Burnout isn't working yourself too hard; it's choosing the path of least resistance.

I'm mildly obsessed with the concept of productivity. As a kid, I used to play games in which the primary strategy purely revolved around "min-maxing"; an effort to get the most resources for the least amount of effort. For many people, this is not considered a great way to play games - "It sucks all the fun out of it". I primarily see and enjoy games as creative optimisation problems—a tweaking of variables that make min-maxing extremely challenging, rewarding, and fun.

"[Min-Maxing is] optimizing a character's abilities during creation by maximizing the most important skills and attributes, while minimizing the cost."

This approach mapped onto the world of work had me knees-deep in 'productivity' literature, life-hack youtube and other guides, tips, and tutorials on how to effectively 'min-max' my work life. "Hustle-culture" definitely made it feel that if I wasn't working 24/7, I was losing the race that everyone seemed to be a part of. Partaking in this culture seemed like the best way to stay on top of my game. This was all while trying to make the time to do a plethora of different hobbies, keep up a social life, and get a good sleep.

I think we all know how that went. 🤦

What burnout isn't.

I was always warned not to "burn myself out", which I assumed meant working too hard. I disagree with that definition. Working hard is working to the best of your abilities, and you can't work to the best of your abilities if you're burnt or burning out.

I’ve never found working hard to be a problem. In fact, I think quite the opposite. If I work hard enough, it becomes exciting to see ideas turn into creations. It's enjoyable to work under pressure with limited time or limited resources - a game of optimising and tuning variables until a product or solution is made. Knowing I gave it my best shot at the end of a session of real, deep work is a rush like no other. There is a reason hackathons are so damn effective; give a group of developers 24 hours, a crate of Redbull, and a constant supply of pizza, and they'll make something software houses will quote six months for.

Constraints breed creativity, and creativity fosters innovation. When you’re 100% focused on your work, you forget about everything else. You become resourceful, imaginative, and upon reaching the deadline, you realise that you’ve achieved so much with so little. I call this "deep work": a term coined by Cal Newport in his fantastic book aptly titled "Deep Work".

So what is burnout?

Well, I've not fully figured that one out yet, but I sure as hell have felt it.

I feel the best way to measure the rate of burnout is when productivity begins dropping per hour spent working. This is then compensated by working more hours, which, in turn, decreases productivity even further. 📉

Eventually, productivity is so low that you never switch off from work. And that’s when problems start.

It’s when the time you spend not working is no longer 'fun' or 'relaxing' but is instead spent 'procrastinating'. You burn yourself out not through work or play but through procrastination—the lapses in focus and the inability to do deep work.

The first time you notice this is when you finish work, and instead of going off to relax, you start thinking about the next bit of work you could be doing. But before then, you take a small break. You get yourself a cup of coffee. You deserve it. You browse the internet. You mindlessly scroll through Tik-Tok. Or you just... sit there for a few minutes.

And so starts the bad habit of procrastination because it’s the path of least resistance.

You slowly replace work and your hobbies - the time when you're meant to be having fun and relaxing - with procrastination. Because it’s easier. Compiling code or waiting for an email goes from being a hassle to an opportunity to procrastinate because it's easier to mindlessly scroll through rubbish than refocus on something else.

All of this builds until all that is left is a day-long haze of social media, work, distraction, procrastination, food, work, sleep.

Now, you'll still manage to get your work done! You always manage that. But at what cost? It's all shallow work - it will take all day, and there will be no reward or respite from it. You're still functioning but along the path of least resistance. That’s hardly an existence. Hobbies are no longer a treat- they're a distraction. And work is a punishment. And even procrastination eventually feels like a chore. Where’s there to go then?

How to get yourself out of the slump

Here's the bad news. There's no easy fix.

Here are a few things that got me back on the right track and have a little scientific backing:

1. Work first, dopamine later - dopamine is the hormone of satisfaction; if you are satisfied, you don't want to work.
2. If nothing sparks joy in you anymore, try dopamine detox at least for a day - no high dopamine activities. Go a hike. Read a book. Climb a tree. 🌳
3. Exercise. Although it may not seem like it, the gym is one of the most incredible places to meditate.
4. Build routines. Routines are healthy.

Anecdotally...

Treat your job like a regular job. Clock out when it's time to clock out. Don't let work drift on until you go to bed - make sure there are a few hours at the end where you're away from work. Even if you haven’t got your work done, any frustration you have of not quite finishing up can be reinvested into it tomorrow instead. Your colleagues will understand.

Secondly, force yourself to work—a good, solid chunk of work. Use the Pomodoro technique if you have to. This is the critical bit. Build the habit of choosing the hard path, because, ultimately, it's the most rewarding and will keep you motivated.

Finally, at the end of the day, when work is done, go out and do something else! Whatever you do, don’t procrastinate. Turn your phone off. Unplug your internet if you have to. Just do something of value with that spare time of yours. Go for a walk! Reach out to that friend that you've not spoken to in forever! Create routines, and eventually, you’ll end up looking forward to them.

So that's it. I don't think we talk about burnout deeply enough, and during the COVID pandemic, it seems like the word gets thrown about even more so than it did before. So what do you think of this take on it? Do you agree? Do you disagree? Are there more effective methods of tackling it that I hadn't mentioned?

TL;DR: Routines are good. Use them. Clock out when you need to. Go outside.

Sources

Firstly, I'd like to thank 3kliksphillip for a wonderful video, "The hedonic treadmill comes for us all", that motivated me to write this. It's a brilliant video explaining the above from a Youtuber's perspective: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=us5MAQLW_Hg)

An article on Min-Maxing: (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MinMaxing)

The brilliant hackathon meme (http://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/comments/lhb78f/once_i_developed_facebook_during_hackathon/)

Smithereens and the Economy of Attention - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781119578291.ch22

The relation of physical activity and exercise to mental health - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1424736/

Pomodoro technique (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique)