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Ask HN: Working through burnout?

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Re: Ask HN: Working through burnout?

#51

Post by danellis »

madawan wrote: post #17

> but how do you keep your brain operative and your mind focused enough to read and write code for those intervening 3 days Adderal, Ritalin or Captagon can be used to get you out of a bad situation. But you should be very careful not to use them for longer periods because you will regret it. Talk to your doctor and then go talk to your employer. I know where I live at least you can take a permanent medical leave for…

Surely a doctor isn't going to prescribe medication just because you're working too much? They're going to tell you to work less and sleep more. They don't care about your deadlines, they only care about you health.

Re: Ask HN: Working through burnout?

#52

Post by Starwatcher2001 »

nerdy wrote: post #23

Solve 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'…

Good points about prioritising. It might be better to have one feature missing than going in to bat with several features only partially working or buggy.

Re: Ask HN: Working through burnout?

#53

Post by stevenkovar »

My superficial suggestion: Sleep, diet, and exercise.

Cut everything else out until the task is done, provided the task holds that level of importance to you. Sleep will help your brain, exercise will energize you (even if it's just a brisk walk), and food will sustain you. Sometimes it's easy to overlook the basics—the foundation of quality effort.

My real suggestion? Take a step back and consider whether the environment around you will keep you healthy and happy long-term. Burnout charges interest, and if your environment doesn't afford you the opportunity to repay that interest, you'll spiral into psychological and physical bankruptcy.

So before finishing this project, take a physical step back, look at your environment objectively. Is it going to bankrupt you? If yes, seek to remedy the situation immediately and forcefully. If no, see my superficial suggestion and get to work.

Re: Ask HN: Working through burnout?

#54

Post by matthewcford »

It's better to stop now and start the road to recovery, because these next three days will not be productive anyway.

You team will understand, the company cannot fairly* dismiss you for being overworked and stressed. You owe it to yourself to take a break and recharge.

* depends on your country's laws I guess, but if they value you they will give you time to recover.

Re: Ask HN: Working through burnout?

#55

Post by parham »

harkyns_castle wrote: post #18
parham wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have to say these three do wonders and are critical for sustainable productivity.

Meditating/relaxing in bed before sleep I think is pretty important. Just taking 10-30 minutes to completely relax the muscles, stretch everything, forget everything. Pine trees, crickets, water lapping over white sands. To do it well, I focus on the extremities of the toes and fingers, and give them a really good stretch, then let them relax. Then work inwards. Eventually you'll feel like you're floating, and get a…

I don't have much experience with stretching before sleep, but sounds like it would work, and work well! I only use meditation to clear my mind so I can get some peace and away from the problem I've been trying to solve during the day, otherwise I would be awake all night!

I really do prefer weight training an hour or so before sleep, it just gets the blood flowing without increasing the heart rate too much.

Re: Ask HN: Working through burnout?

#57

Post by codingdave »

There are quite a few long-term answers already to avoiding burnout, but the trick to getting past the next 3 days is to walk away for a brief break right now. Do something you really enjoy, ideally that lets your body get some exercise while you can completely ignore the work for a few hours. Let yourself forget for a few hours.

If it is too short of a break, it won't work. If it is too long of a break, you'll be too far disconnected and still feel burnt out when you try to start again. For me, 2-3 hours is about right.

And everyone else is correct. Once this is over, and you have recovered, find new routines to avoid this in future. Also, do some real analysis of how you got here in the first place - burnout due to hard deadlines is almost always a flaw in your project management process (or lack thereof). Treat this burnout like a performance problem in software - dig deep, find the root cause, and fix it.

Re: Ask HN: Working through burnout?

#58

Post by swalsh »

I was burnt out once. It got bad, I got depressed, for lack of better way to putting it, i felt "disconnected" from myself. My relationship was suffering, and nothing made it better. It only got worse. I'd get in this loop, where i'd work long hours. Get nothing done, so work longer hours. It kept repeating, getting worse and worse.

I tried taking a vacation, that did little to help. What worked for me was changing jobs. Still, I didn't get better immediately, it took me a good year or so to feel "productive" again.

It was one of the worst periods of time in my life, and i'd recommend you get out as fast as possible.

Re: Ask HN: Working through burnout?

#59

Post by realrocker »

For some people the sense of fellowship is more important than self-being. If you are one of those, well, it's going to be tough for you. Anyhow I would recommend:

1. Take little walks during work. 2. You also need a sound board, a colleague whom you can trust to validate your work and thoughts, because the one thing you can't afford is to redo things. Just trust this random stranger from the internet on this one. 3. Try to get a fix on the date when you can take a time off.Knowing that takes of the edge off a bit.

Re: Ask HN: Working through burnout?

#60

Post by shdon »

swalsh wrote: post #58

I was burnt out once. It got bad, I got depressed, for lack of better way to putting it, i felt "disconnected" from myself. My relationship was suffering, and nothing made it better. It only got worse. I'd get in this loop, where i'd work long hours. Get nothing done, so work longer hours. It kept repeating, getting worse and worse. I tried taking a vacation, that did little to help. What worked for me was changing j…

This, exactly. I'd like to add one thing though: do not force yourself trying to get back to "normal". I made that mistake, going back to work before I had properly recovered, and it actually resulted in prolonging my burnout and depression, possibly by years!
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