I worked extremely hard at my last start-up to the point of being completely burnt out. I'm happy because it made me stronger, but I'll never forget being over and for about 4-5 months after, never looking at a computer. I didn't want anything to do with them for awhile, and pursued a vicious "I'm gonna go pro in golf" campaign (can't take the idealism/ambition out of a true entrepreneur).
I'm really happy now, but I understand burn-out at a much deeper level than I had before. There was a time when I would think "just get over it," but now I understand it has very real effects. When you don't want to think, it's not always a simple case of laziness. It takes work to switch into your "system 2" (as called by "Thinking Fast and Slow") -- your focused mindset. Then once you're in this mindset, it's no picnic.
What's fascinating is that if you stay in system 2 for too long, you begin to show signs of paranoia and depression. You become withdrawn and isolate yourself further from society. You might hypothesize this is a natural reaction of an _injured_ animal, but it's hard for you to understand that your brain is exhausted and needs to rest. Instead, you say "go faster!" and it begins to try to come up with more & more schemes to prevent you from going into system 2. Fantasies that would have meant nothing to you well-rested are now of utmost importance because you're actually procrastinating because you're actually fatigued.
Burn-out is a real thing. I love work and I work very hard, but there's times when you have to say "You know what, this weekend is all mine." Those are the weekends I sleep anywhere from 10-14 hours each night, and not because I'm indulging, but just like muscles, my brain is resting and hopefully "growing".
I've been delving into burnout for the past years. If I can get into flow, I'm fantastic and do very well. But getting there is increasingly more difficult. I've given up many contracts and work, only keeping a few clients. But just having anything, even if it's 1 day a week, it seems to keep you "involved" mentally and you're not really free, even if most of the time you're not doing anything. The sick part is that to really pull out, I need to work a lot more, to set things up to take a year off. So it creates this spiral that seems rather hard to break out of.
Do you have any tips for combating burnout that worked well for you? I'm starting to feel the signs of burnout (which probably means I'm actually in deeper than I think), and I'd like to try to head this off before it gets worse.
I know setting hard boundaries for work/non work and taking chunks of time for yourself is a good start, but would love to hear if you had any more advice? Thanks!
While this might not be the right thing to say, I feel compelled to say it nevertheless: nothing can hurt you unless you give it power to do so.
When I was in the heat of it and naturally did not want to work, I eventually reached a place of working zen -- I will try to do what I can, and forget about my imagined needs of this or that. I simply stared at the screen if I didn't know the buttons to press. This is the experience that I am proud of and that makes me say "I'm happy I went through that."
Too often, we mistake our own fears for limitations, and limitations we do have, we treat as if they were unmalleable. While I always want people to look out for their mental health, I also want people to know what it means to give it their all because I know that teaches you how to break through your self-imposed limitations and grow into an even stronger wo/man.
My advice is to always keep one day for yourself. For me, it's Sunday. Sunday, if I want to work, I work (and when it's that way, work doesn't always feel like work). If I don't want to work, no one can say anything. This gives you time to not think at all about work, which should give you time to stay in system 1 and heal.
What's a real killer is all that unnecessary anxiety and general negative emotions coming from _thinking_ about your work that is hurting you. When you're away from work, stop thinking about work. It's not prudent or responsible of you to be stressing out about something that isn't even going on right now. When it's time to rest, you rest. When it's time to work, you work. It seems simple, but it's the blurred gray area in between the two that affects people the most. When I worked very hard and hit my "work zen mode", it was here that I began to let go of things like what does my boss think or what does my coworker think or some other-nonsense-BS-anxious-thing that has nothing to do with actual work.
I hope it helps. I'm really no huge expert myself, but I am usually the hardest person in the room.
Thanks, I appreciate the perspective! I definitely agree with the real killer being thinking about working while not working. The concept is simple like you said, but actually sticking to it...quite hard. Also, keeping one day a week for yourself seems like a good place to start as well.
I stop doing work on nights & weekends. I generally very much enjoy my job, but when I start to feel off, I cut off all work and just focus on other things that I enjoy. I read more, I play video games, knowing they are "pointless, and I should be using my time better". I watch a movie with my wife instead of opening the laptop and working.
I've found this works fairly well. Sometimes I'll go for two weeks or two months of just turning off 'work'. It has the advantage of letting me continue to be employed.
One of these stints was also when I thought hell, why not try and learn Haskell? ;)
I second this, although I don't have the discipline to do it everyday. When I feel really crappy, I do it and always feel much better for a whole day afterwards. It's also an exercise that is stress-free, easy, and can be done everywhere. I'm not sure about the teacher part though -- I'm not into the mystical mumbo-jumbo (even though I'm Chinese). Something about the movements is just good for relieving stress and I'm not sure they need to be done in exactly the right way -- sort of like how sham acupuncture helps people.
I'm really happy now, but I understand burn-out at a much deeper level than I had before. There was a time when I would think "just get over it," but now I understand it has very real effects. When you don't want to think, it's not always a simple case of laziness. It takes work to switch into your "system 2" (as called by "Thinking Fast and Slow") -- your focused mindset. Then once you're in this mindset, it's no picnic.
What's fascinating is that if you stay in system 2 for too long, you begin to show signs of paranoia and depression. You become withdrawn and isolate yourself further from society. You might hypothesize this is a natural reaction of an _injured_ animal, but it's hard for you to understand that your brain is exhausted and needs to rest. Instead, you say "go faster!" and it begins to try to come up with more & more schemes to prevent you from going into system 2. Fantasies that would have meant nothing to you well-rested are now of utmost importance because you're actually procrastinating because you're actually fatigued.
Burn-out is a real thing. I love work and I work very hard, but there's times when you have to say "You know what, this weekend is all mine." Those are the weekends I sleep anywhere from 10-14 hours each night, and not because I'm indulging, but just like muscles, my brain is resting and hopefully "growing".