Burnout as a Developer: Experience, Symptoms, Prevention and Cure
Nirbhay Vashisht
Posted on August 14, 2020
Before we start, I want to state that I recently experienced a Burnout as a software developer.
I wanted to share my experience about how it felt and how I cured it.
(And there are going to be a lot of memes, I am sorry in advance 😂 )
📜 INDEX 📜
I recommend you to start from here
Introduction
What is Burnout?
Signs and Symptoms of Burnout
Prevention and Treatment of Burnout
Raise your hand if you have ever sacrificed physical, mental and/or emotional health to overwork yourself to an extremely depressive state of mind that takes days to recover from.
Introduction
Burnout is the type of thing that slowly creeps in and you only start to notice it when your insides have already deteriorated by 30% and your insanity stat has reached level 10.
My recent experience
I noticed that I’ve been slowly losing my sanity from overworking myself ever since I entered the final year of my engineering degree.
But what was the problem?
I was just working hard?
I am supposed to work hard! Right?
Then I asked myself, “What is my daily schedule?”
Waking up in the morning ☀️
Working 👨🏻💻
Breakfast ☕ 🍞
Working 👨🏻💻
Lunch 🍴
Working 👨🏻💻
Exercise 🏃
Working 👨🏻💻
Dinner 🍴
Working 👨🏻💻
and then
Going to sleep 😴
I think you can see what was my problem
The weird thing is that this schedule is very common among developers
Working hard is really admirable. No Doubt.
But when you start forfeiting self care in place of hard work, that’s when you start crossing into the realm of pain and uncontrollable suffering.
Yeah, but enduring the pain and pushing forward is super strong.
Right ?
NOOOOOOOOO!
It is not
What is burnout?
definition from helpguide.org
Burnout is a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress.
It occurs when you feel overwhelmed, emotionally drained, and unable to meet constant demands.
As the stress continues, you begin to lose the interest and motivation that led you to take on a certain role in the first place.
Everyone knows overworking is not good.
But at the same time it is also glorified.
The best examples are in school or work environments.
Dude 1:
I had six hours of homework last night and didn’t get to bed until 4 am.
Dude 2 :
Pfft! I was finishing a project and so I pulled an all nighter
Dude 3:
I have not slept for a week
Admiring something that’s supid and unhealthy isn’t commendable.
Instead of encouraging it, tell your brain.
“Hey! Nooo bad!”
Signs and Symptoms of Burnout
Physical Signs
- Feeling tired and drained most of the time.
- Frequent illnesses.
- Frequent headaches or muscle pain.
- Change in sleep schedule.
- Change in eating habits.
Emotional Signs
- Sense of failure.
- Sense of self-doubt.
- Feeling helpless, trapped, and defeated.
- Loneliness
- Loss of motivation
- Increasingly negative outlook
- Decreased satisfaction and sense of accomplishment
Behavioural Signs
- Isolating yourself from others.
- Withdrawing from responsibilities.
- Procrastinating.
- Using food, drugs, or alcohol to cope.
- Taking out your frustrations on others.
- You snap more at things that aren’t big deals.
- Skipping work
Prevention and Treatment of Burnout
Here are my tips and suggestions to not be emotionally damaged for a week after overworking yourself:
Don’t do too much of the same thing without any sort of change whatsoever ❌
Mix things up.
Switch to something different if you are stuck somewhere. Learn something new.
Doing the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over is a formula for absolute misery.
Imagine you love pizza. 🍕 = ❤️
But if you only eat pizza, you’ll end up hating it for some reason 🍕 = 💔
Take time for self care
Spend time with yourself. Do something that will refuel yourself.
Take a break from social media
This could be hard, but it worked for me. Tell your friends you aren't doing fine and you need time for yourself.
They'll be supportive (hopefully) and if they are not then yaay you spotted some fake friends.
Stick to a healthy sleeping schedule
Reach out to those closest to you
Trust me. YOU NEED HELP during a burn out.
Talk to new people
Push yourself to always be trying something new or focus on improving.
Nourish your hobbies
Make exercise a priority
I am no doctor or a therapist, but I found this amazing (free)article on Burnout Prevention and Treatment by helpguide.org
Check it out. It could be helpful.
🎊 🎉 Congratulations 🎉 🎊
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Any feedback is appreciated
REFERENCES
Posted on August 14, 2020
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