A developer can burnout. I burned out.

I read a post called Developer burnout is real by Daragh Byrne and I wanted to share my experience and thoughts on the topic.

I want to help others not burnout. To actually achieve this I need to make developers aware of what burnout is and what causes it.

What is burnout?

Burnout is when you feel demotivated, you don't really want to do what you used to love. Developers normally experience burnout because of the large workload they usually have. It is the feeling of wanting to do anything else but code* although you are passionate about developing.

What causes burnout?

There are many causes of burnout but here are the most common:

• Feeling stressed.
• Feeling depressed (this can be a side effect or cause of burnout).
• Feeling anxious.
• Feeling overwhelmed.
• Feeling underappreciated.
• Feeling demotivated.

All of the emotions listed above are linked to burnout. The definition of burnout is the state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress.

My experiences

What burnout was like for me

Personally, I started to burn out because I was determined to code all the time, I thought that the more I code the better I'll be and the more I'd want to do development. I was completely wrong. The more I coded the worse I got.

I realized I was burning out when I started to feel drained all the time. I didn't want to wake up for work. The only thing I wanted to do was play video games. I became unsociable, I stopped interacting with my friends and to be honest, I still haven't really talked to my friends. This is because in some respects I feel I let them down.

How I got over burnout

I started to recover from feeling burnout not too long ago, I was helping a colleague on a really cool project. We were working on a lot of features and I was finishing my tasks so fast. I didn't know I was capable of doing the project in such a short amount of time and that stimulated my passion for coding once again. I started working on a video series called #100DaysOfCode on YouTube, but even though I have recovered there is still a weary thought in the back of my mind that I might drift back into this feeling of being burnout.

That brings me on to my final segment...

How to prevent burnout

I personally got through burnout by taking a break, playing video games and finally powering through my work to realize that I can produce work at a high standard.

This is what I plan to do to prevent burnout in the future:

• Take regular breaks & holidays.
• Only code on weekdays and use the weekends to relax.
• Enjoy all victories no matter how small.
• Communicate with friends & family on how I feel.
• Participate in fun, less work related coding projects.
• Try different things. Recently I have been doing some laboring that makes me realize my job isn't all that bad.
• Believe in myself and that I can achieve anything that I set out to do (cringy I know).

That is all, thank you for reading my small story on how I beat developer burnout. I hope you can use this to prevent burnout in your career.

My name is Tyler Potts. I like to code.

This is my first post, feel free to criticize and provide feedback.

* I use the term "code" but this can be anything inside the development ecosystem.