Re:Ask HN: What next after burning out?
by muzani on Wednesday July 26, 2017 @06:34AM
(#14855037)
I just got out of my burnout phase. It's similar - I've done a lot of startups.
It took me well over a year to get out of it. I spent practically a year playing games (thanks acquisition money!) My only job was teaching for a while.
I honestly don't know what worked.
The games, travel, spas, and idle time didn't help much. If anything, they made me feel worse about spending lots of money and time. They pressured me to do more.
Freelancing was such a terrible idea. I ended up losing money and getting even more burnt out. After that, I refused to do any coding at all for a while.
The teaching assignments helped quite a bit. It was well paid and I got to achieve my bucket list of visiting every state in the country. Teaching is also really easy with enough years under your belt and it's relaxing to have a lot to say. It's even more relaxing if they pay well.
I did a lot of exercise. Felt better than ever, but didn't cure it. Same with meditation.
I think what finally got me out of it was working 7 days a week on low difficulty tasks. It sounds really dumb to treat burnout with more work, but it worked for me. Maybe startup people have their comfort zone working 60 hours a week?
You might not even want to do hard work coding. Try working in F&B or some other grunt job. Somehow it was like a meditative process. Just do something that feels like it's not a total waste of time.
It took me well over a year to get out of it. I spent practically a year playing games (thanks acquisition money!) My only job was teaching for a while.
I honestly don't know what worked.
The games, travel, spas, and idle time didn't help much. If anything, they made me feel worse about spending lots of money and time. They pressured me to do more.
Freelancing was such a terrible idea. I ended up losing money and getting even more burnt out. After that, I refused to do any coding at all for a while.
The teaching assignments helped quite a bit. It was well paid and I got to achieve my bucket list of visiting every state in the country. Teaching is also really easy with enough years under your belt and it's relaxing to have a lot to say. It's even more relaxing if they pay well.
I did a lot of exercise. Felt better than ever, but didn't cure it. Same with meditation.
I think what finally got me out of it was working 7 days a week on low difficulty tasks. It sounds really dumb to treat burnout with more work, but it worked for me. Maybe startup people have their comfort zone working 60 hours a week?
You might not even want to do hard work coding. Try working in F&B or some other grunt job. Somehow it was like a meditative process. Just do something that feels like it's not a total waste of time.