It seems that no matter how hard I try, I often accumulate “cruft” in my life as I go. What I mean by “cruft” is junk and distractions that get in the way of what I’m trying to do. I find it very useful to periodically go through different areas of my life and clean up the “cruft”. I’ve been doing this with a lot of my online / digital self recently. Here’s a few things I’ve been doing recently to cut down on the junk:
I’ve…
Sometimes it’s good to cut down on all the little stuff that gets in your way. You might be surprised how much some of these little things can impact you when combined together. Now if I could just tackle my closet…
Several months back I wrote a post about a bad case of burnout I had unexpectedly run into. I had known I was approaching burnout, but didn’t really realize just how burnt out I had gotten until someone else pointed it out to me (via a blogpost). Unfortunately I’ve run into the dreaded dead end again.
Recently I’ve been pushing myself really hard. Working longer hours trying to get through a few releases we needed to get done with work. I’ve simultaneously been trying (and failing) to complete several personal chores/goals/responsibilities. All of it has recently come to a sudden crash as it just finally became overwhelming. I found myself not sleeping, barely eating, and snapping on friends and colleagues.
I’ve since had a little time to calm down – taking a weekend off of the normal stuff to try to recover. It has brought me back to a question I’ve asked myself before, however. How do I retain my passion for what I’m doing while not driving myself to the edge and beyond? I’ve been floating several ideas that I’m planning to try, here’s the short list:
I’m definitely open to suggestions or feedback, but this is what I’ve loosely come up with to try. How do you prevent burnout? What do you do to make sure you recognize it once you’re approaching it?
I like to work…a lot. One of the dangers of being so passionate about your work is that it’s very easy to get overly wrapped up in it and let it completely take over your life. This of course, leads to burnout. Now I would not have considered myself “burnt out”, but rather just on the edge of burnout…riding it dangerously close, but still maintaining control (at least at some level). Then I read Micah’s recent post about burnout and had to re-examine my current condition. According to him, here are some telling signs that you are experiencing burnout:
- You are tired all the time. No matter how much you sleep, you cant seem to “catch up.”
- You complain more than usual. Everyone is a moron. You are the only person that can get the job done.
- You snap at friends and colleagues. Since they can’t understand the workload you are under, or how unfair that workload is, you snap. You withdraw.
- You start thinking about quitting. It has to be the company. There is a better job with less stress out there. I just made a bad choice of jobs.
- You take little “breaks.” Today, I am going to nothing that pertains to my job. I know its Tuesday, and we have a release coming up, but I can catch up tomorrow.
- When do you get home, you dont take care of personal business. Dude, I just worked for 12 hours straight. Why should I pay bills?
- You wish you can, or you start, working from home more. There are less distractions (and people). I can work at my pace and I do a better job!
Upon reading this list I found that I suffered from more of these symptoms than not and decided maybe it was time to rethink my current burn out status. Turns out I was burnt out…and had been running on empty for some time. So what to do?
Luckily I happened to be in the middle of some unexpected time off from work and had already planned a mini-getaway with my girlfriend Katie. The idea was that our Christmas present to each other would be that we’d both “turn off” work for 2 or 3 days and spend some time with each other doing some of the stuff that we always talked about doing, but never got around to doing. This might sound trivial, but the truth is that neither of us are usually capable of “turning off” work for even a day…often even a few hours at the end of the day, so this was really a pretty drastic change for both of us.
We took a small trip to get away from our bad habits of home and just spent the time together trying to avoid any mention (or thought) of work. We also spent some time doing some of the things we never seem to find time for in our normal schedules, but always talk about doing. It was a really great experience for both of us and I had a wonderful time. I truly had no idea how burnt out I really was until after this trip.
So to all of you who, like me, think that you’re running on the edge of burnout, but still maintaining control – I would encourage you to take a day or two off. Completely turn off whatever is normally burning you out and see how you feel. You might just find that you’re a little more burnt out than you realized. And while when in this state it is incredibly hard to force yourself to take a full day (or more) out of the norm to get a handle on this, it really is worth it in the end. Not only is it necessary for your health/sanity, but it will make you more productive when you get back and you might find you make up for the lost time much sooner than you’d think.
So I turn it to all of you. How do you prevent burnout? And just as importantly, how do you know when you are burnt out?
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…
- Opening line of A Tale of Two Cities
This was definitely true for me over this past year. This year has brought on the extremes of my experiences in my relatively short life. From some of the best experiences (building and selling my first company) to some of the worst (losing my father and my grandmother), this has truly been a wild ride. It’s also been one of the years when I feel I have learned the most, both about myself and in general.
This past year has truly shaped my life in amazing ways, and I can’t wait to see / dread what 2009 will bring. In either case though, I’m ready for it.