ALERT: Developer burn out is real

6 min readOct 29, 2019

Over the years, burnout has become an extremely common occurrence among software developers. While it’s almost impossible to ever truly put a stop to it, it is a lot more prevalent than it has to be. A bulk of the problem is due to the way that developers approach their jobs, and how they keep a balance between their jobs and the rest of their lives. On average, developers don’t do a very great job of keeping work from taking over their lives. Avoiding burnout when you see it rapidly approaching is critical to have a long career in tech.

In this article, I’d share with you 6 major strategies for reducing the risk of burnout over the long term. These strategies have worked for me in the past few years and I feel every developer who desires to have a long career in tech should incorporate them into their day-to-day activities at work.

Have a To-Do list for your daily tasks
Give yourself some accolades for little or huge accomplishments
Take short breaks
Drink a lot of water
Avoid working extra hours except for emergencies
Develop new hobbies

So let’s dive deeper!

Have a To-Do list for your daily tasks

There are often tons of tasks to close out daily at work. whether new features, bug fixes, code refactoring or app optimization. Many a time, developers tend to be overwhelmed by the volume of tasks they need to complete especially on Mondays. Everybody seems to be under pressure, your project manager wants you to get things done as fast as possible. It’s essential to have a To-Do at this point. This will help you to properly prioritize your tasks for the day and the rest of the week. Because of a lack of proper planning, there have been cases where developers have had to sleep-over in the office in order to meet up with deadlines. Hey! You are on your way to burnout city.

Here is a list of recommended apps that’d help you manage your daily tasks.

Give yourself some accolades for little or huge accomplishments

I have a lot of developer friends around me and truth be told, I’m amazed at the way they respond to accomplishments, especially the not obvious ones. They act as if nothing really happened, you rarely see that excitement on their face.

Is that a form of humility or something?

Whether you just fixed a small bug, rolled out an insignificant feature to production, or developed an app from start to finish without any support from another developer, you ought to give yourself some accolades for achieving that.

You deserve it!
You deserve it!
You deserve it!

Finally, you need to constantly motivate and also remind yourself you can do more cool stuff. Don’t wait for folks around you to tell you how well you have performed, you might constantly be disappointed.

Take short breaks

I can stay on my PC for 48 hours without a break

This is a statement of a software engineer feeling fly.

Wait!

What was the rationale behind that statement? Well, I have no idea.

Being on a spot for 8 good hours isn’t ideal for a software engineer who has a full-time job. In as much as you want to get things done as quickly as possible, you need short breaks to “reset your mind”. This doesn’t only help you stay smart and sharp, it prevents you from having poor vision in the long run. I will not expound on the latter as it’s beyond the scope of the article.

Where I work at the moment, we are allowed to take a 1 hr break. For me, I prefer to go on short breaks, let’s say 10–15 mins in the middle of work. With this approach, I can go for short breaks at least 5 times. This strategy requires being intentional, it’s not something you get used to in a day. You can go as far as setting a reminder on your phone.

Drink a lot of water

Thousands Have Lived Without Love, Not One Without Water. — W.H.Auden

If you own and drive a car, and you often give your car water to consume, why should it be a tedious job for you to take water regularly? As humans, we don’t have as much space for water as a car. So we have to store water in containers such as water bottles.

Most people don’ t drink enough water, and end up feeling dehydrated, tired, cranky and achy. Next time you feel dry or in need of a liquid “pick me up,” go for the water bottle instead of coffee or soda. In fact, experts say that once you feel thirsty, you’ re already dehydrated, so drink up. An added bonus? Water helps flush toxins away.

Avoid working extra hours except for emergencies

While I was with my previous employer, I remember, there were days I didn’t go home. I was always on the screen doing one thing or the other. I thought working extra hours or sleeping over in the office would enable me to cover as many tasks as possible.

That was completely wrong.

My productivity level was always between 10–20% in the morning. At this time, I’d feel tired and cranky. While others are busy working and excited about their job, I was there looking like a stressed and confused fellow.

Before I joined my current employer, I resolved in my mind that there was never going to be extra work hours or sleeping over at the office. I knew that was a major problem for me. Although there have been times where I had to stay extra hours to close out some issues at work, this isn’t regular though.

Leaving the office after the close of business doesn’t necessarily insinuate you are going home to sleep right away. What this means to your body is that you are done working for that day. “Can we do some other stuff at home, before sleeping?”

Please know that your workspace isn’t your home…

Home is Home…..

Home is Home….

Develop new hobbies

It’s important to note that you ought to work to live, don’t live to work. Your job as a developer pays well and is not a 100 hour a week job. You should have time and money free for other pursuits outside of programming.

Early this year, a key decision I made was to develop an interest in things outside the wall of programming. In the middle of the year, I decided to show a keen interest in photography. Although I had no prior passion or experience in taking great shots, I only watched a couple of videos on youtube, got a new phone with a powerful camera and kickstarted my journey to becoming a professional photographer.

Whenever I have a blocker while coding, I take some time off to take some great shots of automobiles, products and people.

You need to develop a new hobby, this would save you when you are at the edge of burnout.

Whenever you want to decide what hobby to develop:

Don’t be tempted to have a techy hobby!

This will backfire when you are overloaded with work.

To wrap up,

Ensure you create a To-Do list for your daily tasks, and for every task completed give yourself some accolades for the accomplishments. To avoid a blocker, take some breaks to reset your mind and sight. Don't forget to drink water during these breaks, you will be refreshed this way. Try to stay away from working extra hours. You need more sleep to have a long tech career.

Finally,

Develop new hobbies…

I wish you all the best in your tech career!