Self care programming without burning out 🔥
I'm about 10 years into my software development career. From time to time I feel myself become somewhat tired of programming and tend to move onto other avenues of running a SAAS product, for example, marketing and sales.
I found that the core reason I temporarily lost my love for programming (or nearly lost it on multiple occasions) was because I was coding all the time and was burning myself out.
The monotony of working as a software developer during the day and then coming home to work during the night on my side projects[1] had left me feeling down when my tasks in work or my projects at home didn't work out the way I had planned. On the flipside, when I did things which I considered to be an achievement at work or at home - I felt better in both environments. Almost like a surge of energy. Work/life balance is, of course, a two sided coin and they both have implications on the other.
I think one really needs to find other creative pursuits besides those which they are inclined to practice on a daily basis. It's fantastic to hone your skills in a particular field however I have personally felt that switching off from time to time and dabbing in completely unrelated work would allow me to recharge. In fact, it would help me think of new ideas as my mind had time to process my thoughts and the work I had completed.
When I 'burnt out' in the past I needed several weeks to rest, read, explore my city & countryside, cook my favourite foods, watch my favourite shows and just take care of me.
In order to avoid burn out, I decided to pick three hobbies: one to make me money, one to keep me in shape, and one to keep me creative. I'm sure I read that somewhere! Some of us do this by default, and there is a lot more to life than those three hobbies.. all I know is it has helped me to pace myself[2], to enjoy life a lot more and to achieve my goals at the same time :)
What are your thoughts?
I like this perspective, it's kind of the approach I take.
For me there are 4 areas that I need to keep balanced and topped up:
✅ Work that I enjoy doing (Indie Hackers)
✅ Fitness (atm a mixture of running and strength training)
✅ My personal pursuits (currently Rosie.land and education interests)
✅ My family (spending time with them and home educating the kids)
Work that you enjoy is probably the best tip of all :)
That way, your work doesn't actually feel like work at all.
I love that spending time with your family is a priority. I also has a look at your Ministry of Testing IH page and read that you have had 5 kids and are making a boatload of revenue.
That is amazing, Rosie. How do you manage to juggle such a successful business and have 5 kids is beyond me! Congrats :)
Speaking as someone who had completely lost his love for professional software development after about 20 years: I only started to like writing software again after I took the "professional" out of the equation. I don't know if that is an option for you.
Francis, what do you mean by "after I took the "professional" out of the equation" ?
Did you leave the tech industry or dev role? Perhaps, do you only code for you side projects or hobbies?
I kinda did both. I'm running a climbing company now. Much happier. Still code some utilitarian things sometimes but overall I feel no urge to get back into tech.
Joey, how well did your 3 hobbies help you avoid burnout? Since this post is a year old, what adjustments were made?
I can relate to the emotional flip flopping because of uncontrollable outcomes. Lately, I'm training myself to look at events or results as cold facts. To acknowledge my feelings, but still look at stuff objectively. The goal is to make time separately to solve the current problem & address my feelings & energy.