Was thinking to just to dumb manual labour while I recover/finish my product. I don't think I can hack a 3 month job hunt for a "legit" job and I feel like taking tech contracts will also create a lot of mental overhead since I'm in the headspace for my own work right now.
Maybe tutoring would be better than Ubereats gig work, but honestly a lot of software contracts seem to be turned into BS gig work and at least with manual labour you are doing something real.
Looking for validation and ideas.
Building your own thing can be very conducive to burnout b/c most of the time you’re not really getting a lot of positive ideas.
Everyone likes to say that vacation is the solution to burnout, and it can be, but it’s not the end all be all. Your brain needs to feel contentment at the end of a typical day. Contentment indicates you’re filling all your emotional needs. Just like relaxing is a need, being told your work matters is an emotional need too.
You want something “real” - eg tangible evidence that what you are doing matters.
If you have financial means - I’d recommend taking a part time job where your output is immediately visible (bartending, carpentry, landscaping, (I personally load bags on airplanes)). Remember the goal is not to make money, it’s to have people tell you what you are doing matters. Eg, have someone notice the extra 5 mins you put in to make the lawn lines straight. See the smile on a regular when you remember their order. Etc.
I don’t agree. You can be well paid and well rewarded and burnt out. People need holiday, breaks and time to relax. If you are busy and stressed for a long period, hobbies don’t get time, life admin doesn’t get done and exhaustion comes to dominates weekends and evenings.
When you experience burnout, it’s not due to muscle fatigue or lack of sleep. Burnout happens when you aren’t getting something that you need psychologically, over a long period of time. Then the psychological deficit begins to have physical symptoms.
I experienced burnout quite a bit in the first half of my life; hardly any in the second half. I’m 57.
The advice I got that helped the most is to listen to that little voice in my mind that was telling me “stop, I don’t like this!”
Also, I learned that when I am helping people and I feel respected in what I do my mind will happily endure whatever must be done.
Burnout is the result of a spiritual vitamin deficiency. I realize that is a metaphor for “chronic cortisol poisoning” or some biochemical thing, but the solution is to discover and stop the dynamic on the level of your mind.
All of those devs were well-compensated. I don't see even a hint that the level of compensation enters into it in my small, not-statistically-significant sampling.
I think that's way too simplistic of a definition of what causes burnout.
That's a very good observation. Once in my late twenties, I took two years off to pursue an idea which didn't pan out in the end. Luckily, I ended up with minimal debt only, and was able to quickly return to working for others afterwards. But, since that experience, my motivation levels for anything I'm doing work-wise have never been the same. BTW, perhaps they were just too high before (the naivety of youth) and are not at a proper level.
- Woodworking
- Cooking - especially baking, since it can be extremely challenging to create the 'perfect' baguette or croissant
- Gardening
- Writing a novel
etc.
Best solution for burnout IMO is to completely refresh your mind with something that is challenging but low-stress.
I have had a number of failures at all phases of projects. One was 20 hours of work and a grand in materials that I were totally junk (I had to pay more to drop it off at the dump). One was fairly low material cost, but ~40 hours in it was ruined.
Now I make duplicates in case of failures. My last project I got material for 10, was able to actually get 7 blanks due to cracks and knots, 5 didn't get tear out so bad they were worthless, and 4 at the end after a final gluing mistake. One for me, and two that were gifts for friends. One spare, out of materials for 10.
I get anxiety about starting new projects because I worry about how much material to get to account for my mistakes.
I have a life philosophy about this: failure is the path to success (I've never learned anything by being right).
It can be hard to maintain the mindset, but it's actually true -- we learn from our mistakes, so nothing is a failure as long as a lesson was derived from it.
If you can maintain that mindset, it takes a lot of the stress out of things!
It has come about due to two driving forces; one that I've been on-and-off with learning guitar for years and wanted to record myself and play over backing tracks; the other being that my daughter took a shine to playing piano and I want to improve myself there so I can better help her learn. I've accidentally fallen in love with all of it.
I've ended up looking in to development of audio plugins for DAWs now. The whole thing is quite a rabbit hole...
Not saying that you should drive trucks, but I think doing something else -- something completely unrelated to dev work -- might be of help.
Another was how many skills overlap the two fields. Driving the big rig is an exercise in resource management and planning, so you can do things like ensure that by the time you need more fuel, you're in a place where the fuel costs are lower.
1) Can you afford to live off a manual labor job? If so, that might be a good approach since you can work that manual labor job and still have mental energy afterwards to work on your SaaS. It's much harder doing mental tech work after already doing mentally taxing work at your job.
2) If you do contracting, does it have to be full time? Presumably you could make more money doing tech contracting than a manual labor job, so if you could work 10-20 hours a week contracting, you'd still have time left for your SaaS.
3) Regardless of your approach to earning money, you need to set aside time for self-care. You need to be sleeping, relaxing, socializing, and sometimes relaxing by doing nothing. It might seem like time not dedicated to your work, but you need to work in a sustainable way as you're finding out.
this is exactly what I was thinking. Thank for the validation, I'm glad someone else has this experience. Also I do a lot of debugging subconsciously, so taking other tech work is just a lot.
Having said that, it also shouldn't be something you hate. If you hate it, then it is time to do something else, at least for a while. Also, who knows, taking a manual labor job for a while might give you ideas for how software could improve the situation (just a possibility).
this is a good point I can relate with!
What most commenters here are assuming is that you will like this same kind of work after you take a break. I'm not sure that you've discovered the difference between the kind of work that you think you like vs the kind of work you really like and/or doesn't feel like work. Lots of us with certain skills feel like we should fit in a certain job and/or be able to handle running a business on our own, but that doesn't mean it's the case.
Above all I would recommend finding any job where you feel valued -- either by your colleagues or because you feel you are doing something productive and/or rewarding. I've had scores of different jobs over the years across different industries and what you may end up wanting to do long-term may surprise you.
Don't spend too much time inside your own head in a loop. I totally agree with this comment from qazxcvbnmlp:
> If you have financial means - I’d recommend taking a part time job where your output is immediately visible (bartending, carpentry, landscaping, (I personally load bags on airplanes)). Remember the goal is not to make money, it’s to have people tell you what you are doing matters. Eg, have someone notice the extra 5 mins you put in to make the lawn lines straight. See the smile on a regular when you remember their order. Etc.
I'd replace "financial means" with "budgetary discipline". It's much easier to take all kinds of opportunities if you are disciplined about expenses.
In my case I'm giving myself time, but using my own stash. I'm not exactly burned out RN, but not willing to work with the same stuff as before or at the same type of environment.
DIY stuff really helps. I did some furniture myself, doing basic maintenance on my car, cooking.
Trying to get better at journaling myself with stuff like Logstash/Obsidian along with mechanical keyboards.
Also I always wanted to become more proficient with VIM and motions.
So really spending time with small little things and realizing the differences, from one type of saw cutting the wood for my furniture to how different is the blue switch to brown switch in a mech keyb, or why it's now faster for me to change oil and filters on my car than taking it to a place.
This takes a lot of pressure while I'm learning the technologies and figuring out what kind of challenges I want for myself for the next decade, and having plenty energy to follow all this hype around AI and understanding what's bullshit or not.
I typically take about 10-12 weeks off every year. Today I just got back to working after a 5 week holiday. For the past 6 months before that, I only worked about half time for clients as I was working on one of my own products.
Treat your own project as a client. Keep track of how much time you spend (not to bill yourself, but to keep an eye on whether what you’re doing is profitable), and work during your regular work hours. Keep evenings and weekends for family and hobbies.
- when you're done for the day, you're done for the day
- you make a thing and then immediately see people smiling and happy
- interfacing with many people of many walks of life, everyone eats.
The fact that you noticed a pattern, or a problem, and knew the steps to address it in a way that wouldn't leave you idle is significant and shouldn't be disregarded. For that reason, I think you'll find your peace and it looks like you already know the way. Take care and good luck on the next leg of your journey!
If it were me, I’d go work as a barista in San Francisco for 3 months and master my latte arts skills, while also getting exposed to the tech scene out there.
Burnout on contracting gigs was always a problem for me because W2 contracting does tend to expect 2000 hours a year. But I hate job hunting so I steered clear of 6 month engagements.
It's important to also have a plan so you know at least roughly how long you can have your break for ($ wise), and what you will do in that time. I've come back to work feeling much better and knowing what/how I want my career to look like/unfold. Job hunting is hard especially now, but clearing your mind of burnout is important to build your resilience and confidence in your skills and conveying that in interviews.
It's also incredibly refreshing to do something totally different. I would choose wisely, though. Not really the same situation, but I went and became a naturalist guide at a nature preserve between my undergrad computer science degree and my Ph.D. Working outside not only totally refreshed me but gave me much-needed perspective. I think something similar can be said for pouring beers or delivering food.
[EDITED] Didn't want to write deep philosophical statement but having gone through group therapy for burnout. Found for me that it equates to depression. As many have said, self care _is_ your #1 priority. Since I love creating, especially apps/tools I personally need. I need to do it to get myself out of a rut and also do something in love while trying to support my family.
Although my very limited knowledge of burnout is that you shouldn't work at all. I don't know. You should probably talk to your doctor or therapist.
1. Read some philosophy (Greek, Indian, Buddhist, whatever) 2. Spend good time with your family, especially your parents 3. Go for hiking 4. Do meditation (on self) 5. Call your childhood friends 6. Try cooking new dishes (and fail, it is fun) 7. Read physical books
I found a startup that couldn't afford a full time dev, but needed someone to keep the lights on and ship a feature or two per week while they looked for customers and fundraised.
I worked 15-20 hours per week for them. Their work actually was the foundation of my day. If I _just_ work on my startup, I tend to spend time going to the gym, relaxing, and socializing instead of actually working. Their 7am meetings helped me get up and get started.
They paid $100+/hr or ($7,200/mo pre-tax), which was more than I needed for my lifestyle.
One word of caution though is that if your startup fails, you are knee-capping your career. The 2 years I spent freelancing put me 2 years behind my peers that jumped directly into big tech companies. Meaning I was 1-2 levels below them and I missed some of the equity surge in 2021-2022.
Many of us in the tech industry feel overwhelmed, not necessarily by the actual tasks, but by a lack of clear understanding of what needs to be done or what you have accomplished.
To tackle this, ask yourself precise questions: What are the specific tasks at hand? What have you truly accomplished? What's causing the stress? Identifying and rigorously addressing these underlying stressors might lead to a more fundamental solution to burnout.
I just took on a full time w2 salary position at a mid stage startup. Salary isn’t incredible, but it’s predicable and is allowing me to establish a work life balance. I plan to do this for a couple of years at least to rest my nervous system and rebuild my savings.
There’s no wrong answer - do whatever will bring back your sanity (but don’t go broke doing it, that’s just more stressful!)
But a part time job, for a year or two, doing non software work? Especially something social and physical? That might be viable, if you can get your expenses down enough. But most jobs outside software pay so badly, you won’t be able to afford rent or proper food…
Also helps if you are solo, and can cook. And I also think it's a great energy recharger and helped me when I was burnt out.
Doing gig work might be fine if it helps you survive long enough. If you’re unwilling to get your expenses low enough though, then that’s not even on the table.
Always plan for more time than you need. If you need three months, make sure you have an extra six of padding, if you can. You may need it if forced into the job search or something unexpected happens.
At one point I had a 3 month break between research gigs, and just got a temp job moving boxes around a factory. Long hours and bad pay but it was a nice change of pace for a bit.
Your brain needs something other than screens for a while.
The brain capacity thing is real: context switching destroys your productivity and you can’t use your whole brain for your project if you’re doing that.
I think the most important thing is to put away the phone and take a crack at something where you don’t have to think as much and just follow some kind of routine.
Do you have some money saved up? If so, just take a vacation.
If you bring your laptop with you and keep doing stuff in it, it doesn't count.
It'll give you ideas for your next gig as well.
At age 50 I finally got that drivers license and find now that driving is therapy: having to concentrate on one thing only.
TLDR; do something that's fun and is outside of what you'd normally do. Reset your brain!
