Preventing Burnout

No, I'm not on about the racing game. I used to be quite an avid coder - but I'm losing the habit. What's the best pro-active approach to stopping burn-out? My number 1 rule is:

1. Accept that if someone is your line manager does not give them an appreciation of the amount of work necessary to achieve a given solution, in fact in my experience they are clueless in that regard. Ah well.

Just watched the metallica one video - No.2 in the Scuzz brill vids.

It seems the older I get, the easier I suffer from coding fatigue...

I get really irritated that the passion is still there, but the will isn't.

I have had a couple of really bad bouts of it last year... So I just take a time-out from the PC, kick back until my head is ready again.

Dabz

1. Get away from a PC, go do some real world stuff for a few days. Study some trees or something, look for possible ideas and logic in the outside world.

2. Stop browsing the time-sapping internet.

@Dabhand: yeah, i've finally started accepting the older thing might be affecting my mojo.

@ sonic - your No.1 one ~I've been doing in abundance of late and I like it - too much. No.2, mmm I limit my surfing coz of my thoughts on one.

No. 1

The larch

On a more serious note, was the no. 1 reason for me not finishing any projects last year. Hopefully I'll get wiser in this one.

If you get to the horse chestnut, you're making progress :)

For me at least, burnout happens from time to time and maybe without any specific reason.

All I need to do is just take a break. A good, proper, full break from the code.
(Easir said than done but as much distance as I can realistically put between myself and my personal non-work related coding etc.)

Play some games, do some gardening (Okay, maybe that's best for summer) I'm quite creative, so there's a gazillion other things I like to try my hand at, and sooner or later, I get a flash of inspiration on a new idea or how to solve a problematic issue and I'm back with determination :)

Read tech related stories, look at new hardware at stores, play a few console games, etc, etc. Then if/when you're ready to start coding, do small little tasks, improve an algo or function, etc, then start building up again to a larger project. ;)

I spent a large part of today researching some weird ass bug. Then I left work and whilst waiting for a taxi to take me to Aikido I got this feeling that if I emptied my mind, I'd find the solution. Then it came to me. Also I feel loads better after doing Aikido than earlier when my mind was racing with the bug and some other QA comments and some other priorities etc...

You guys don't seem to have a clue what a severe illness burnout is - you talk about it as if it were some kind of simple boredom or a temporary loss of creative ideas.

Here's a rather simple and short definition of what burnout really is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnout_(psychology)

The symptoms develop slowly and it can take years before you realize what's happening to you. In my own experience, the only way to prevent complete burnout is to quit the job that killing is your brain (and soul) and simply do NOTHING for several months that has anything to do with your last job or career. Unfortunately, this is an extremely hard thing to do, and it takes a long, long time to recover - and you won't be the same person anymore once your life is coming back to you.

What are you on about, Winni?

Burnout can be a loss of creative ideas and boredom, it's all just a matter of opinion and extent. So please don't start insulting people's intelligence or what they do or do not have a clue about.

It's similar to the phrase 'depression'. Clinical Depression can be a very serious illness, but the word can also describe a state of extreme inconfidence, lethargy and unsatisfiety.

I notice you rely on Wikipedia for your information, that doesn't make it in anyway factual.

I think Winni is right in pointing out that although the topic title is about "burnout", what is being discussed is more like "programmer's block". Which can also be very serious! ;)

http://slashdot.org/askslashdot/00/07/25/0329226.shtml

(Although in that article, burn-out is mentioned!)

I had programmer's block the other day - a bowl of all-bran soon cured it !

--I had programmer's block the other day - a bowl of all-bran soon cured it !
LOL!

I find just thinking of what i would be doing otherwise (on dole & skint) is usually motivation.
What winni is on about sounds more like a nervous breakdown to me :/
(i reckon psychologists invent half these 'illnesses', or at least take an existing one and give it a new name :)

A good healthy amount of exercise and some decent food makes the difference here.

Although, i think all-bran is crossing the line ;o)

Which is why I used the term 'coding fatigue'! ;)

And in fact I do know how it feels to be 'burnt out', in the sense your on about... I worked in Sheffield, on a building site, doing 95 hours a week for 5 weeks.

For a fortnight the concrete wagon was on turn-around, I was laying it, getting it to where it needed to be. I was doing demolition, hoddying to the brickies... Every nightmare job on a building site, I was there...

The day it happened I was pushing bricks and muck in a wheel barrow up and down a scaffold baton, all day, then around 4pm(ish), I just couldnt get the thing up there... Well, I got halfway up, then my body wouldn't let me get any further, so I tried again, and again... And I wasn't having it!

I went back to the digs at 6pm, collapsed onto the bed, and didnt move till the next morning... I still even had my work clothes on. I dropped my hours right down, and it took weeks to recover!

Now that's burn out! :)

Dabz

Arrrgh!

Well, tomorrow I'm leaving on vacation : ) But if you want something less drastic, take a drive around town (gas prices are pretty low anyway), go to the movies, or if you are afraid you won't want to go back to coding, write a game that's fun and codes quickly. Whenever I'm tired of writing my big game, that's what I do, and adding a bunch of player capabilities so quickly feels great!

You obviously don't live in the UK...

I paid the equivalent of $1.41 per litre (yes, per LITRE) this morning.

OUCH! (thats per gallon in the US).

Well, try some fun DIY projects or take a jog, if it isn't -35 C like it is here :)

Do meditation, and take or read about breath training. That really helps a lot.

When I don't feel like programming, I watch some movies, cook myself a nice meal, read books and especially watch and read things that make me happy and make me laugh. And I play a lot of videogames too, especially indie games that motivates and inspires me. Passing some quality time with my partner helps the most.

When I'm tired of programming, I just take a break for awhile from
whatever game I'm working on, and play video games.
Or I just program a little dopey, easy to code mini game.
(The above describes all of my games previous to Dragon Spirit ^_^)

I find that if your frustrated with something, then if you just stop
thinking about it, and come back to the problem a few days later,
you'll be able to figure it out in seconds.


Basically just doing something relaxing for awhile is what you need to
do.

WERDNA
http://hosted.filefront.com/werdnaworld

I definitely got full-on burn out from doing business software for 9 years, so I changed to making games after a really low demotivated period.

I beat burnout by intense physical exercise. For some reason it always brings fresh ideas and inspiration.

Dabhand

Interesting tale - I think there is a tendancy to treat ourselves as machines, both in our thinking about ourselves and in how society might treat us - particularly in menial occupations. It's all about making a space for yourself in society.

A lot of interesting points - a mixture of intense physical excercise - little and often - and then making sure you get plenty of sleep to compensate for it is a good remedy.

My wife and i take the friday and the monday off and go for a long weekend to a little place in Germany (Cochem, 4 hour drive). Just enjoying the mountains and fresh air there. We do that 3 times a year for the past 5 years now, it really fills you up with energy again.

The place gives us such a good feeling that we married there 1,5 years ago.

Red Bull fills me with all the energgy I need.

Playing old C64, Amiga or Nintendo games in an emulator does wonders for me.

I like games like Tetris / chuzzles / Minesweeper for this: You can play them with your brain in screen-saver mode, which can make them a good stress reducer.

Sometimes the computer can suck out your juice pretty quickly.

Everything apart from computers helps recovering, going into the mountains, climbing, travelling, ...

Playing games can also be fun but it's not as effective as going out.

Same here and I put it down to my age and kids and lack of sleep and lack of free time.

@taumel - I'm inclined to agree on the everything but computers slant.

& @tonyg - my list kind of reads like that. A compounded lack of sleep doesn't half reduce your mojo.