Ask HN: Working through burnout?

Natural stuff, take more breaks, and just have in the back of your mind that better days (specially nights are ahead).

Avoid burnouts, I was on some pills for a year to launch a product and then, first I got fired cause I couldn't do shit, then I slept for a month and couldn't get a job to save my life. That was 6 years ago, and is now that I feel better. Don't be STUPID is not worth it.

And how good was your bugbusting on Tuesday? If you'd gone home at 5, got a proper night's sleep, and done a 6 hour day on Tuesday with a clear head, do you think you'd've caught more, or fewer bugs?

(mildly fictionalized account) Last week I pulled my colleague away from trying to fix some data loss in our production system. He pointed out, quite correctly, that unless this was fixed by midnight then our client reports would be incorrect. They were; we've apologised; we may lose clients over this. I still maintain it was the correct decision, because if he'd continued to mess with the production system in that state, there's a non-negligible chance those incorrect reports could've turned into something much worse.

Mental preparation. Always have conversations with yourself about your state of mind, be your own therapist, I tell myself that I'm blessed and working 24/7 is nothing. There are folks who have a much more physical and mentally demanding jobs.

There are people who are living in war zone and their job everyday is to survive, to avoid getting shot, blown to bits, find food within that chaos and still do whatever they have to do. There is no timeouts, no rest, the action could begin right while you are sleeping and you have to jump and get back at it. As a software developer, we have it easy. I imagine myself as a survivor in the midst of a war. I won't crack and I'm ready for whatever.

Cuss loud if you have to, laugh loud when you have to, have fun within the work, don't be 100% zoned in, while working, crack jokes, laugh, balance it out. You can do it. If you are mentally tough, you will not burnout. The physical toll on your body tho is a different matter, my biggest issue is that of eating right and weight gain. Best of luck.

Exercise and eating are critical, something I personally fail at all too often when I get stressed. Supplements like others have said aren't going to fix the problem, but can help you control some of the symptoms (Vitamin B6, B12 & D are really good here). Just stay away from powerful drugs if at all possible, masking the symptom with a potent drug isn't worth the pain later. However, that said, sometimes in life it is necessary, so be your own judge.

Don't believe in the fallacy that you will take a week off when this deadline is met. Cause the reality is you will likely feel, I can't leave now because what if X happens, or Y etc. Instead, its likely time to renegotiate the deadline, likely was time 2+ weeks ago, but either way just do it.

Failure can be defined a lot of ways, missing a deadline is generally not one of them when the cost of missing it exceeds the value it offers. I have seen many deadlines set by a startup or small business because they feel they have to get to market by day X or they miss the boat, fail, go out of business, you name it. Guess what, Day X comes and nothing changes except the team is burnt and bitter at minimum for awhile. As usually even moderate success is Day X + Y. If the date has been long announced then yes meeting the date may be critical, but how you meet the date is still negotiable.