No matter how much you want to code, there will be days where you will feel worn-down.
Are you at the point of your programming career where everything doesn’t seem to make sense anymore? You get up in bed at 6am feeling lethargic and grumpy. Even coffee can’t make you feel awake. Traffic worsens the situation.
Just because you love your job doesn’t mean you’re not susceptible to fatigue. There are numerous causes for work burnout and often times they may occur altogether. When restlessness gets the best of you, pause for a moment. Don’t quit your job instantaneously when this happens.
If you’ve experienced burnout in the past and you don’t want it to happen again, here are some helpful ways to avoid fatigue at work.
Be Human
To put it simply, stop multitasking. You have to make your boss understand that the quality of your work will be compromised if you try to do everything at the same time. If your boss threatens to terminate your employment because of that, then so be it. A job is no good if your health is at stake. Humans can only do so much, so don’t beat yourself up if you can’t multitask. Don’t be entitled, but don’t sacrifice your well-being as well.
Stop Working 30 Minutes Before Clocking Out
This time should be spent in planning for the next day. Doing so will remove your anxiety on what to do the next day. Instead, you will wake up feeling purposeful and excited to tackle tasks the next day. Limit your daily goal to at least 5 tasks per day. Your mind can trick you that you can do everything but actually you can’t. Plan, but make it realistic. Additionally, 30 minutes spent on just planning is nothing compared to not accomplishing anything the next day.
Have A Real Life
We’ve said it once and we’d say it again. You are not defined by your job. Let’s be realistic for a moment. We work because we need to earn for a living. Bills, car, luxury vacations are all affordable if we have a stable job. If you have a chance to have everything in your hands, would you still be working? Probably not and there’s nothing wrong with that. See, you need to have a life outside of sitting in your desk for 8 hours. This is why work should be left at work. When you leave the office premises, forget about work and only think about it when you’re actually at the office. Have something exciting to do when you get home. It doesn’t matter if it’s doing laundry, watching cartoons, or snuggling with some J.K. Rowling novel.
When push comes to shove, find another job that will allow you to take control, manage stress, and most importantly work with a purpose. You matter more than you think.