Hacker News Reader

Comment by amykhar | Hacker News Reader

Most of us don't have any choice and have to continue to work - burned out or not. I've found that burnout comes and goes in waves though. It doesn't necessarily take changing jobs to help resolve it. Sometimes, it's just a matter of putting one foot in front of another for a while and just staying afloat until something sparks and work becomes interesting and fun again and not sheer drudgery and anxiety.

View on HN

I think part of what it takes to innoculate yourself is recognising it for what it is, and knowing the signs so you can at least put it in its place and manage it.

Symptoms are physical, emotional, behavioural - author touches on some of these, but for me its noticing I’m being continuosly negative about things, raised heart-rate and breathing, locking myself away from people or not being able to sleep at night. Ymmv.

>Sometimes, it's just a matter of putting one foot in front of another for a while and just staying afloat until something sparks and work becomes interesting and fun again and not sheer drudgery and anxiety

That will only work for pretty mild burnout. Once it becomes severe, you really don't have any choice and you are forced by your body to stop. It becomes impossible to continue. I would highly recommend doing something about it before it gets to this point, as it will take a long time to recover (many months if not years).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com