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Ask HN: Have you ever been burned out?
Have you ever had a severe burnout? How long did it last?
How did you get out of it?
- partisan 12y agoCurrently going through it now. It's been about 4 months now and it has had an effect on all aspects of my life. I found recently that instead of doing work while commuting, I was better off reading books of my choosing and listening to music. I look forward to that part of my day. I also started doing more exercise and have found that to have an impact as well. That's the path I am taking.
- Red_Tarsius 12y agoThank you for sharing what you're going through. You chose a good way to get out of it.
- davismwfl 12y agoYes, sadly more than once by not learning from my mistakes. Getting out of it is not as easy as some people make it out to be. But I found the 3 most important things (at least for me) are 1, put down the keyboard for all reasons. 2, have a hobby, do something you love to do that has nothing to do with your job. 3, physical activity, working out etc. Personally, I think burnout is a form of depression, at least in my own personal experience and from some friends that have gone through it too. To that point, it is sometimes highly personal as to what helps you recharge and reset. And in the end, there are all levels of burnout, from mild where a couple weeks of vacation will do amazing things, to the severe where it can take many months or even a year to get your mojo back. The faster you recognize it, stop the behavior and fix it, the faster I think you tend to get out of it.
- Red_Tarsius 12y agoThanks for sharing your experience.
- davismwfl 12y agoYour welcome, I hope you either can avoid it or get out of it quickly. Good luck no matter what.
- NotEnthused 12y agoOh man, have I. Just starting to get out of this phase. Here's what's helped me out: 1.) Disconnect the tech stuff. The more I sat around doing technical things, the more it still felt like I was at work. 2.) Take time off. Really, take time off. You likely get it as part of your benefits if you're with a company, so do it. 3.) Get a hobby--a non-technical one. For me, it's brewing. 4.) Don't spend a lot of time around other burnt out people--this is where the inevitable burnout feedback loop starts. 5.) Scale it back--I realize this isn't always possible, but when you can, take it easy. Continuing to push won't help you out in the long run. Also, pop over to burnout.io. They've got some good things to say on the matter.
- Red_Tarsius 12y agoThanks for sharing your experience letting me discover burnout.io.