+I mentioned above about re-negotiating commitments. Often we'll get ourselves into situations where we have way more to do than is physically possible, even under the best of circumstances. This may be in part because we've said "yes" to too many things, or may be because we're being swamped with outside work commitments (a large high priority project, or several smaller projects that need urgent attention). The best way to renegotiate your work load is to review your work load and notice which ones feel more urgent and which ones feel important. Note which ones fall into those two categories. Next mark the due date (as best you can) of each of these tasks. If you have more than three urgent and important items and they're due later this week then it's likely you're being overworked and will want to renegotiate those commitments. You may think that you should be able to do all of these things but if you're already feeling stressed, tired, and burned out then you'll only compound those feeling by trying to meet these deadlines. If you can see if you can move some of these deadlines to next week, or check with your customers if these are really as urgent and important as you think they are. If they are then see if your management can assist you with other resources, or intervene to renegotiate these deadlines and priorities. If you're truly stuck (management won't budge and the customers are firm with this commitment) then you have some decisions to make about how important their priorities are versus your own capabilities. There's the temptation to say that your management and your customer's priorities are more important but your own health and well-being should have more weight in your decision than their priorities and deadlines. Perhaps you can negotiate some down-time after this period so you can rest, relax, and regain your strength and mental acuity before being plunged into a similar situation.
+
+It's also cliche to say "learn to say no", but this is an important skill as a programmer. Too often we think of ourselves as super-beings that can do anything because the computer can do anything. But we have finite physical and emotional resources, so learning to pick and choose the projects that are most important to us (depending on our own internal criteria) will help sustain us as we progress in our programming career. If we say "yes" to everything that is pitched to us then we'll have less time to work on the things that really matter to us. We'll be at the whims of external folks whose priorities and desires may not match our own. The most effective way to burn-out on programming is to spend all of your energy working on projects that don't match your own desires and priorities.
+
+You will experience periods of burnout in your programming career. Things will come at you that will overwhelm your ability to cope with them. You will find yourself stuck in loops wondering if this is really what you should be doing. Understanding what you're feeling and acknowledging your feelings as valid is the first step to changing the course from one of burnout and stress. Programming shouldn't be drudgery (no work should be drudgery). There should be something in your programming day that keeps you motivated, and helps you grow your skills. Adding bits of learning, joy, and wonder (along with periods of downtime) will help sustain you through the emotional turbulence that awaits. And recognizing when you're burning out and renegotiating your agreements with yourself and others can help reinvigorate your desires to keep programming.
+
+## Reaching out for help
+
+I want to take a moment to highlight that it's OK to ask others for help. I've struggled with asking for help. Part of my reluctance with asking for help was instilled in me whenever I asked a question and got the dreaded "you should know that already" response. Other times I thought that by asking for help I would diminish my reputation somehow. I'd be exposed as a fraud and an impostor. Folks would wonder why they trusted me in the first place. But when I did ask for help the response I received wasn't "why don't you know this?"; it was "why didn't you ask for help sooner?". Sure, there were occasions where I would receive criticism or surprise for not knowing something, but I've found that the benefits of asking the question outweighed the negative effects I might face.
+
+### FIXME
+
+Asking for help isn't limited to asking questions. How to ask questions is the area of seeking help that gets the most attention because it's the easiest to address and has a lowest risks associated with it. There are many more ways that we might need help. We may need help from our colleagues to help us during a difficult time in our lives. We may need the help of our management when we're struggling personally and professionally. We may even need a whole other set of support staff to help us along (doctors, therapists, etc.). Involving other people with our struggle can be daunting (even overwhelming) but getting help early can help prevent the more serious forms of burnout and stress.
+
+Our reluctance to asking for help can stem from a number of factors, but the most common factor is our desire to be comfortable. Asking for help means putting ourselves into a position of vulnerability and hoping that the person we're asking for help will treat us with kindness and dignity. This is especially true when we don't know the person we're asking, or if the person is a medical professional. But it can also be necessary, especially if we're facing situations where what we're facing is out of our control or experience. If we're facing the prospect of burning out we may need to ask a doctor / therapist for better ways to cope with what we're experiencing. If our job is causing stress and strain then we may need to talk with others in our community to see if we're the only ones experiencing this feeling.
+
+It's cliche to say "there's no shame in asking for help" but it bears repeating. We can't do everything on our own and need the help of others. Even if it's something as simple as someone saying "wow, that sucks" that's at least a connection with someone else who understands what we're going through. Finding someone who is willing to listen, empathize, and commiserate can be the difference between feeling like we're not alone and feeling like we've been abandoned.
+
+We also need to recognize when our support systems aren't supporting us any longer. If we find that simply taking about a problem isn't giving us resolution we may need to find other means of help. You may recognize that you need some additional support, but it's far more common for folks to believe that they can do it all on their own. Only you know your situation and only you know if you're being honest with yourself and if you're deluding yourself. And if you're deluding yourself then only you can take the initiative to seek out the help that you need. Nobody else knows your inner-workings better than you.
+
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