Active steps to prevent a burn-out?

Question

What steps are you taking to actively prevent a burn-out? Is it really working?

Answer 1

Just one word: sport. It obviously doesn't prevent burnout completely, but it helps a lot.

Unlike others, I'd separate the questions of burnout from a poor working environment. If your job is bad, you should just leave, regardless of burnout.

But if your company is on the whole, alright, the job isn't too bad either but you're still jaded and washed out, sport is definitely something that can help.

You will benefit both from the physical fitness you gain and from being mentally absorbed in a 100% non-work and non-technical activity for an hour twice a week. (Which is the minimum time you should spend with sport for it to have any effect.)

Any sport is good really, badminton, squash, soccer, whatever, but preferably a team sport or at the very least, not a solitary one like running, cycling or canoeing.

Answer 2

Listen to your body

He is talking to you. All the time.

We tend to be disconnected from our body and the signals it sends.

Be sure to be able to make the difference between stress and burnout:

Burnout Signs & Symptoms

If you recognize yourself in it, it's time to stop or reduce significantly your work load.

Here is how I prevent myself from doing a burnout (again):

• I do regular pause. Every 45 minutes of intensive work (coding) is followed by a 10 minutes real pause. During those 10 minutes, I walk, watch outside, or do meditation (I practice mindfulness since februrary)
• I don't over commit anymore. If I feel I won't be able to respect a meeting, job or anything else, I don't commit to it. Looks like that pays on the long run. When someone has to count on me for something, he is pretty sure to get it on time.
• I practice mindfulness. It's a sort of meditation practice that helps you reconnect with your body. I'm in the middle of the Jon Kabat-Zinn training and I already get strong benefits from it.
• I don't work more than 40h a week anymore. It's non negotiable. I believe anyone working more than that is just tricking himself.
• I choose things I like to work on over thing that may bring me lot of bucks. I used to work on startups only for money. I got many money, but I was not happy. Now I earn less but I'm happier.
• I do one thing at a time. My work day is divided into small chunks of tasks and I don't let anything interfere my work. I call back people between two tasks. I don't pick the phone anymore (unless it's my wife). I do the same for bigger tasks. I don't start multiple things at the same time anymore. If I'm blocked, I work on the second thing on the list, then go back to the previous only if I've completed a significant amount of work on it.
• I use advanced personal productivity techniques such as GTD and Covey. Not to do more, but to do less! Sloppy work is the cause of too much work.

It worked pretty much so far. I still have to solve my frustration of not being able to do everything (which is impossible), but I guess it will disappear with time ;)

Answer 3

First and foremost, I choose my employers carefully. I try to pick workplaces where:

• They understand that putting in more than 40 hours a week on average for an extended period of time makes developers tired, thus they tend to commit more mistakes, which creates extra work for them, thus lowering software quality and hindering development in the long run;
• They understand the nature of software development, avoid unrealistic schedules, allow time for long term maintenance such as refactoring and unit testing;
• They are open for continuous improvement, and the bureaucracy is not overwhelming. So I can make a difference and improve things.

(For the record, I have been in the business since 1995, and had two breaks of about a year each so far, when mild burnout was one of the reasons to leave.)

Answer 4

Get a hobby that has nothing to do with programming, make sure you dedicate some time to it weekly, if not daily. If it's something physically active (team sports or solo stuff like cycling) that's also great.

Answer 5

I've burned out a couple times in the last 5 years, and the last time facilitated a change of environment and a new job:

I think my problems were:

• I over-extend myself - if I was asked by 3 different groups to work on their projects, I would agree and then suddenly I'd be swamped with work and pulling in 50-70 hour weeks on average.
• I didn't have time to do my own stuff any more - reading, gaming, or even just plain relaxing.
• I worked in a company that would reveal themselves to be hyper-aggressive schedulers - for example, a contract that was supposed to last roughly 2 months was slashed to about 3.5 weeks due to budget, but the scope and number of features actually grew. I left the company after this customer contract.
• I didn't follow a productivity plan - I was very much seat-of-my-pants kind of developer, hammering out code, features, specs, etc. in short order. This led to a lot of mini-episodes of unproductivity because I just didn't care anymore. I'd get my work done but it was just such a grind.

But here are things I learned from all these experiences:

• Take a vacation - I never did. Even if you totally love your job, you will probably want a break from it. I was pretty much (and still am) 24/7 'On'.
• Find a place that really allows you to focus on a life-work balance. I think I finally have, and I enjoy the work very much and don't notice that I spend > 40 hours a week on it. I'm also able to work anywhere, anytime, so it's certainly not as restricting.
  • It's really important to ask about how the development process, scheduling, and such are at a company.
• Spend more time on my hobbies - I've gotten back to photography and learning functional languages, I love being able to do that again.

Also, I am a fan of Agile Scrum, mostly because it is the most structured development process I've used in the last 5 years. My team follows a kanban process now, and it's working out pretty well.

Answer 6

One thing I have realised is that most of us don't actually make good use of our lunch breaks.

Like many people, I am allocated up to 1 hour for lunch. I used to have lunch in the canteen which takes around 10-15 minutes, and then return to my desk and get back to work.

I then asked myself.... "what the hell am I doing??" - that hour is for me to have lunch and take a break!! I've now started to maximise my lunch time by either going for a walk (exercise) or actually having a quick nap in the car.... don't knock the napping; it does wonders to have a quick power nap - you come back soo alert and refreshed!!

So basically I couldn't give a rats ass how busy my day is, I am not going to shorten my lunch break, its too important! - This is a great way to start helping you with preventive burnout.

Answer 7

A lot of good answers have already been given, so I try to add a few items:

• Don't overestimate the importance of anything. Most likely, the world can live with a delayed completion of your project. Most problems are less critical than they seem.

• When faced with an unreachable goal, don't overwork yourself just to be one those who gave 120%.

• Find a distraction to spend the evenings with, so you can think about something else but your work.

• Get enough sleep. If your job allows it, get rid of the alarm clock and live to your own rhythm.

Answer 8

There are probably about a handful of different things that I actively do to prevent burn-out:

• Exercise - It is rather surprising how good a 30 minute walk at lunch can do wonders for clearing my head and giving my legs a bit of a workout at the same time. In bad weather, I walk in a mall but it is still just getting out of the office and pondering on whatever I want that can help re-focus my brain.

• Therapy - Since I had a little burn out last year I'm still recovering from that so I have someone I see regularly to try to get me back on track in terms of getting healthy which has been quite the challenge for me in the past handful of years.

• Support groups - For those times where I need to vent and get things out that I don't want to use up therapy time in getting stuff off my chest I have these to assist me that is something rather active to my mind as last night would be my most recent meeting of just getting stuff out of me.

• Friends - For those times where I may need someone to phone up at 2 in the morning to get a fresh perspective on things where it may be really useful. Not that one should do this often or with a lot of people but it is nice to have those people that you know would help you through something any time you need them.

• Personal development - The self-exploration of figuring out what I want and how could I get there from where I am now. This isn't necessarily simple or easy but it can be quite useful to set goals and move toward them. This is also where I've seen various self-assessments and used various theories some successful and some not to try to make my life better.

Answer 9

You need a hobby to prevent burnout. Something that you can do during your free time that helps you unwind and relax. I don't care if this is making a widget with a PIC Controller or basket-weaving or my new passion cooking. We all need something.

You also need to be socially active. I'm not saying go out and party all the time, but you better go to a happy hour or talk to people because after sitting in a cubicle for 8-9-10 hours a day you need to socialize.

Sleep is a big one too. If you're on the death march and not sleeping, you will burn out

Answer 10

Pierre 303 has good advice.

I burned out very badly and quit a few months ago, and am taking some time off to recover as we speak. You can check out my blog about it if interested.

Really I have nothing much to add that wasn't already covered in Pierre 303's post and "Signs and Symptoms" link, except to emphasise that burnout in NOT "just a stronger version of normal everyday stress". The difference between stress and burnout is like the difference between feeling a bit moody on a rainy day when your plans were ruined, and having fully blown clinical depression. Totally different animals - although some of the basic symptoms look similar.

The problem is that the modern corporate workplace doesn't really recognise it. When someone starts to burn out, management is likely to think it is just a spiking phase of normal everyday stress and project pressure. So chances are the employee will start pushing harder - all the while getting less motivated and productive. This is exactly what happened to me. I lost motivation and concentration and started producing garbage, which meant more bugs, which led to pushing harder still, and making it worse and worse. It's like a vicious circle. You care less and less, get less and less productive, while the environment pushes you to work harder and harder.

So really that's the key: learning to tell the difference between normal every day stress and actual burnout. And then seriously STEPPING AWAY when the first stage of burnout hits.

Normal stress should feel like a kind of almost positive "constructive pressure". A feeling like there are huge challenges and overwhelming tasks ahead, but you're keen to conquer them and get past them, it's an adrenalin rush. If you're burning out, it's a downward spiral to just truly not caring anymore. You just wish it would all go away and leave you alone.

At one point I started having dreams that asteroids were raining out of the sky and the world was ending, and I was happy because it meant not having to go to work anymore.

Answer 11

What has helped my burnout from my early days of tech support all the way to experienced programmer that I am now.

Is read BOFH every day during lunch. http://www.theregister.co.uk/odds/bofh/