With this practice we can turn our emotions from something that drives us into something that guides us. We can use our emotions as tools to better calibrate our internal stories. We can re-frame our stories about how we're unworthy of being called programmers and instead give ourselves the intention that we're going to spend the next 10 minutes exploring this area of our work and finding where the gaps are. We can set an intention to be curious about where this next 10 minutes will lead us. As we continue to explore these topics we'll notice our emotions and use those emotions to let us know where we feel we need to improve and adapt. This will allow us to change our plans as needed and address those areas we feel are lacking or need improvement. This cycle continues in each practice container, with our emotions acting as a barometer for our comfort level with this topic, and helping us draft a road-map for how best to proceed. We transform our discomfort and anxiety from things that hinder our progress into indicators of where we feel we need to focus our attention.
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## Burnout
-One feeling our emotional triage can help us diagnose is the feeling of being burned out. Burnout is a collection of emotions coupled with emotional and physical exhaustion. Burnout can be something as simple as being bored or overworked but it can also be the sign of something more serious. It can lead to physical or mental complications if we're not careful. We can work ourselves into serious levels of exhaustion and delude ourselves into believing it's part of the cost of being a programmer.
+One thing our emotional triage can help us diagnose is the feeling of being burned out. Burnout is a collection of emotions coupled with emotional and physical exhaustion. Burnout can be something as simple as being bored or overworked, but it can also be the sign of something more serious. It can lead to physical or mental complications if we're not careful. We can work ourselves into serious levels of exhaustion and delude ourselves into believing it's part of the cost of being a programmer.
-Burnout manifests itself in different ways. For some it may be the feeling of dread while working on a project. They feel like they are ineffectual in making any changes. For others burnout can be feeling exhausted. They feel as though they're on a treadmill that will not stop. Worse, they wanted that treadmill to stop a long time ago. Burnout can also manifest in feeling creatively drained, where imagining a different future is difficult and things that were once inspiring or interesting no longer generate that spark.
+Burnout manifests itself in different ways. For some it may be the feeling of dread while working on a project. They feel like they are ineffectual in making any changes. For others burnout can be feeling exhausted. They feel as though they're on a treadmill that will not stop. Worse, they wanted that treadmill to stop a long time ago. Burnout can also manifest in feelings of being creatively drained, where imagining a different future is difficult and things that were once inspiring or interesting no longer generate that spark.
Burnout is tricky to self-diagnose because it is a collection of seemingly unrelated emotions. Our feelings of boredom, fear, exhaustion, and anxiety can all have different root causes, but when we combine those feelings with an unrelenting work schedule and loss of control we amplify those feelings. Left unchecked we can lead ourselves into trying to numb out those feelings. We'll find ourselves not wanting to program anymore, and resent ourselves for ever getting into programming in the first place. We can cause ourselves more undue suffering by just "powering through it" which can lead us to compound and complicate our emotional state.
1. Realize that we're burned out, or about to burn out. Acknowledging that we're about to burn out is key to not experiencing the burnout. That seems simple enough but we tend to ignore the symptoms when we're nearing the throes of burnout. If we can recognize that we're about to burn out then we can take measures to avoid it. And if we realize that we're burned out we can take measures to be kind to ourselves and help ourselves out of this burned-out state.
1. Examine our emotions. Sit for a while and notice what emotions come into view. Are we feeling stress, fear, anxiety, nervousness, or anger? Notice what feelings emerge and recognize these feelings. Examine where these feelings are coming from and what might be triggering these emotions.
-1. Re-negotiate our commitments. Many times burnout is the result of over commitment, whether to ourselves or others. We always have too much to do and despite our best efforts we will always acquire new obligations. Perhaps the plans we made were too aggressive, or something changed in the world that disrupted our plans. Whatever the reasons we may need to re-evaluate what is expected of us and what we are capable of doing. If we see that we've created an intractable situation for ourselves we need to figure out how to remove some of these obligations or re-negotiate them.
-1. Give our "drive" a rest. Unlike our mechanical counterparts we need downtime and rest. We can't work a straight 8 or more hours without at least some moments where we aren't working. Programming demands a lot of mental bandwidth and pushing ourselves to exhaustion can lead to emotional instability, stress, and burnout.
-1. Examine if this is truly how we want to live our lives. We need to be aware if what we're doing is really what we want to be doing. If we're not happy with what we're doing then every moment we continue doing this can compound our feelings of unhappiness. If we look deep in ourselves and feel nothing but dread in our current situation then we may need to renegotiate our commitments. That can be something as simple as agreeing not to learn something right now, or can be as complex as taking on different work or changing careers.
+1. Re-negotiate our commitments. Many times burnout is the result of over commitment, whether to ourselves or others. We always have too much to do, and despite our best efforts we will always acquire new obligations. Perhaps the plans we made were too aggressive, or something changed in the world that disrupted our plans. Whatever the reasons we may need to re-evaluate what is expected of us and what we are capable of doing. If we see that we've created an intractable situation for ourselves we need to figure out how to remove some of these obligations or re-negotiate them.
+1. Give our "drive" a rest. Unlike our mechanical counterparts we need downtime and rest. We can't work a straight eight or more hours without at least some moments where we aren't working. Programming demands a lot of mental bandwidth and pushing ourselves to exhaustion can lead to emotional instability, stress, and burnout.
+1. Examine if this is truly how we want to live our lives. We need to determine if what we're doing is really what we want to be doing. If we're not happy with what we're doing then every moment we continue doing it can compound our feelings of unhappiness. If we feel nothing but dread for our current situation then we may need to renegotiate our commitments. That can be something as simple as agreeing not to learn something right now, or can be as complex as taking on different work or changing careers.
By understanding that we're headed toward burnout (or are burned-out already) we can take measures to course-correct so we can approach our programming practice with joy and enthusiasm. Sometimes taking a step back and re-evaluating what we're doing can help us not sit in the constant loops of frustration, anger, and guilt. Changing our story to better fit reality can keep us from trying to match an impossible dream.
-I mentioned before about re-negotiating commitments. Often we'll get ourselves into situations where we'll 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 because we're being swamped with 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 tasks feel 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 all due later this week then it's likely you're overworked and will need to renegotiate those commitments. You may feel that you are capable of doing 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, find out 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 urgent or important then find out if your management can assist you with other resources, or if they can intervene to renegotiate these deadlines and priorities. If you're truly stuck (management won't budge and the customers won't renegotiate the commitments) 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 than your own priorities (their income contributes to making your lifestyle possible) 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.
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+I mentioned before about re-negotiating commitments. We often 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 because we're being swamped with work commitments, such as 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 tasks feel "urgent" and which ones feel "important". Take out a sheet of paper or open up a text document and create two categories: "urgent" and "important". Note which tasks 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 all due this week then it's likely you're overworked and will need to renegotiate those commitments. You may feel that you are capable of doing 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 the deadlines. If you can, find out 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 urgent or important then find out if your management can assist you with other resources, or if they can intervene to renegotiate these deadlines and priorities. If you're truly stuck (management won't budge and the customers won't renegotiate the commitments) 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 than your own priorities (their income contributes to making your lifestyle possible) 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.
Learning to say "no" is an important skill as a programmer. Too often we regard ourselves as super-beings that can do anything, in part because the computers we work on seem like they can do anything. Unfortunately 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 through our programming careers. If we say "yes" to everything that someone pitches to us then we'll have less time to work on things that really matter to us. We'll be at the mercy of folks whose priorities and desires do 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 priorities and desires.
projects / themediocreprogrammer.git / commitdiff