If you ever experience burnout, you know how much it sucks. 😩 I surely did and wouldn't want to experience it again in the near future!

I believe it's better to learn how to prevent something than learn how to deal with it. Of course, knowing what to do while experience burnout is important, but if we always focus just on learning how to deal with something in the moment, we are always be stuck in coping and managing.

I believe we are more than that and being aware of your mental state and first signs can help you prevent burnout or other uncomfortable states.

Signs of burnout

These are a few of many signs you can experience when having burnout:

• Alienation from work-related activities - Viewing your job as increasingly stressful and frustrating. Feeling cynical about your working conditions and the people you work with. You may also emotionally distance yourself and begin to feel numb about your work.
• Emotional exhaustion - Feeling drained, unable to cope, and tired. You often lack the energy to get your work done.
• Reduced performance - Burnout mainly affects everyday tasks at work - or in the home when someone's main job involves caring for family members. You might feel negative about your tasks. You have difficulty concentrating and often lack creativity.

This is not a diagnostic tool. Keep in mind that different people might feel different. Make sure to talk with your therapist to confirm if you are experiencing burnout and to exclude other conditions!

Why do we experience burnout?

We are living in a very competitive world right now, especially if you are a developer!

There are so many frameworks to learn, so many best practices to follow, so many Twitter gurus to learn from, you got the idea... 🤯

I am not against sharing your knowledge on social media, I believe in sharing, in fact, this is what I am doing right now in this article. What I don't believe to be so beneficial and actually makes many of us feel worse, is making overworking a norm and pushing hard work to extremes!

You probably came across tweets that promote late-night work as being a default if you want to "accomplish something in this life", working on weekends, because doing nothing and spending time with your loved ones is boring and "won't make you successful", etc... 🤦‍♂️

While there are certainly exceptions and times when working after hours and on weekends is okay and sometimes necessary as life is not always 100% balance. I believe that we should be very aware if that actually becomes our norm and we are fighting for something when we don't need to!

This article goes deeper on how we became the burnout generation (highly recommend reading!):

How to prevent burnout

If you expected a quick fix, I am sorry to disappoint you, but there isn't! 😳

Preventing burnout consists of many changes in your life, like your daily schedule, taking constant breaks during your work, allocating quality time with your family, doing hobbies you like in your free time (I know you like coding, but try something else, maybe painting, dancing, gardening, anything that doesn't involve a device!)

I believe your schedule plays a big role in preventing burnout. I touched on this topic in one of my recent posts, make sure to read it! 👇

You will have to change many factors of your life that includes who you follow, how much time you spend on your phone, how much time your work, etc. It's not easy to change these things as we almost became addicted to them, but I promise you that in the end, it will be worth it!

I have changed many aspects of my life now. I have done many sacrifices like missing out on what my friends do on the internet, having a smaller but better circle of friends, and many others that I cannot even recall... They are sacrifices because they are hard to let go of, but they are good ones that will set you free!

I did all of this was because I wanted to enjoy my life fully and spend time with people and do things that I actually care about. And I want to help you to get to that place too!

Conclusion

Burnout has deep roots that cannot be fixed just by drinking more chamomile tea or taking magnesium (although, it will make you more relaxed! 💆‍♂️). Society made us believe that success is always equal to hard work. Unfortunately, the "hard work" term is most of the time misused and presented as sleepless nights and overlooked relationships due to prioritizing work first.

Thus, you must be aware of these pitfalls and know when these behaviors start to ruin your life! 🙂

I have released a podcast episode that touches exactly on this topic. I believe you will benefit a lot from it! 👇

💬 Leave a comment with 3 things you will start doing today that will cultivate the life you want to live!

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p.s 🤫 I recently started a podcast called The Anxious Developer where I share my knowledge on how to reduce your stress, become more present and productive as a Developer. I would love to hear your thoughts on it! 😊

Remember, you are worthy, you are loved and you matter! Have a great day! ❤️