4 ms·

People will tell you to take a break or find a hobby - but you may be like me and have to build stuff all the time - so they're not really viable options. I bu

by mtkd 15y ago

People will tell you to take a break or find a hobby - but you may be like me and have to build stuff all the time - so they're not really viable options. I burnt out in 2001/2 - it took a while to get over it - here are some things that stopped it happening again: - Don't stress about issues out of your control - Don't self-medicate with alcohol etc. - Eat something healthy for everything unhealthy (I now bake a lot of sourdough bread and cure meats which is a hobby I guess) - Get some exercise, even if it's just 15 mins walk - Buy the best bed and covers you can afford - and try to get 7h sleep (it took me 15 years to work these things out for myself)

zainny 15y ago
Agreed with all of the above. For me, the road back all started out with just doing the simple things right: getting to bed on time, exercising, eating healthy. Essentially, starting to reconnect in your mind the idea of effort yielding reward. I wrote about this recently here: http://www.earthtoneil.com/2012/03/restarting-fire.html http://www.earthtoneil.com/2012/03/restarting-fire.html
geon 15y ago
> Don't stress about issues out of your control This has been the number one issue for me. Unfortunately, I haven't figured it out yet. It might be because I'm self employed, and so I have to take responsibility for everything, even the things outside my control. This led me to consider quitting my company and getting a regular job as an employee. The 9-5 responsibility seemed very attractive for a while. > Get some exercise, even if it's just 15 mins walk I find that running helps. I have to focus on my pace and breath so I don't go too fast, or I'll get tired quickly. The constant "right foot, left foot, breath in" etc becomes meditative. There is something about the breathing exercises that actually work.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
wpietri 15y ago
I agree with all of that. I noticed an ugly feedback relationship between stress and exercise. When I was stressed, I exercised less. When I exercised less, I was more prone to stress. Ways I broke the cycle: taking an exercise class, scheduling workouts with friends, booking a race so I was forced to train, and picking exercise options that were too awesome to not do. (An example of that last one: my favorite bike ride is across the Golden Gate Bridge and along the coast to a restaurant with good brunch and strong margaritas, followed by a ferry ride home.) I also discovered that some of where I "store" stress is in muscle tension. Yoga, massages, saunas, steam rooms, hot baths: all reduce my stress level. As a confirmed nerd, I had to learn to ignore the associated woo and the flashbacks to middle school gym class, but it was totally worth it. My doctor also recommended B vitamins; in particular B100 and sublingual B12 tablets. It definitely seems to help, although I haven't done a blind trial. Meditation has also been useful to me, but I'm still struggling to find a sustainable way to do it regularly. More broadly, I'd encourage HN readers to treat it as an experimental problem: Subject Y's stress level is too high, leading to [bad outcomes]. What interventions are most effective at fixing the problem? Every month I pick some things, try them for the whole month, and then see. The ones I'm sure I like, I keep.
kls 15y ago
People will tell you to take a break or find a hobby - but you may be like me and have to build stuff all the time I too build stuff all the time, but a new hobby is very good for breaking burn out, a lot of developers naturally crave learning, and burnout many times sets in when a developer starts to peak and realizes that learning new things in development take little effort. When you can pick up a new language in a week because you have picked so many up, the learning experience and reward mechanics are dampened to an extent. For me when I notice the tell tale signs of burn out I set out to learn something completely new. piano, guitar, mechanics, making circuit boards, sewing, welding anything some of them I learn to a moderate level others I go pretty far in, some I drop after the burn out passes others I find that I am extremely interested in. The trigger for me and burn out is lack of challenge in learning so learning something completely new helps. For others it may be different but for me learning something new can snap burn out in as little as 30 days. As well I am surprised that no one mentioned it but take vitamin D. As a profession that works inside many of us do not get a lot of vitamin D and it plays such a crucial role in depression which burn out is a moderate form of.
- holri 15y ago
  People eating healthy food and living a healthy livestyle (outside as much as possible especially during winter, go by foot instead of driving etc.) do not need any extra vitamins at all. If you need them you do something wrong. A healthy livestyle improves live much more than superficial vitamins can ever do.
  - pyre 15y ago
    Depends on where you live. There are places like the Pacific NW that get very little sunlight, and going outside during the winter isn't enough to satisfy your Vitamin D needs.
    - holri 15y ago
      If the place you live makes you ill, change it.
slewis 15y ago
I'd add: if you don't feel like working, don't. Sitting there in a cycle of pretending to work and then distracting yourself is worse in every way than just stopping and doing something else. Even in a single-person startup we often pressure ourselves to conform to some semblance of a normal schedule. But I find myself much more productive with the work-when-I-feel-like-it policy.
- geon 15y ago
  I agree. For practical reasons of coworkers and family, we have decided to try a stricter scheduled work day. But it must go both ways; After the scheduled working hours, we shouldn't work.
negamax 15y ago
Thanks for sharing. From my own experience, exercise and eating healthy works the best. I feel a lot better, if I change my eating habit to only soup and similarly light self cooked food for a day or two.

by mtkd 15y ago

zainny 15y ago

Agreed with all of the above. For me, the road back all started out with just doing the simple things right: getting to bed on time, exercising, eating healthy. Essentially, starting to reconnect in your mind the idea of effort yielding reward. I wrote about this recently here: http://www.earthtoneil.com/2012/03/restarting-fire.html http://www.earthtoneil.com/2012/03/restarting-fire.html

geon 15y ago

> Don't stress about issues out of your control This has been the number one issue for me. Unfortunately, I haven't figured it out yet. It might be because I'm self employed, and so I have to take responsibility for everything, even the things outside my control. This led me to consider quitting my company and getting a regular job as an employee. The 9-5 responsibility seemed very attractive for a while. > Get some exercise, even if it's just 15 mins walk I find that running helps. I have to focus on my pace and breath so I don't go too fast, or I'll get tired quickly. The constant "right foot, left foot, breath in" etc becomes meditative. There is something about the breathing exercises that actually work.

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]

wpietri 15y ago

I agree with all of that. I noticed an ugly feedback relationship between stress and exercise. When I was stressed, I exercised less. When I exercised less, I was more prone to stress. Ways I broke the cycle: taking an exercise class, scheduling workouts with friends, booking a race so I was forced to train, and picking exercise options that were too awesome to not do. (An example of that last one: my favorite bike ride is across the Golden Gate Bridge and along the coast to a restaurant with good brunch and strong margaritas, followed by a ferry ride home.) I also discovered that some of where I "store" stress is in muscle tension. Yoga, massages, saunas, steam rooms, hot baths: all reduce my stress level. As a confirmed nerd, I had to learn to ignore the associated woo and the flashbacks to middle school gym class, but it was totally worth it. My doctor also recommended B vitamins; in particular B100 and sublingual B12 tablets. It definitely seems to help, although I haven't done a blind trial. Meditation has also been useful to me, but I'm still struggling to find a sustainable way to do it regularly. More broadly, I'd encourage HN readers to treat it as an experimental problem: Subject Y's stress level is too high, leading to [bad outcomes]. What interventions are most effective at fixing the problem? Every month I pick some things, try them for the whole month, and then see. The ones I'm sure I like, I keep.

kls 15y ago

People will tell you to take a break or find a hobby - but you may be like me and have to build stuff all the time I too build stuff all the time, but a new hobby is very good for breaking burn out, a lot of developers naturally crave learning, and burnout many times sets in when a developer starts to peak and realizes that learning new things in development take little effort. When you can pick up a new language in a week because you have picked so many up, the learning experience and reward mechanics are dampened to an extent. For me when I notice the tell tale signs of burn out I set out to learn something completely new. piano, guitar, mechanics, making circuit boards, sewing, welding anything some of them I learn to a moderate level others I go pretty far in, some I drop after the burn out passes others I find that I am extremely interested in. The trigger for me and burn out is lack of challenge in learning so learning something completely new helps. For others it may be different but for me learning something new can snap burn out in as little as 30 days. As well I am surprised that no one mentioned it but take vitamin D. As a profession that works inside many of us do not get a lot of vitamin D and it plays such a crucial role in depression which burn out is a moderate form of.

holri 15y ago
People eating healthy food and living a healthy livestyle (outside as much as possible especially during winter, go by foot instead of driving etc.) do not need any extra vitamins at all. If you need them you do something wrong. A healthy livestyle improves live much more than superficial vitamins can ever do.
- pyre 15y ago
  Depends on where you live. There are places like the Pacific NW that get very little sunlight, and going outside during the winter isn't enough to satisfy your Vitamin D needs.
  - holri 15y ago
    If the place you live makes you ill, change it.

slewis 15y ago

I'd add: if you don't feel like working, don't. Sitting there in a cycle of pretending to work and then distracting yourself is worse in every way than just stopping and doing something else. Even in a single-person startup we often pressure ourselves to conform to some semblance of a normal schedule. But I find myself much more productive with the work-when-I-feel-like-it policy.

geon 15y ago
I agree. For practical reasons of coworkers and family, we have decided to try a stricter scheduled work day. But it must go both ways; After the scheduled working hours, we shouldn't work.

negamax 15y ago

Thanks for sharing. From my own experience, exercise and eating healthy works the best. I feel a lot better, if I change my eating habit to only soup and similarly light self cooked food for a day or two.