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Take a break

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Re: Take a break

#71

Post by Tade0 »

Silverback_VII wrote: post #46
Swinx43 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it is impossible to understand how much additional stress and anxiety being a parent of small children bring without being in that position. I refer to it as the best kept secret of parenthood. No one tells you this until you are in it.

>I think it is impossible to understand how much additional stress and anxiety being a parent of small children bring without being in that position. I have to disagree and I'm a father. I think it's exactly like in the book "the happiness advantage", some people will see the positive and use it as possibility to grow and to get more productive. On the other hand, People who focus on the negative and didn't learn to…

Also a father, and I don't see it as a case of positives and negatives, rather how much energy you're putting into it.

There are many methods of minimizing the effort you're putting in and you can make it relatively easy, but like with everything it's a tradeoff.

Food is one major point. You can introduce a baby to solids early on and practice the BLW method, or you could just spoon feed them with ready-to-eat baby products - there's an order of magnitude difference in effort between those two approaches.

One thing I learned from this experience is that it's beyond the capabilities of a normal human couple to apply all the fancy, high-effort parenting methods - you'd need at least two grandparents cover just the more popular ones.

Re: Take a break

#72

Post by bitL »

GrigoriyMikh wrote: post #16
ArjenM wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twenty years, two months into the second burn out on top of long term depression. I'm going bankrupt for a second time because I can't work 100% anymore. I'm yet to find a psychiatrist. Wish I could have a break sometimes.

10 years in. I started to have panic attacks last year. Took a a few 2 weeks vacations. They help only temporarily. Now i'm out of vacations, trapped in a foreign country without usual citizen rights to take a many-months break from work and without an option to return home(because of war). Feel trapped without any light ahead.

Try megadosing B1 (2000mg), B2 (1000mg+) and take NAD+ boosters like Niagen (300mg) for a month - a few of my friends/colleagues recovered from burnout/panic attacks with these. Your body needs NAD+ and B1 for energy, your brain needs FAD+ and B1 for energy (FAD+ comes from B2). You might be just low on basic energy elements and replenishing those might help you quickly. In general, it's a good idea to add multivitamin/multimineral as well and for B1 a bit of glucose as well (sugar/sweets).

Re: Take a break

#73

Post by Tade0 »

osigurdson wrote: post #70

I took a 3 month sabbatical to do some travelling at one point. My productivity when I came back was completely off the charts. I'd recommend it to anyone.

I used to take a three month break between contracts - first one was actually forced because I was fired(burnout), but that experience helped me understand the value of such long periods of time off.

Re: Take a break

#74

Post by bamboozled »

nonrandomstring wrote: post #8

May I suggest a purely rational, evidence based take? The trap is your belief in a linear relationship between effort and outcome. Working harder and longer produces more productivity, right? That's false. As you say so yourself, your memory goes to shit. It's not just a law of diminishing returns. For coders, past a certain point, exhaustion leads you to start undoing your work. You are into negative productivity. I…

I like the idea and sentiment of your comment. but it doesn’t line up with my experience. Sometimes I stay up really late, I make a sacrifice and I get a lot done.

Re: Take a break

#75

Post by GrigoriyMikh »

bitL wrote: post #72
GrigoriyMikh wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

10 years in. I started to have panic attacks last year. Took a a few 2 weeks vacations. They help only temporarily. Now i'm out of vacations, trapped in a foreign country without usual citizen rights to take a many-months break from work and without an option to return home(because of war). Feel trapped without any light ahead.

Try megadosing B1 (2000mg), B2 (1000mg+) and take NAD+ boosters like Niagen (300mg) for a month - a few of my friends/colleagues recovered from burnout/panic attacks with these. Your body needs NAD+ and B1 for energy, your brain needs FAD+ and B1 for energy (FAD+ comes from B2). You might be just low on basic energy elements and replenishing those might help you quickly. In general, it's a good idea to add multivitam…

Thanks! I will read on these things first.

You mentioned glucose -- actually i feel much less anxious right after i eat something sweet.

Re: Take a break

#76

Post by photochemsyn »

bamboozled wrote: post #74
nonrandomstring wrote: post #8

May I suggest a purely rational, evidence based take? The trap is your belief in a linear relationship between effort and outcome. Working harder and longer produces more productivity, right? That's false. As you say so yourself, your memory goes to shit. It's not just a law of diminishing returns. For coders, past a certain point, exhaustion leads you to start undoing your work. You are into negative productivity. I…

I like the idea and sentiment of your comment. but it doesn’t line up with my experience. Sometimes I stay up really late, I make a sacrifice and I get a lot done.

"Sometimes" is vague. Is this: every day, every other day, once a week, or once a month?

The latter two sound reasonable. The former two sound like a recipe for a breakdown sooner or later.

Re: Take a break

#77

Post by cainxinth »

The most trivial but clear evidence of the power of breaks for me is a really tough crossword clue. I’ll be wracking my brain trying to get the answer and come up with nothing. Eventually I’ll give up and do something else, and when I pick it back up a few hours later, the answer immediately comes to me and I can’t believe I couldn’t get it before.

Re: Take a break

#78

Post by osigurdson »

Tade0 wrote: post #73
osigurdson wrote: post #70

I took a 3 month sabbatical to do some travelling at one point. My productivity when I came back was completely off the charts. I'd recommend it to anyone.

I used to take a three month break between contracts - first one was actually forced because I was fired(burnout), but that experience helped me understand the value of such long periods of time off.

I was paid my full salary during that 3 months. It was somewhat lucky in that regard, but I certainly did work hard to achieve that. That is a mode that works well for me - cycles of extreme effort followed by extended time off. I know it isn't for everyone but I seem to be able to find my flow state with this approach.

Re: Take a break

#79

Post by bitL »

throwaway394875 wrote: post #33
quechimba wrote: post #5

I wish employers would see that their employees need to take a break, especially in this type of work where a lot of us really enjoy creating things... At my previous job I didn't even dare asking for vacation

It's funny isn't it. Recently in a job with "unlimited" vacation, because of a dubious message from one of my two bosses who was a bit of a dick, I was too scared to take a real vacation. Until Christmas. Then I decided I was going to take some. It had been a rough year, isolating from Covid, not enough money, and living in shitty circumstances. It was the first PTO I'd had in over a decade, as working as a freelance…

A friend of mine went on a vacation approved by execs and when he returned they told him his metrics in the past few weeks were zero (no wonder) and he was placed on a 2-week termination notice right away. Something went badly wrong in our industry.

Re: Take a break

#80

Post by ravishi »

Silverback_VII wrote: post #46
Swinx43 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it is impossible to understand how much additional stress and anxiety being a parent of small children bring without being in that position. I refer to it as the best kept secret of parenthood. No one tells you this until you are in it.

>I think it is impossible to understand how much additional stress and anxiety being a parent of small children bring without being in that position. I have to disagree and I'm a father. I think it's exactly like in the book "the happiness advantage", some people will see the positive and use it as possibility to grow and to get more productive. On the other hand, People who focus on the negative and didn't learn to…

If you grow along with your kid everyone benefits. For me this is the greatest gift life has offered me.
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