Fixing Burnout: an unproductive cycle that will hold you back

mattupham

Matt Upham

Posted on October 2, 2019

Fixing Burnout: an unproductive cycle that will hold you back

Burnout in tech is common:
As a software engineer, I find myself overworking due to imposter syndrome, sitting at a desk all day, grinding in high-pressure situations.

After dealing with this both when I was learning the ropes, and on my first job as a web developer, I decided to take a new approach to the way I work to avoid burnout.

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Burnout | Fixing the unproductive cycle

I've found myself setting ridiculous arbitrary deadlines and forcing myself to do anything to get my work done before that.

This results in staying up late, sleeping in until the very last minute, rushing to work / the office, having a less than ideal day with productivity, and then beating myself up mentally for not doing as well as I'd like.

This is a continuous cycle that happens over and over, until I get depressed and then lose days of productive work to depression.

I'm taking a new approach to the way I work / live, which has been working out well lately:

  1. I'm only staying focused on the things that matter to me right now (work, learning advanced technologies, health, social life, and sleep).
  2. I'm using my time slots more productively, taking breaks when I need to, and listening to my body when exhaustion hits
  3. I'm focusing on wrapping up work at midnight, and waking up around 7:30am consistently (I've found that my body needs 7.5 hours of sleep)
  4. Focusing on the overall process of consistency, and growth over the long term. Rushing everything (at least for me) usually ends in burnout.
  5. Being grateful for the small things, being proud of accomplishments, decoupling self-worth from my work, not comparing myself to others

I've been trying out this new system for a week, and feeling a lot better about the work that I'm doing.

Do you usually fall into the burnout trap? What have you done to overcome this?

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mattupham
Matt Upham

Posted on October 2, 2019

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