
Ask HN: Feels like my brain doesn't want to work anymore - testpass
Since I&#x27;ve gotten back from my last internship, it has been feeling like my brain has been refusing to work.<p>Over the last 10-12 months, I got extremely burnt out from a team that was rushed to finish a product - that included staying late often (4AM late). I was then only recommended for another internship, not a full time job. Feeling pretty defeated, I came back to school and took another heavy course load, which seemed to make brain not want to work part even worse.<p>I remember 2 years ago, I was coding projects in my spare time, had the enthusiasm of a 5 year old, and was just a generally happy guy. I used to love life! Now a simple task seems to take ages. My brain, when reading, doesn&#x27;t actually read in the data. It feels like it caches it, and then throws it out when the next thing comes along.<p>Has anyone ever gone through something like this? What has helped you? 
So far, it seems like video games (i haven&#x27;t played them in years) and going to the gym, and overall relaxing and taking things one step at a time has been helping. But... it&#x27;s not the 100% capacity I know I can exhibit.
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imd23
I Will tell you something I wish my psychology would had told me: go some
weeks to the coolest hostel you can. Don't go with your laptop, go just to
have fun, meet people, to enjoy your present, that you are fucking alive. In
fact if the hostel is good, you will be able to make at least 20 new "friends"
almost fucking instantly. You will hear so many different life stories and you
will tell yours. This year I went to one with some friends after living a big
depression of the same "working" feeling and just by the second day I was
feeling "fuck I wish I had done this way before ". I overstayed alone for two
more weeks than my friends. I even ended working in and from the hostel and
staying for free. Hope it helps you as it did for me.

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Yaa101
I can advise the same, but without all the fuck words... ;-)

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tmaly
I would say the same thing. Do something not related to tech on your time off.
Go hiking or explore a new city.

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junto
Life is a balance. This persistent lack of sleep, stress and over-exertion
needs to be given back. Your mind and body are trying to tell you something.
You need to listen.

Take some time off if you can afford it. Travelling is a good way to get away
from everything related to work. No computers and mobile phone.

When you come back, you'll have lots of new perspectives, new ideas and feel
refreshed.

I'm not sure where you live, but if you are in the US, try a flight down to
central America with a backpack and a good pair of walking boots, keep your
mind open, watch your back and you'll have a blast.

The backpacking trail through central America is awesome. Depending on how
frugal you are, you can live pretty cheaply.

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jason_slack
Although probably frigid cold now, the US has the Appalachian Trails, over
2000 miles, from Maine to Georgia.

There was a movie featuring it recently too:
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1178665/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1178665/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)

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jlangenauer
It takes time to recover from burnout - sometimes months. The best thing for
you to do is just let that take its course, and not try to push yourself back
to 100%. That will only bake in the burnout, and it'll take longer for your to
recover.

So go on holidays, meet with friends, read fiction, find some new hobbies.
Whatever gives you pleasure, and isn't work, or an attempt to push yourself.

And with time, you will find yourself returning to how you were.

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thenomad
Just in case the occasional anti-games mentality rears its ugly head around
here: whilst there are lots of good suggestions coming up, games are certainly
a pretty solid way to relax too.

In the last couple of months I've been recovering from mild-to-moderate
burnout symptoms myself, and a lot of how I've been doing that is playing The
Witcher 3. It works. (It probably helps if the game you're playing is one of
the most astonishing artistic creations of the last couple of years, to be
fair.)

The big thing is this: you can't force it. One plausible explanation for
burnout is that it's a defense mechanism from your subconscious against
excessive delayed gratification: if you're very self-disciplined and work very
hard on something that you think will give you rewards in the end, but doesn't
whilst you're doing it, then don't get those rewards, after a while you start
building up subconscious resistance to doing that again.

It sounds like you're not too long away from the death-march project. If so,
just give it some more time of _not trying to do things_ (counter-intuitive
and often scary for highly motivated people, I know), and see how you're doing
in a month or two.

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stuxnet79
Yes, there's a lot of bias against gaming, which to me isn't right. However, I
find that playing video games feels either too dry or too much like work these
days. I spent a significant amount of money building a gaming PC just to get
back into the gaming life but I never play the damn thing because the games I
have are either too boring or too hard to play in short bursts. I've pretty
much burned out on gaming ... lool. What was initially a recreational hobby
became too serious and time consuming and it sucked all the joy out of it. So
moral of the story is, try to balance your life a bit more.

~~~
thenomad
Yeah, that can totally happen. I know people who burned out pretty hard doing
things like running MMO guilds or trying to compete in PvP games like
Hearthstone.

Definitely, do what works for you at that time.

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onion2k
_But... it 's not the 100% capacity I know I can exhibit._

That'll be the 100% capacity that you did for a while and it burnt you out,
right?

No one can work at "100% capacity" forever. You need to rest, to relax, and to
do things that aren't work and aren't "productive". That downtime is
recuperative and informative. As counterproductive as it might sound, taking
time away from your computer to do other things makes you a better developer.

Working at what feels like 90% all the time is better than working at 100% for
6 months and then working at 40% for the following 6 months when you're burnt
out.

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Outdoorsman
This can be a crazy profession that will willingly chew people up...

Realize that....when money's to be made some will drive you until you can no
longer function....

There's a lot to life...part of it is fast-lane, part of it is slow-
lane...different parts have their purpose...

What matters is which lane is right for you right now...choose wisely, and
take care of yourself...

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sharmi
If travelling is not your cup of tea, doing a little creative art work ( or
anything that can be done is a short time and have a tangible result to show
for it) can do wonders.

One of the causes of burnout is putting in long hours to finish something that
later amounts to nothing (because it never gets released or the end product is
much below your expectations). All work and no satisfaction.

In such cases, small work that can be accomplished in a few hours can give
back the oomph factor and infuse some energy into one's life. Glass painting
worked marvels for me. Nowadays I find it fun to just take my time and colour
a picture with crayons :) Yep I have kids.

A cross country hike or some carpentry maybe?

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greeneyedpea81
I am currently in the same position you are in except with school. I love
learning but I am burned out from reading chapters on top of chapters and
writing "novels". My brain is definitely on strike and the quality of work I
am producing is not the best. Not to mention, I am averging about 3 to 4 hours
of sleep a night.

I decided to take a break for a few months after this last class I am in. I
did not want to, however at this point it is very necessary. I can't wait to
just do nothing for a day or two.

I hope you find balance and are able to find some time to step away from
everything to reset.

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cabraca
you are like a battery. if you need to work 100%, you also need time to
recharge. take a vacation, without laptop, without phone, far away from tech.
take some friends with your and just clear your head.

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911
same

