I’ve…

• added a bunch of new filters and/or unsubscribed from a bunch of email in an effort to keep the “bacon” (basically spam you ask for) to a minimum and keep it from getting in the way of the more important/urgent email.
• gone through and attempted to condense down several email accounts into one Gmail account to give myself fewer points to check (and fewer mail clients to worry about).
• gone through my background apps (and startup apps) to cut down anything I’m not using anymore – or that just doesn’t need to run at startup.
• “cropped” my iPhone apps and my FireFox plugins.
• gone through a bunch of work related files on my computer and condensed / archived old stuff to get it out of the way.

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…

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:

1. Take a weekend a month and schedule some time off of the normal stuff. Maybe a vacation, maybe just trying something new, but something away from the usual work/personal woes that pile up.
2. Find more balance in my day and create daily goals of what to get done (as opposed to weekly goals I’ve used in the past).
3. Force myself to step away from whatever I’m doing if I’m sinking too much time into one task or area of my life.

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?

• 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.