I’ve been making some really great progress on my React side project lately! I’ve spent a ridiculous amount in the last week hacking away at things that were way over my head… having both breakdowns and breakthroughs along the way, haha. It definitely came with moments of very strong imposter syndrome. The stress of failing over and over (which is just part of development) before a success can be exhausting. There’s definitely only so long that I can go 100% before I really start to feel burnout.
But how do I combat burnout?
I’m glad you asked! DO SOMETHING ELSE! Seriously, that’s it. You need to do something different. You need to do something active. You need to step away from the thing that’s causing the burnout and decompress. The same is true with music for me: I have a tendency to listen to songs I love over and over until I hate them. If you really want to get somewhere long term in your career, you need to find the right balance for you and your goals.
The real key word here is balance. Too little work? You’ll fall behind in your career or never really get started. Too much? You’ll go far quickly and then hate it so much that you’ll swap careers; which would make it all a waste of time.
So what else should I do?
For me, I like to activate my other learning styles. This helps create enough of separation in my brain that it forces me to turn off the others for a bit, allowing me to recharge. So make sure that I balance the very visual or auditory learning, which I use when learning new development techniques, with some heavy kinesthetic activities.
For me, the kinesthetic list tends to be:
- Swing Dancing
- Hiking
- Rock Climbing
- Grappling
Obviously you need to find what works for you… but there are zero negatives from getting and staying in shape, so I recommend something that helps you get into a meditative space by being physically exhausting.
Hopefully this helps you get rid of your own burnout. Good luck!