Avoiding (Or Recovering From) Burnout
Posted by Davy Brion on September 1st, 2009
A lot of software developers that are passionate about their craft spend a lot of time on it. They spend a lot of time reading interesting blogs, reading books about development, coding on some hobby projects, or maybe even contributing to open source projects or writing interesting blog posts of their own. Hell, just trying to stay up to date with all the new stuff that continually comes out can be one hell of a challenge in its own right. And a lot of this effort is typically spent outside of our normal working hours.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but it is extremely important to remember to take some time off, not just occasionally, but frequently. Software development can be very interesting and a lot of fun, but you really need to make sure that you find some kind of a healthy balance in your life. If you spend too much time on this, odds are pretty high that eventually you’ll start to lose your passion for it, and even worse, that you really don’t feel like spending any time on it at all anymore.
I reached that point somewhere at the end of May this year. I completely lost my motivation for both my job as well as the whole blogging thing. I didn’t really care about writing code anymore, i couldn’t be bothered to catch up with the RSS feeds that i subscribe too, and i could hardly fake interest whenever technical discussions came up. The fact that i was going through some personal stuff certainly didn’t help either. But the biggest reason was probably the fact that i was just trying to do too much in the months before that.
And then i simply stopped caring about it. I still tried to do my job to somewhat satisfactory levels but my heart certainly wasn’t in it anymore. After work, i didn’t write any code, nor did i read about it anymore. I just started doing other things. Whatever i felt like doing basically, as long as it wasn’t related to software development. I did write a couple of posts during this period, but none of them were actually any good.
Somewhere in the middle of July, my interest in software development was slowly coming back, but it was still more of a sporadic thing instead of the passion that it used to be. The most important thing that i learned at that time was that i simply shouldn’t force myself to spend time on something if i don’t feel like spending time on it at that time. I occasionally spent some time writing code or doing a bit of reading, but i was alternating between the geek stuff and the normal stuff more than i used to.
That turned out to be the key to my ‘recovery’. And for the past couple of weeks, i’ve felt kinda reinvigorated. I care about software development again. I love spending time on it again and my motivation is as high as it used to be.
So now you’re probably wondering why on earth i’m posting this? For one, it feels good to get this off of my chest. And secondly, because i’m willing to bet that there are a ton of developers who feel the same way. Take it from someone who’s been through it: as much as you love software development, make sure that you don’t spend too much time on it. When you feel like spending time on it, then by all means, do so. But never, ever spend time on it outside of your working hours if you’re not really in the mood for it, or when you feel like you have to, or when you’d rather be doing something else. You’re already spending 8 hours a day on this stuff, so you should only spend extra time on it when you really want to. If you ignore this advice, you might end up not wanting to spend any more time on it at all, and that is a situation you really want to avoid.
September 1st, 2009 at 11:04 pm
I am in a similar situation. My interest/passion is reduced due to overload of stuff.
Much needed break is coming for me before I start afresh.
Thanks Davy!!
September 2nd, 2009 at 1:33 am
Word! I did the same a year ago. Think it was in July. I didn’t slow down though I moved to another location another job and staying as busy. It has taken me almost a year to get back on track!!
That’s why I am so happy now that I finally found at least a temporary balance. If I don’t feel like geeking then I’m not forcing myself either.
September 2nd, 2009 at 10:43 am
I’m with ya… Though this phenomenom doesn’t limit itself to development tasks alone.
And believe me, you didn’t have a real burnout. I guess, luckily, you realized something was wrong before things got completely out of hand. A real burnout goes way much further than showing disinterest and loss of motivation (although those are the first symptoms). If you don’t realise something is happening to you and you do not find the cause of the ‘problem’ pretty soon, then it evolves in lack of self-confidence and in more extreme cases even into paranoia and constant, sometimes undefinable fear, tiring you out even more… Off course this also has a physical impact (headaches, tiredness, stress, hyperventilation, etc.)
This almost happened to me too, now a bit more than a year ago. I actually believe back then I reached a more critical phase in this then you did but I too got out of it just in time by taking some time off, talking to my superior about it and focussing on something different. And things are going way better now
September 2nd, 2009 at 11:49 am
This is true in the age of information overload. When I browser for stuff I tend to gather questions and not the answers – the things I don’t know. And you won’t believe but it adds 10+ things everyday. Well, I use sticky a lot and just forget them. When I visit my ‘dont know’ list in a month or two, I realize that most of them become invalid because they no more remain – unknown. I really don’t put lot of pressure on my brain and so I am able to manage being happy geek.
September 2nd, 2009 at 8:33 pm
“..not just occasionally, but frequently.”
I will take a mental note of the “frequently” part. Couldn’t agree more
September 2nd, 2009 at 8:37 pm
If I learned one thing this year is that doing all that “after hours stuff” also requires some form of time management in order to prevent exactly this kind of burnout. I started using Toodledoo and create a weekly planning of all after hour stuff including writing code. I even created tasks for all the house chores my girlfriend ordered me to do.
The main result is that you get all the TODO stuff out of your head and into this tool. I keep plans realistic, so when I have an evening where I planned to do an 9 km run, I’ve also planned reading a technology book after that instead of an late night coding sessions. Coding sessions are planned on times I know I have the most rest and peace.
I picked this up from the magnificent book “Getting things done”. Highly recommended. It prevents a burnout and gets things done
.
September 3rd, 2009 at 3:59 pm
Yup. Everyone needs downtime. Even Ayende.
September 15th, 2009 at 12:20 am
My girlfriend was building a website and every day after I came home from work for around 2 months she was frustrated by HTML, CSS, ftp, browser quirks. And every time she would get angry I was there and I had to help or she got shitty at me. It was a quick way to lose passion for programming and your girlfriend.
November 12th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
[...] for software. I was suffering from something similar to what Davy Brion (quite bravely) outlined in Avoiding (Or Recovering From) Burnout. For me the age old adage of “a change is as good as a rest” has proven to be an extremely [...]
November 13th, 2009 at 8:28 pm
I was in the same position earlier this fall… I found that the major force to help get me out of the slump was to write down everything that annoyed me or made me angry about software development. Doing so freed my mind from constantly rehashing those ideas and continually reminding myself why I hated what I was doing. I knew I could go back to those papers and read that information at any time, if I wanted. The ironic thing is that while you are going through the burnt out period, you probably don’t even want to take the time to go online to see how others survived it.