task interdependencies, some information from someone working on the project... get those things happening in parallel while you work (start them as early as possible).
Keep the feedback loop short: Is it possible some part of the deliverable is going to be rejected or changes may be required? Can you mock it up and save some development time? Try to have the highest possible confidence in what you're building and keep the feedback loop small. Not only does provide you a requirements guarantee, it can help prevent unrealistic expectations about progress since everyone is kept updated as a side effect of the feedback loop. Don't fall into the trap of thinking "it's only 3 days anyways, they don't need to be involved, I just need to get this done."
Stay balanced: Don't increase or decrease caffeine intake. Decreasing it drag you down, increase will make you have manic productivity swings with deep valleys. Don't skip sleep, meals or exercise. Even if you don't normally exercise you should start during this period to prevent your mind from racing and to help rest at night. Do it daily as vigorously as you can, figure out if AM or PM works best for you. If you have a friend or significant other you can involve, it can help get more out of your limited free time between now and the deadline.
Re: Ask HN: Working through burnout?
#24Do you have a hobby? If the answer is no, then you need to do some soul searching and find something external to technology that you would enjoy. My wife is a psychiatrist (well not yet, she is finishing her doctorate) and doing a study on burn out, she believes it is a undiagnosed form of temporal depression. Many times it's onset comes when a developer feels there is nothing more to learn, what she has named master…
I don't think a hobby is going to help meet a deadline a few days away.
Re: Ask HN: Working through burnout?
#25Do you have a hobby? If the answer is no, then you need to do some soul searching and find something external to technology that you would enjoy. My wife is a psychiatrist (well not yet, she is finishing her doctorate) and doing a study on burn out, she believes it is a undiagnosed form of temporal depression. Many times it's onset comes when a developer feels there is nothing more to learn, what she has named master…
I don't think a hobby is going to help meet a deadline a few days away.
No you are correct, but if you are suffering from burn out you have a larger problem than a looming deadline. Corrective steps take time. It takes years to get to burn out, there is no magic bullet to undue that overnight.
Re: Ask HN: Working through burnout?
#26How's the rest of the team coping with it? If other people are also stressed, it is easier to go to management for an extension.
As for just working through it, programming work is not factory work. Productivity can be negative when you're tired, and x10 when you're on a roll. You may find yourself more productive just by not doing anything for a day and coming back.
Re: Ask HN: Working through burnout?
#27I'll +1 Exercise. Meditate. Sleep. When I read your comment this is what I read though: "I committed to this goal and I gave it everything I got but still came up short. How can I make it so I didn't come up short?"
I've been there not too long ago with the goal being making a multi-million euro part of an even bigger project with 7 figure fines for delays get off the critical path in the midst of a corporate reorganization. In the end me coming up a tad short still was a resounding success for the company. The multi-year personal recovery period afterwards wasn't though.
The main thing that I've learnt is that every company is in its most optimal state when every individual in it consistently cycles between being pushed to grow AND completely relaxing. It's the same formula sporters use to get better: if you're not pushed frequently you stall and underperform; if you can't relax your dynamic range decreases and you'll slowly become less effective.
For any company to get there its employees need to internalize one very specific guideline: when you're under stress and don't see a way to fully relax and shake it off sufficiently soon it's time to reorganize the process so that your stress levels become manageable again; hard deadline or no hard deadline.
Re: Ask HN: Working through burnout?
#28Be sure you covered all your supplements. If you work indoors, you almost certainly don't get enough vitamin D. Also, multivitamins. Additionally, I take fish oil, ginkgo, and saffron and find my brain fog to be improved. But I think the Vitamin D is essential.
There is good information about supplements on examine.com
Re: Ask HN: Working through burnout?
#29Discipline. In more way than one.
Firstly, the discipline to avoid getting exhausted in the first place. I don't knee-jerk "yes" when asked to work overtime, I make a deliberate decision despite how much pride I might have in the product or how much pressure I am put under by management. When I work overtime for a single night it's seen as a big deal and a big favor: as it should be.
Secondly, the discipline to push through if the first case of discipline somehow fell short. Then I demand leave, bonus leave, immediate leave: no questions asked. If I've had the discipline to push through, I can easily demand that my employer has the discipline to ensure that I am in top working order despite their mistake.
Re: Ask HN: Working through burnout?
#30[deleted]