On Burnout

From both the readings and from my experience, it seems that burnout has a few, related, causes. For the most part, however, I think it comes from mental exhaustion. It seems like every few days I hear, either through someone I know or through the news, a mention of burnout, especially in the tech industry. And, each time I hear about it, it comes along with a mention of the severe hours put in by those experiencing the burnout. These people are simply exhausting their mental faculties. I know that, personally, when I start working, I go into a state of extreme focus. I tend to mentally prioritize the task on hand, pushing every external stimulus away. These periods of focus can go on for hours, if I do not consciously set timers to stop myself. I cannot imaging forcing myself into this state for 80 - 100 hours a week. We humans did not evolve to spend all of our time thinking about one single objective, or one single problem. We evolved to be able to read and react to our surroundings, to have short, intense, bursts of problem-solving followed by immediate follow through.

I experienced something like burnout near the end of this past summer at my internship. I remember the moment I noticed that I was burnt out. It was during the European soccer championships. I went to my desk like any normal day and turned on the games (we all had televisions in our cubicles for development purposes). The next thing I realized was that it was 2 pm and almost the end of the work day. I had spent almost the entire day staring at the tv screen, not really processing anything. But, I was able to recover, thankfully. I started adopting a cyclical work cycle. The main idea is to spend short bursts working, followed by short breaks. My cycle was as follows: work for 25 mins, break for 5 mins, after every four work periods, take one longer 30 minute break. This allowed me to actually get up and move around the office , converse with other interns, and not need to stare at my computer all day. It also helped to divide the day nicely (I had 1.5 cycles in the morning and 1.5 after lunch). Additionally, I began taking longer lunches and eating with the other interns. This helped to distract my mind from my work. I also found that, as I got to know the interns better, I wanted to go to work more. I hope that, as I enter the workforce, I can continue to apply these basic strategies to avoid burnout and have a reasonable work-life balance.