022 How Do I Prevent Burnout As A Developer?

Avoiding burnout as a developer has always been important to understand, but it is even more important during a worldwide pandemic. In this episode, we will go over the five ways to prevent burnout as a developer, as well as the one excuse to avoid.

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Dev Questions Podcast with Tim Corey. Join us each episode as we tackle the questions you are asking about a career in software development, understanding the industry, and new technology. If you're just starting out or you want to grow stronger as a developer, this is the place to get your questions answered. Now, here's your host, expert developer and online educator, Tim Corey.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

How do you prevent burnout as a developer? That's a question that Luke asked me recently, and it's a great one to cover in today's episode of Dev Questions. You see, burnout is a really big deal, especially now when COVID is still going on, we're still kind of half locked down, or maybe you're fully locked down, and work from home is becoming more of a thing, but also so your kids possibly. I mean, it's just becoming a very stressful time. So, how do you prevent burnout as a developer? Well, let's talk first about what burnout is. The definition is physical or mental collapse caused by overwork or stress. That's definitely something we don't want as developers. And it's something that is fairly common in the industry. Let's talk through what I think are the five steps you can take to avoid burnout. Number one is aim for balance. You see, there's more to your life than work. Whether you're working to get a job or whether you're in a job and working to keep that job, whatever the case may be, there's more to you than just work. Or at least there should be. And so you want to hit a balance. First of all, you need time for you, not for your employer, not for your even for your improvement as a person. You need time for you to just enjoy life. And life is not all about work. So therefore, that's one thing you need to prioritize. Another is you have people in your life. And if you don't have people in your life, you need people in your life. But you probably have people in your life, whether it's parents, friends, uh, a spouse, whether it's kids, whatever it may be, you need to take time for those people and to invest in those relationships. Also, you have time just to rest. That's not just time for you, there's also time to rest. And you make sure that you have enough time to rest. And finally, you need to have time to do things that maybe are different kind of work. For example, you know, I own a house. Well, that means that I've got lights that need to be changed out, I've got work that needs to be done on the flooring, I need work that needs to be done in the bathroom, I have work all over this house that needs to be done. Well, that's work, but it's not work for employer work. So I have to have time for that as well. Because if I let any of these uh issues fall to the wayside, any of these areas fall to the wayside, well, then my life becomes out of balance. And I start to have difficulty in one area of my life. If I don't prioritize people enough, then I will lose those people. Whether it is, you know, my wife decides that what's the point of being married to me, or my kids decide that why should I listen to the guy that never talks to me? Or, you know, my friends decide that they don't need to be bothered being my friend because I can't be bothered being their friend. That's a that's a bad place to be. Or maybe I don't prioritize my work around the house or my work in other areas outside of programming. Well, now things don't get done, they start to get run down, they cost more money, and I end up in a place that I don't want to be. Or maybe I don't prioritize rest and all of a sudden I'm exhausted all the time and getting nothing done well because I didn't prioritize rest. You see, find that balance is important. I try to have a set amount of time for each of those things, if not every day, then every week. Meaning, maybe some days are heavier on work and other days are heavier on relaxation. But in general, in one week's time, I try to keep a balance where I have time for each of those things. Saturdays are a big day for me for working around the house. I don't work for myself, I don't work as a developer as much. I typically will work around the house. And then Sundays are much more of a relaxation day. Uh, we go to church in the morning, we typically go out to eat with friends in the afternoon, and I'm usually watching football in the afternoon as well. And those are the kind of things that that give me that that sense of balance throughout the week where there's not just a constant work or too much in one area. Now, sometimes there's going to be an imbalance that comes in. For example, if I'm working on a course where I'm recording, I tend to record an entire course pretty much straight through. Now, I take breaks, I I you know do over a course of days, but I'll pretty much do that course once I've got it all lined up, I try to record it all at once because it just works out better. But that means usually I run into Saturday and sometimes even Sunday, where I'll start recording on a Wednesday or Thursday, I might not be done maybe even till Monday. Well, that blows that week out of the water. But then what I try and do is take the next couple of days and get back that balance. So that's number one is aim for that balance. Try and find what works for you. It's not equal. It's not gonna be I spend an equal amount of time on everything, but there's a percentage that you spend on everything. Maybe work is 50% of your overall time. But then try and find out, okay, I'm gonna spend 30% on rest, I'm gonna spend 20% on family then. And so you try and find what those percentages are and try and keep those pretty similar. Number two, find a hobby. Programming can't be your life. I absolutely love to program. I've done it as a hobby since I was a kid. I would do it for free for people just because I love doing it. I build applications just because I want to see them work, I want to try them out. I love software development, but it's not my hobby. And I have intentionally chosen a hobby that has nothing to do with software. I build things out of wood. I'm not the greatest at it, and I've tried a whole bunch of different things, and part of my way of making it work is I buy power tools because power tools make even me look like a genius sometimes. But doing that is something that allows me to do something and keep my mind working and keep my analytical brain going, but at the same time, something that's totally different. And in a lot of ways, for me, it's relaxing. So that's my hobby. I chose something intentionally that had nothing to do with computers. I would encourage you, pick something as your hobby that isn't just on the computer. I love computer gaming and I do that some as well, but that's not my hobby. Because if it's my hobby and my job is to be on the computer, well, then I'm just spending my entire day at my desk on my computer, work and play. And you need a mental shift from that. You need a mental break. So choose something away from your normal. That's number two. Number three is prioritize stress reducers. Stress is a killer for burnout. And stress is a part of life. That's just how it is. When you're working on a big project at work, or when you're trying to get a job, or when you are pushed to get something done, stress can be overwhelming. Or when you're going through a pandemic, stress can be very, very difficult. And you have to intentionally choose to do things that reduce your stress. One of the things in our busy go, go, go society that can be helpful is five minutes of peace. It's amazing how long five minutes is when you don't do anything. Not on your phone, not listening to something, not reading something, not participating in something, five minutes where you sit and stare. Find a park bench, maybe get a coffee, sit there for five minutes. That can reduce your stress. Finding something where you just breathe, learn to meditate, learn to take time out, and just reflect. Do something that that that visibly, physically reduces your stress. So that's number three. Number four, take real vacations. Now, depending on your stage in life, depending on your situation in life, depending on a lot of things, that may seem like a ridiculous thing to say. Maybe you can't afford to go away. Maybe you can't afford to take time off of work. I get that. I've been there. And for a lot of years, I didn't take real vacations. But there are ways to take vacations that don't cost you anything or cost you very little. You don't have to go away to a tropical paradise to call it vacation. Take time, maybe even as just one day or one weekend a month, where you say, This weekend, I'm not gonna work on the house. I am not gonna go over to my sister-in-law's house to hang out, I am not going to, you know, whatever the case may be, I'm not gonna do any of those things. But instead, I am going to, you know, with the family or without the family, however your situation works, but we're gonna go and we're gonna do something that's totally out of the normal. Maybe it's go for a hike, maybe it's walk around a neighborhood for hours on end, maybe it is sit by a stream and build, you know, little boats that float down it. Whatever it is, pick something that is different, that is out of the ordinary, that is relaxing. Now, if you have the opportunity to have vacation days, one of the biggest dangers in enjoying your job, and I love my job. I've always, almost always loved my job. And one of the biggest dangers is then saying, Well, I have vacation time, but I don't want to take it right now. Put it on the calendar. Take time. If you have the opportunity, take two weeks at a time. Take two weeks off or more at one time. Not a day here, a day there, a day here, a day there. Do a big chunk. Take that time off, take the time, recharge, refresh yourself. Don't take a work laptop if you can help it. Don't um think about work if you can help it. Don't do things that are work-related. I have a friend of mine who I used to take one-week vacations, and he said that he never, he tried never to take a one-week vacation because at the end of one week, he was just decompressing enough to relax and enjoy the vacation. He stopped thinking about work, he'd stopped thinking about the things that still had to be done. And that's really wise advice. Because if you can get the time to take that two weeks all at once, that allows you that second week where you're not thinking about work at all. Now, if you're an employer and you're hearing me and you may say, Boy, I wouldn't want my employees to take a two-week vacation. I get that, but at the same time, you want your employees to be recharged, refreshed, and ready to jump back in with fresh minds and with fresh ideas. You get that by giving them that time off. Okay, so aim for balance, find a hobby, prioritize stress reducers, take a real vacation. The final one is find your rhythm. Everybody's body is different. When I grew up, my my dad was a farmer or former farmer, and so his thought was early to rise, early to bed. That's you know how you become healthy, wealthy, and wise kind of thing. It it doesn't work for me. I am not an early riser. You can get me up early, that doesn't mean my brain engages. My friends laugh at me and it's fine. They laugh at me when they see me early in the morning because they realize that my body is moving, but no one's home. I may be up, I may be showered, I may be somewhat interacting, but Tim's not yet quite engaged. I don't really engage until about 10 o'clock in the morning. That's just not who I am. So if you can find what works for you, even if you have to work a job where it doesn't fit your particular schedule well, you can still figure out in that job, well, maybe the mornings you're still getting up to speed. Then what can you do during those times that doesn't take a lot of mental processing power? Maybe answer emails or answer help tickets or you know, answer your your voicemails, whatever it is in the morning that maybe that you know doesn't take a lot of processing power, or maybe for you it's after lunch, maybe between 1 and 3 p.m., you're just not getting a lot done. Well, that's a great time to put work that isn't the best for you. Maybe meetings are a great thing to schedule at that time, but then also find those times when you are on your game. For me, 10 o'clock in the morning until one in the afternoon, that's a great time for me. That's a great time for me to really focus in, get something done. I can really crank through projects. But it happens again, and that happens usually at 10 o'clock at night. Now, for me, I have this weird work day because I'm self-employed, and that's that's me different than you. But what it allow if you're not self-employed, but what it allows me to do is find all of those times and make best use of them. So I spend time 10 o'clock at night until I might stay up until three in the morning if I'm really cranking on something. Where those five hours are the best five hours I've had all week. And so I'll crank through, I'll get stuff done, I will be sharp, I'll be on point, I'll be getting lots done. And then the next morning, I'll sleep until 11. And then I'm not gonna really get a lot done the next morning, even at noon. So I'll be answering emails or I'll be, you know, even responding to YouTube comments. When I respond when I respond to YouTube comments, I'm not always at the top of my mental game. That doesn't mean I'm not engaged, that doesn't mean that I'm not giving you great answers. It just means that I'm not creating new unique things that programming sometimes takes. Programming is a art form as much as it is a science, where you have to create new ideas and new ways to connect things together to create new applications and new ideas. That takes creativity that I don't always have at those times. So I use those times differently. And I prioritize those times for things that I just need to get through versus that creativity, creativity time where I do something else. So those are the five things that I would encourage you to do. But there's one thing that I've often seen people use burnout for as an excuse. And I want to make sure that I address this because I don't want you to use burnout as an excuse. And that is when you're getting tired of working on a project or a language. Often I hear people say, Man, I've been working on that project for two weeks. I'm just getting burned out. I'm gonna try something new. You're not burned out, okay? That's not burnout, that's not what it is. What you're experiencing is that that lull that comes with hard work. That comes from I'm not getting the dopamine rush of a new project or a new shiny bit. And you've heard him talk before about those, don't get distracted by shiny things, that you should prioritize getting your things done first before moving on. This is one of those things. Where don't use the term burnout as an excuse for not putting in the hard work. Put the hard work in of learning a language deeply. Put the hard work in of finishing a project. Now you can do a lot of things to make those things shorter. For example, a project, you don't have to add in all those other things. I talked about create a minimum viable product. One of the things that does is it shortens the time from project start to project is working. And that shortened period means a shortened period of that what you might call burnout, but it's really just I'm tired of working on this project, I don't want to do the hard work. That shortens that period. So it's things you can do, but don't use burnout as an excuse for just not putting that hard work in. All right. So those five things aim for balance, find a hobby, prioritize your stress reducers, take real vacations, and find your rhythm. Thanks for asking the question, Luke. It was really helpful. If you would like me to answer your question, either use the form on the podcast page at imtimcorey.com or leave a comment in the YouTube section under the comments. Now, if you're listening to this podcast, I'd really appreciate it if you would leave a review for the podcast. In doing so, you're helping other developers get their questions answered. And no matter how you're listening to me, sharing this episode is always appreciated. Thanks for listening. And as always, I am Tim Corey.

SPEAKER_00 20:19

Thank you for joining us for this episode of Dev Questions. Tim is committed to making it easier for you to become a developer. If you would like to help make more content like this possible, please like, subscribe, rate, and share Dev Questions. You can also send your questions to questions at IamTimcorey.com. Until next time, remember, you are too smart and your time too valuable to waste it making all the mistakes Tim did. When you're ready to learn to think and code like a professional developer, head over to imtimcore.com and enroll in a course.