
Ask HN: How do you know if you're burnt out or just being lazy? - fezzl
I know the easy answer to my question is "just take a rest and don't think about it," but how would you really know? Do you have a personal acid test to know if you're really tired or just plain undisciplined?
======
ekidd
First, check the essentials: Are you sleeping, eating decent food, and
exercising regularly? If not, you may be neither burnt out nor lazy. Take care
of this stuff first.

Second, have you spent the last year working so hard that nothing short of a
physical illness will make you slow down? Do you regularly push through
problems with sheer willpower? Do you crave the next "green" unit test result
beyond all sanity?

If so, you're almost certainly burnt out. _Don't_ try to push through it. Take
a vacation. Get outside. Allow yourself to be distracted by a pointless and
amusing hobby for a month. You can't fix burnout with willpower. You need to
take time off and refresh.

If you haven't been mistreating your body, and you haven't been pushing
yourself too hard for too long, then it's possible you're lazy, or depressed,
or something else. If you think you might be lazy, commit to making some
useful progress every morning for 30 days, no exceptions. Or try a Pomodoro
timer. These might be enough to tip you over the edge and get you moving. But
don't do this until you've ruled out burnout, because it will only dig you in
deeper.

~~~
madaxe
What you describe there is laziness. Burnout is this weird concept that
developers have invented to describe "I can't be bothered to keep going". 5
years, no days off, one 5 day holiday per year, on call 24/7 for the duration,
and I'm just fine. Depressed and exhausted, yes, but the work keeps flowing in
and the code keeps flowing out, which is all that matters.

I guess what I'm getting at is that people have forgotten that work is
_supposed_ to be hard. You're _supposed_ to work your nuts off until you lose
all track of time. "Free time" is a misnomer, because every moment that you're
not working, you're costing yourself time, and time is precious, and should
therefore be spent working.

If you can't hack back-to-back 80+ hour weeks, you need to keep throwing
yourself into them until you can.

~~~
MJR
_Depressed and exhausted, yes, but the work keeps flowing in and the code
keeps flowing out_

You call that just fine? This is not fine. This is not healthy and this is the
attitude you should be fighting against. If you honestly think that you are a
better person and you produce your best work when you're exhausted and
depressed, you should probably get some other opinions on that, because I have
a strong feeling that the people around you will disagree - whether that's co-
workers or family members.

~~~
madaxe
It's fine once you adjust your value system to recognise that work is life,
and that everything else is basically irrelevant. No family to speak of (apart
from the ones who expect a monthly cheque from me (brother, aunt, mother)),
co-workers are employees, so not appropriate for me to talk about it with
them!

~~~
manuscreationis
This has to be a well-executed joke...

Or someone who has severely lost track of perspective.

You know it's done well when you really can't tell.

~~~
TheCapn
My interpretation is that he's too shy to ask for help. Most manic depressants
are just that, depressed, they hide in their hole and someone has to dig them
out (possibly themselves).

Posting self-loathing material is subtle for someone to come along and pick up
their shoulders. They know what they're doing is unhealthy or irregular but
won't outright admit it because it shows weakness. "My life sucks but I march
on and continue to produce acceptable deliverables" is a pride thing.

tl;dr - start slowly, admit that you can improve your life and STILL churn out
those code snippets and you'll find yourself happier!

------
DanielBMarkham
I saw an interesting human-interest piece on TV over the weekend. It was about
one of the cofounders of Cisco. She lives on an 800-acre farm and spends her
time being a farmer.

The reporter asked her about her 40-room mansion. What's it like to live
there?

She said, "I don't know. I never live there. I live in an old wooden cabin in
the woods"

This led to a cute exchange: "Are you eccentric?

"Yes, I am, but only because I have money. Before I was just weird"

I was laughing when she hit me with the real punch line. "I find that if I
stay active, _thinking_ , struggling with problems that I am the most happy"

I think a lot of what we might call "lazy" or "burnt-out" is really low-level
depression. Are you struggling, thinking, actively engaging in some problem
that you love? If so, the words "work" or "lazy" doesn't really mean much. If
not, then can you allocate some part of your life where you are?

There's nothing wrong with not wanting to do things you don't like doing. The
real question is whether you can engage yourself to _struggle_ and _think_
with some part of life that you encounter. If so, then do that. If not, then
that sounds a lot like being depressed to me.

~~~
uast23
> "Yes, I am, but only because I have money. Before I was just weird"

Not sure about the history of this woman but I am sure that she didn't inherit
the money, she made it.

~~~
runjake
Daniel made no indication that she inherited it or otherwise didn't earn it.

~~~
uast23
That particular statement reflects a lot of experience and maturity and I was
just appreciating that. Nothing to do with Daniel.

------
Loic
Burnout is not solved by a nap or a walk, a burn out is not just being tired
or saturated with a subject.

You are burnt when you pushed your limits over a long period of time without
giving your body and brain enough rest. This means you do not have a quick
fix. You cannot quick fix something you have done over months, years. It takes
time.

In my personal case, I suffered a burn out (went several times to the doctor,
hospital and specialists with scans etc.), because without even be aware of it
I was pushing above my limits. I am still suffering from Tinnitus because of
it, 2 months after clearing all the other problems.

I was pushing above my limits because it was a bit above but in all parts of
my life. A stressful year, then when everything went back to normality, I was
simply left smashed. I was annoyed because I finally reached the "life is good
again" state, but my body simply said: "you gave me a hard time for a year,
now I need to rest". This started end of August, I am still recovering so to
speak.

So, you feel it could be a burn out? Take a close look at your life, what is
not running as it should, then act. But again, no quick fix, it takes time.

Do not hesitate to contact me privately if you want/need.

~~~
gbog
This corroborate what I have seen happen in the CTO I had a few years ago. He
worked 5 years without rest. Was called by big boss in Sunday mornings to fix
things. Was a very sanguine type, shout on everyone for nothing, said no to
everything. All lines of code were either quick fixes or copy paste.
Absolutely not long-term view. Database tables had 300 columns, named like
event1, event1time, event1who, event2, event2time, etc.

He had a team of 10 interns and only one regular, and no interns would stay.
He also had a specific way to breathe, like when you suffocate after 25 meters
under the water in the pool.

He was so overwhelmed he grabbed a few set of random rules as his life buoys.
For instance, use of <div>s was forbidden because once a <div> did float badly
when resized. So we had pages with over 20 nested <table> and not one had a
raison d'être.

Then he got mad against the big boss, and I replaced him. Result: he was sick
for 6 months. His body had to take a revenge.

I believe he is still looking for a job.

Maybe this could be a counter-point to the guy above saying that only work is
important, and that all seconds spent not working or sleeping are lost. I
think it is a dangerous way to dispose of your life.

Moreover, if the goal is to succeed, I think it is wrong that all "great
achievers" are necessarily 100% focused on their one tasks. Many of them
actually had hobbies, and a very wide and deep general knowledge of Humanities
(which can only be gathered through extensive reading).

So I would say to the OP, just stop focusing, read books, try for example "Zen
and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", feed your "gumption". (And go
fishing!)

------
sgentle
Personally, I take issue with the entire "lazy" thing. I find most people who
talk about laziness are using it as a way to avoid thinking deeply about their
own motivation.

"I am not getting work done, even though I want to. What aspects of this work
are bringing me down? Do I have the resources to do this work properly? Can I
think of any ways to make the work more appealing? Can I combine it with
anything else that I enjoy, like by getting a friend/colleague to look at it?
Should I take a break from it and come back to it later? Should I consider
dropping the project entirely? Is it actually what I want to do?"

Or "I'm lazy, I should work harder."

I strongly believe that the idea of laziness leads to burnout. Every time you
force yourself to do something, you're using up a little bit of your
willpower. It's a stopgap, not a strategy, and it does run out if overused.

The primary engine that generates results in your life should be based on
aligning your desires, goals, resources and actions. Good self-management
looks like good management of others, and I've never heard of a good manager
who calls his employees lazy.

The problem with asking about burn-out is that it's a spectrum. Life is full
of little "just push through" moments: approaching a stranger, hanging out
your washing, sitting down at your desk without opening reddit, being bothered
to cook, not deleting your nearly-written comment. Any time you can't do it,
your willpower has failed you. If you don't stop to understand why, it will
keep happening. And get worse.

For me it started small: missing appointments, not eating well, finding it
hard to get through my to-do list, even easy decisions got slowly harder to
make. Ideally burnout is kind of self-regulating because as your productivity
decreases your opportunities decrease as well. Unfortunately I was organising
an event and getting less done only meant having more to do.

Afterwards... it's hard to describe, but even considering any kind of
executive function felt like a cross between lifting a car and hearing a
burglar walk up the stairs. I don't think I got out of bed for a couple of
weeks, and I didn't show up to an Easter lunch with my family because figuring
out which train to catch was too hard. Things got better slowly - probably
about nine months in all before I really felt right again.

Since then, I've made it a point to think long and hard when I get that "just
gotta keep pushing" feeling. Almost every time it's been preventable: the
result of poor decisions, overcommitment, badly organised work, lack of
reward, or just plain doing something I don't actually want to do. If you're
feeling something like that, make "I might be doing this wrong" your first
port of call, and only go to "I should work harder!" later.

~~~
jyrkesh
Wow. I've been going through something very similar to what you've just
described, and this has really put it in perspective. I starting to realize
that might my previous reasons for wanting to accomplish certain things aren't
really good enough motivators for me and that I need to redefine my goals or
realize why I'm truly doing what I'm doing. Thank you, seriously. I'm going to
be linking this to more than a couple folks.

As an aside, your comment about Reddit really hit the nail on the head. I've
been trying to slowly phase it out of my life, and HN has filled that void
without being such a constantly changing time sink. Not to mention that most
of the stuff here motivates me and gets me accepted about CS, IT, and
entrepreneurial stuff. Glad to hear you got it all figured out, though.

~~~
exit
in a few months you'll also come to regard hn as a complete time sink

~~~
gtirloni
already did. daily hacker news saved it. www.daemonology.net/hn-daily/

------
compay
If you have to ask yourself this question, I think there's a chance you might
be suffering from the kind of self-esteem issues that often plague bright
people. Take a peek at this Wikipedia article on the "Dunning Kruger Effect"
to have an idea of what I'm referring to.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect>

Have you generally been a hard working person your whole life but are now
going through a tough spell where it's hard to find motivation? If that's the
case you __may __be burnt out, or perhaps you are working on something that
deep down inside you don't really believe in. Maybe you need to listen to that
intuition, rather than beat yourself up and think "I'm the problem because I'm
lazy."

I went through a pretty major burnout cycle in my career a few years back and
was lucky enough to be able to afford to take a lot of time off - nearly two
years - and dedicate it to just working on open source. Nearly 3 years later I
suspect that financially it was a poor decision: I'm still majorly suffering
the consequences of that lack of income for 2 years. But I was able to recover
my passion for work and now have a job that I'm enthusiastic about, and
willing to work my ass off for, even though it pays less than I had been
making before.

At the time I quit my job I wrote a short post on it, take a peek and see if
it resonates at all. If it does, you're most certainly _not_ lazy.

[http://njclarke.com/posts/why-i-quit-my-job-to-work-on-
open-...](http://njclarke.com/posts/why-i-quit-my-job-to-work-on-open-
source.html)

~~~
jplmelanson
I didn't know that Dunning-Kruger effect, but it seems quite interesting!
Thanks for the sharing.

------
InclinedPlane
I would say that burnout is about not caring. About not finding enjoyment and
satisfaction in the work that you previously did. If you find yourself
reacting with far less enthusiasm to the same sorts of tasks that in the past
you found exciting and interesting that could be a big sign of burnout.

Burnout is about stress and not necessarily about "overwork". You can get
burnt out on a 40 hour a week job or even on a 10 hour a week job. Spending a
half of your waking hours every weekday immersed in an ocean of stress is
quite sufficient to screw your brain up and burn you out. Software development
can quite easily be (and is typically) a very highly stressful job. On top of
the normal stresses of coding you have the typical saga of trying to determine
and meet the right specs, you have the drama of trying to chase bugs around at
the same time you're trying to get work done, and you have immense schedule
uncertainty and schedule pressure on top of everything. And that's the average
case.

My advice, for whatever it's worth, is to try to find a way to reduce your
stress as much as possible. Maybe find a position with less responsibilities
that pays well enough. Then spend your free time slowly re-acquiring a passion
for tech by taking on small, highly rewarding projects.

------
klagan
I think if you can't do the things you love then you're probably burnt out.

If all you want to do are the things you like then you're probably being lazy.

Not fool proof - but a starting indicator.

~~~
alvarosm
I think this is the best answer so far, if the things you used to love don't
satisfy you the way they did, you're probably burnt out. If, on the other
hand, your not meeting your own expectations stems from screwing up priorities
(avoiding what you don't enjoy), you're likely just being lazy.

------
Artagra
Short answer? Go see a Psychologist. I know a lot of people are naturally
averse to this (I was, at one point) but I've realised that a good
psychologist is really just a good hacker - someone who's read a lot on the
subject at hand (personality and the psyche), is motivated to help you, enjoys
it, and has found a way to make money doing so.

In one hour with a good psychologist, they will generally be able to give you
very good guidance on what you are feeling. It's not magic, it's just the
power of having an informed, objective observer in a situation that encourages
you to be open.

Otherwise, ask the people closest to you - your spouse, GF/BF, etc.

------
mzarate06
A lot of the answers are subective, that's b/c, as individuals, our tolerances
vary so much. So regardless of what we say, you're still likely to experience
burn out (if you haven't already). I know when I'm burned out when I have no
motivation to sit in front of my computer. Unfortunately, the last time I felt
that way I quit my high paying job and spent the next several months in a
horrible place - mentally, physically, and emotionally. So at some point
you'll realize your personal limits. With that said, my reason for posting
isn't in regard to the _before_ part, but rather the _after_ \- I've found
that once you experience burn out, you're more susceptible to it in the
future.

That's usually a bad thing; obviously you won't want to experience burn out
again. However, sometimes it can have a positive yield in the long run. I've
found that after my burn out experience, I've raised the bar in terms of the
type of work I'm willing to do and how much crap I put up with. For example,
I've always been passionate about home-run level customer service. As a
consultant, that belief usually meant that I bent backwards anytime a client
asked me to. I still have that belief today, but I tend to push back if they
ask me to do things I won't be happy maintaining for the life of their
product, or if it'll involve trying to hit an unrealistic time line, etc. So
post burn out, I'm definitely more protective of my limits and happiness, I
just wish I would've been this way sooner.

------
BonoboBoner
lazy: procrastinating an activity with something that is more fun

burnt-out: no activity provides enough fun to procrastinate the current
activity

------
ed209
If you have to ask this, you are burnt out. If you were lazy, you wouldn't
ask.

------
srazzaque
This is a great question. For me, my "acid test" would be: "is the task that I
feel like doing now DIRECTLY related to my goals/projects/objectives?".
Several successive "no's" over a long period (like constant "no's" over a few
days or weeks) MAY indicate burn-out. A few successive "no's" in isolation MAY
indicate laziness, or it may indicate that you're just not in the right state
of mind to be doing the particular task you've assigned to yourself.

It's worth mentioning that it's very important to consider energy levels too.
Not all tasks are equal, so for instance, it'd a be a silly idea to embark on
a 3-4 hour coding binge at 1am, when I know that if I had a good sleep and was
wide awake, I could get the same work done in maybe 1-2 hours with a higher
level of quality. I'll do some lower energy work instead, or I might even
decide to call it quits for a day, wind down and just read a book - and I
wouldn't consider it laziness at all. At all costs, I want to keep the quality
of work up - even if it means not doing it right now. I know myself, and I
trust myself that I'll get up the next morning and hack and slash away in a
much better state of mind, and produce better quality work (most of the time!)

For me, forcing myself to do work that my mind just isn't in the state to do
is a fast path to fatigue, unproductiveness, burn-out and "far out there's not
enough time in a day, the universe is against me!"-type delusions.

------
sixtofour
Make sure you're healthy, if it's an issue with you.

I was fired for being slow. I was falling asleep at inappropriate times, and
was generally feeling stupid, to the point that I hated myself for being
stupid and lazy. This was particularly hard working in a company that
constantly touts the superior abilities of its employees.

When I was finally fired it was an emotional relief. I ultimately got
treatment, and I don't feel stupid or lazy anymore, but I haven't fully
recovered from being fired.

------
someoneelse1
I'll not discuss "burnt out" vs lazy.

However I have met the brick wall with a certain amount of velocity myself (12
years ago and counting) and I think the difference between being too tired too
work (literally falling asleep at work, throat thickens, certain parts of you
body starts acting on their own, dreaming with eyes open etc) and burned out
is that the burnt out thing didn't happen until at some point I realized this
is not going to work however hard I work. (Coworkers were already preparing
for a bankruptcy by stealing from the company.)

A few more details:

    
    
      - Wasn't my company but a close relatives. 
      - For me the symptoms were: Crying without reason when no one could see me, people asked why I was depressed although I didn't feel that way.
      - What helped me out wasn't no work but rather working at a place were I could get stuff done and take the night off. I worked at a farm with a friend of mine that summer and I was supposed to get paid but I never turned in my time sheets. Instead I have said "thank you" to him a couple of times afterwards : ) And I had free food and a bed.
    

Since then I have worked hard. Even harder I think (Those symptoms from
tiredness that I mentioned above I've expericed later). What has saved me from
another burn out is two things:

    
    
      - Learning to say "No." when I somebody asks me to do something that is a complete and utter waste of time. And "No." once more if once doesn't cut it. 
      - Doing whatever I do to be recognized by God, not humans. (This being HN where even top contributors gets downvoted for mentioning the G word, -feel free to read that in a way that pleases you.  )

------
kellyreid
Unless you're elbows deep in someone's chest cavity during a triple bypass,
whatever you're doing can wait. Take a day off, leave your phone and ipad and
laptop at home, go somewhere else.

This happens to me every few months. Go do something totally non-technical,
simple, and enjoyable. Last week I drove from Chicago up to Wisconsin to enjoy
crisp country air, an array of cheeses[] (ack. no technical stuff...) and I
got to yell at some sheep. I didn't check my email, text anyone, and I tried
desperately not to think about my projects that had me on the verge of a melt-
down.

Trust yourself to know; working more/harder is rarely a good choice. If you
take a day off and you're still tired and don't want to work, take another
day. And another. If, after 2 or 3 days, you're still right where you started,
you're probably working on stuff you hate.

If you're just burnt out on working on what you enjoy, a couple days (or even
a week) off will make all the difference

------
pistabaci
<http://www.alistapart.com/articles/burnout/>

------
Too
Look for "decision fatigue", it's a theory saying that people who have to make
a lot of hard decisions, usually at the end of the day are so tired in their
mind that they can't get themselves together to decide anything.

The interesting thing is that it's usually seen in poor and uneducated people,
not big bosses that supposedly has to make alot of hard decisions. It's more
the "shit, how am i going to pay my rent this month"-questions that tires your
mind. The theory was that because their minds, unconsciously, are so hogged up
with these questions they can't get themselves together and change job, start
studying, etc and thus get stuck in an evil circle.

Don't know if this applies to you but make sure you have all your basics
together before you start diving into more tough areas.

------
AndrewDucker
It takes energy to be disciplined, and a belief that you're going to get
something good out of it.

So burn-out can lead to lack of discipline, both because it saps your energy
and because you stop believing that you're going to get something worthwhile
out of it.

------
breathesalt
If you don't suffer from chronic depression but are depressed, you may be
burnt out. I feel a person starts the cycle of burnout by forgetting that
excellence is a habit, not an act. It's easy to fixate on the magnitude of
individual iterations of a habitual activity and forget the importance of
consistency and sustainability. This common confusion in humans may stem from
the fact that our brains evolved to optimize for short-term rewards and
respond only to short-term danger. The magnitude of your individual actions is
trivial compared to how often you act.

My simple productivity hack: _be happy with doing less--but very frequently
and very well._

------
jimbobimbo
This is how to tell the difference between exhaustion and burning out: you get
exhausted if you pushed hard, you burn out if you pushed hard for a wrong
reason. If someone claims they can fix burn out by taking a walk or a getting
a nap, they're not burnt out. You are burnt out when having hard time not just
doing your work, but also when trying to recuperate. Basically, that "wrong
reason" depresses you, making recovery very hard. If you are lazy due to
overall fatigue, the next day you'll go back to work like it never happened;
if you burnt out, the "next day" never happens.

------
mattslight
If you wanted to take a scientific approach you'd need to be able to do
something like the following: (A) measure your actual work output and (B) some
way of measuring your 'maximum expected output capacity'.

if A much less than B you are being lazy. if A is close to or equal to B then
you are burnt out.

[The short answer of course is, if you are reading Hacker News you are being
lazy]

As an aside; Pivotal Tracker - the feature / dev tracking software manages to
define output using average number of work blocks completed over the past X
weeks. How you measure your maximum expected output capacity might be more
tricky to define.

------
scott_s
I know myself, and I'm usually quite disciplined. If I have to ask, I'm burnt
out. Are you normally disciplined? If so, then if you have to ask, you
probably are burnt out.

Rest isn't enough to deal with burn-out. Something needs to change: work
habits may need to change (for example, maintain separation of work of home),
change the project you're working on, start another hobby, make an effort to
be more social, etc. If you take a week or two off, then come back to the same
ol' thing, you'll be in the same place.

------
frou_dh
By whether what you do in your downtime is neutral+ or negative.

~~~
sssilver
elaborate?

~~~
struppi
I think the OP means that when you are burned out you can not enjoy you spare
time and you can not rest anymore.

~~~
frou_dh
I actually meant the opposite. As in laziness in work goes hand in hand with
laziness in "play". i.e. being burned out from working too hard gives downtime
more value.

------
joshcrews
Perhaps you have hit a batch of work to do that mind just can't be convinced
is profitable no matter how hard you try?

This might be a personal startup that you know is already defeated, or a
client that asks for a never ending series of changes and revisions that you
aren't getting paid for, or a well-paying client whose project keeps growing
and getting farther and farther from launching?

Just a thought.

------
aaronf
It may be a sign you're not working on the right things. Seriously consider
why you don't want to do the work.

It may also be that you're overwhelmed. You can use LazyMeter to focus on one
day at a time, and measure your productivity to see if the problem is laziness
or signing up for too much. <http://www.lazymeter.com>

------
warren_s
My own experience suggests you are truly burnt out when you are no longer
capable of doing work in the face of dire consequences like missing mortgage
repayments and feeding your children.

Of course, this feeds back on itself, with further stress causing even more
difficulty in fulfilling one's obligations.

------
brandonhall
I think it starts with one question: Am I dreading sitting down in front of
the computer today?

If yes, then you're definitely just burnt out. If the answer is no and you're
not producing then you're being lazy.

------
ScottBurson
I never really know until it passes. When I'm burned out, I often think I'm
being lazy, but when my energy returns, I look back and see that I was really
burned out.

------
smallegan
I think if you are asking yourself that question then you are not truly burnt
out. Anyone who's had a serious burnout knows that there is no confusing the
two.

------
Matt_PetoVera
If you wake up and you're not excited to get started on the challenge(s) that
your work will bring, then you're burnt out.

------
bane
Another question to ask yourself is "is this question the right one to ask?"
It could represent a false dichotomy.

As animals we're built for a fast effort/reward loop. Look at _most_ people
and how they operate -- they desire immediate gratification.

Something that makes us special is the ability to push out that loop and make
long term plans. Not everybody is able to do that.

I can count, to the specific decisions, among my friends, what things they
decided to do in their lives where they had a choice of a long term plan that
would have yielded great fruits, or a short term plan yielding immediate
gratification (but with long term problems stemming from that) that ultimately
ended up with them being impoverished, without health care, unable to get
better jobs, save up for retirement, etc. As an external actor I _know_
exactly where they made those decisions and what they chose instead.

But I can't really blame them or think less of them for how they ended up in
their circumstances. They are simply acting the way we as animals are built --
they are acting _normal_.

In every case, I believe that the difference between a long-term planner and
an immediate gratification fixer is _willpower_.

Doing something like what many people do here, starting up a company, takes
extraordinary long term planning - it's _not_ normal. A simple observation of
large groups of humans shows that it's abnormal behavior. It takes mountains
of willpower in most cases since we don't see the immediate benefits of what's
likely hundreds or thousands (or tens of thousands) of hours of work. The
payoff, if there even is one, is an abstraction that even the smartest and
most dedicated can have trouble using to reconcile their labors.

What you can try to do instead is find clever hacks to reduce the friction it
takes to get a task done. For example, reduce your problem into very small
steps. That way you feel a faster reward for your labors -- even if it's just
the feeling of accomplishment at getting another step out of the way. Use lots
of small arrows pointing to your goal instead of one big one.

Or try giving yourself an explicit reward for making small milestones,
something proportionate to the magnitude of the step. Eat at a favorite burger
joint, or hike a favorite trail, or watch a movie you really want. Whatever
floats your boat.

You might even try a program of personal denial, don't allow youself to have
certain pleasurable things _unless_ you make a milestone. Pull at both ends,
the "work hard play hard" system.

In other words, make the effort/reward loop as small as possible to help keep
you motivated. This is especially important during tedious/grinding parts of
your work that are often mistaken as burnout when in fact they're just boring
and you're really desiring a reward at the end of it.

------
tjgillies
Laziness is a virtue

~~~
ralmeida
That might be true in some specific contexts, but I'm sure this topic doesn't
regard any of them.

------
yogrish
FOr me, if I am burnt out I just take a nap or go for a walk. If I am lazy, I
keep browsing my fav. websites(HN, reddit) again n again..F5 comes handy here
:)

~~~
dazzawazza
I feel like being burnt out is more endemic than just being a bit tired (and
thus a nap fixes it). It permeates everything to do with your job. All tasks
even when interesting feel like a burden very quickly. There is a sense of
being intellectually tired. A loss of confidence leading to self doubt and
thus begins the downward spiral in productivity.

