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Hate to say it but depending on your long term objectives taking a sabbatical might have been the worst thing to recover from burnout. You want to reassociate

Hate to say it but depending on your long term objectives taking a sabbatical might have been the worst thing to recover from burnout. You want to reassociate effort with reward, and the best way to do that is to work on small things related to what caused your burnout that will "guarantee wins with low expectations". By pivoting to something different you reinforce the association of the previous form of effort with failure (in the negative space of rewarding yourself for not doing it).

haswell 3y ago
The levels of stress I was enduring started causing physiological symptoms that eventually forced me to take medication to calm things down. It was also severely disrupting my sleep, which was causing other health problems. Setting aside any discussion of rewards, there were red flags everywhere telling me I had to take a step back, and fast (my doctors agreed). But beyond the physical health, this is all a matter of perspective and framing. If measured on the traditional metrics of reward vs. effort (shipping things, happy customers, compensation, respect of peers, interesting problems, etc.), I had no reason to burn out. The trouble is that most people are conditioned to believe without question that those are some of the the primary metrics/rewards that matter. For me personally, part of the burnout was due more to a misplaced emphasis on things that most people would classify as "wins", but from which I derived no personal satisfaction. Going deeper, much of the burnout wasn't related to work at all. And deeper still, some of the burnout was due to a deep misalignment between the work I was doing and my core values. What I really want out of life. Pivoting might be the worst thing for continuing down the path I was on, but to me that's a feature, not a bug.
- freetinker 3y ago
  My experience, and analysis of it, bears striking similarities. Looking forward to your blog posts!
- throwawaymaths 3y ago
  > Pivoting might be the worst thing for continuing down the path I was on, but to me that's a feature, not a bug. Love your perspective. I didn't want to assume (which is why I disclaimed in the first sentence). Hopefully my comment will still be helpful to people who don't want to pivot their life.
  - haswell 3y ago
    Yeah, I don't think pivoting is the only natural outcome here either. It's just what I realized was part of the puzzle for me. I think it's also worth mentioning that I didn't think I wanted to pivot my life. I just wanted to get back to work with a more sustainable approach. Gaining enough distance from work and the traditional pressures associated with being immersed in it was incredibly helpful for clarifying what I didn't know I wanted. I couldn't really hear myself through all of the noise.

haswell 3y ago

The levels of stress I was enduring started causing physiological symptoms that eventually forced me to take medication to calm things down. It was also severely disrupting my sleep, which was causing other health problems. Setting aside any discussion of rewards, there were red flags everywhere telling me I had to take a step back, and fast (my doctors agreed). But beyond the physical health, this is all a matter of perspective and framing. If measured on the traditional metrics of reward vs. effort (shipping things, happy customers, compensation, respect of peers, interesting problems, etc.), I had no reason to burn out. The trouble is that most people are conditioned to believe without question that those are some of the the primary metrics/rewards that matter. For me personally, part of the burnout was due more to a misplaced emphasis on things that most people would classify as "wins", but from which I derived no personal satisfaction. Going deeper, much of the burnout wasn't related to work at all. And deeper still, some of the burnout was due to a deep misalignment between the work I was doing and my core values. What I really want out of life. Pivoting might be the worst thing for continuing down the path I was on, but to me that's a feature, not a bug.

freetinker 3y ago
My experience, and analysis of it, bears striking similarities. Looking forward to your blog posts!
throwawaymaths 3y ago
> Pivoting might be the worst thing for continuing down the path I was on, but to me that's a feature, not a bug. Love your perspective. I didn't want to assume (which is why I disclaimed in the first sentence). Hopefully my comment will still be helpful to people who don't want to pivot their life.
- haswell 3y ago
  Yeah, I don't think pivoting is the only natural outcome here either. It's just what I realized was part of the puzzle for me. I think it's also worth mentioning that I didn't think I wanted to pivot my life. I just wanted to get back to work with a more sustainable approach. Gaining enough distance from work and the traditional pressures associated with being immersed in it was incredibly helpful for clarifying what I didn't know I wanted. I couldn't really hear myself through all of the noise.