How to avoid burnout as a Developer

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&utm_content=creditCopyText">Fernando @cferdophotography</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/s/photos/anxiety?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure><p id="5e94">I started to think about where did this anxiety come from. I did not have too much stress at work as the projects were still manageable, and all my colleagues are awesome. By then, I realized that the source of stress is me, myself. I had been in the loop of forcing myself to make use of every single second of my life, then I failed and blamed myself for being such an undisciplined person. I believed that I am not the only one having this issue. As a developer, most of us have <b>IMPOSTER SYNDROME</b>, where we always feel like we know nothing and we must be on the lowest end of the curve. This feeling of self-abasement has caused us to want to improve and exhaust ourselves.</p><p id="3a02" type="7">We all forget this one thing: No one is PERFECT.</p><p id="127e">When having this imaginary self of being the best programmer in the world, we also have that sense of disappointment in ourselves for not reaching that level.</p><h2 id="d4f7">1. One thing that I do to overcome this, is to write down reflections.</h2><p id="1968">Look back at yourself a few years/months ago, just how much have you improved? We don’t compare ourselves to others as everyone has a different set of situations and starting points. Who we should compare to is yesterday's self. As long as we are 1% better than that, it is something worth celebrating. There is no way that you could not become a better person in the LONG RUN by doing this.</p><h2 id="dfb7">2. Another action that helps me a lot is to get rid of my social media apps on my phone.</h2><p id="a073">People tend to show us the better side of their life and we might start doing comparisons subconsciously. “Look at these people, they are all living fulfilling and productive lives … I am such a loser.” If you a

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re able to turn all these into motivation to go forward, I think that is good for you. However, most of us will just feel the frustration. Thus, I would suggest that you may uninstall those applications from your phone, but access them through the phone browser if you have to do some catchups with friends. With this, you can increase the resistance to turning them on and get your own life back. It works for me and highly recommended that you try it out.</p><h2 id="9787">3. Lastly, take a break if you have to.</h2><p id="7160">The activity that I would suggest is to have a casual walk (it would be even better to walk in nature), just to flex your brain a little bit. It is totally fine to grab a cup of coffee with friends, watch a great movie or take a short nap. Exercising is also a great way to reduce anxiety. The point is that you could find something that you can laser focus on, without thinking of all those bad ideas.</p><p id="267b">Fortunately, I have been feeling much better nowadays and I am able to share these with all of you. I treat myself much better and I have <i>learned how to slot resting time into my time blocks</i>.</p><p id="d0b4">Hope this article helps.</p><p id="2310">Do follow me on Medium, Twitter, or Linkedin for more articles on topics of web development, Web3, and others!</p><div id="9b3b" class="link-block"> <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylan-oh-dick-loon/"> <div> <div> <h2>Dylan Oh - Software Engineer - Information Officer | LinkedIn</h2> <div><h3>Proficient in Full Stack Development with ReactJs. Experience with NodeJs, C# ASP.NET Blazor, Typescript, NextJs…</h3></div> <div><p>www.linkedin.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/0*F-d1Lv58j_hYWcmx)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div></article></body>

How to avoid burnout as a Developer

This picture was taken during a jog.

Just to introduce myself a little bit, I am a Malaysian who currently works as a Software Engineer in Singapore. Here is a little story about myself on how I actually burnt myself out and recovered from it.

I have always been a self-motivated person and want to push myself to do more and learn more in life. Besides, I had a bad habit where I tend to blame myself so much and felt guilty when I failed to make good use of time. My friends told me that I should get some chill and it’s ok to relax sometimes. However, I did not listen to that and felt that I should not waste any little piece of my time in my 20s. In turn, I slept less and kept forcing myself to sit in front of the computer even though I did not feel like it on that day.

It was just a random night that I suddenly had breathlessness.

I was kinda panic and almost wanted to call the ambulance. As one of my best friends, I reached out to Mr.Google to seek some self-help methods (bad example, please get help from medical experts) and luckily it did reduce my symptom. Starting from that day, I kept having chest distress and feeling difficulty breathing. I started being suspicious of every part of my body where I felt like none of them is working well. I had sought countless medical help (even a full body checkup). However, all the doctors came out with the same diagnosis: You do not have any issue with your physical health, but it seems like you are experiencing some ANXIETY issues.

I started to think about where did this anxiety come from. I did not have too much stress at work as the projects were still manageable, and all my colleagues are awesome. By then, I realized that the source of stress is me, myself. I had been in the loop of forcing myself to make use of every single second of my life, then I failed and blamed myself for being such an undisciplined person. I believed that I am not the only one having this issue. As a developer, most of us have IMPOSTER SYNDROME, where we always feel like we know nothing and we must be on the lowest end of the curve. This feeling of self-abasement has caused us to want to improve and exhaust ourselves.

We all forget this one thing: No one is PERFECT.

When having this imaginary self of being the best programmer in the world, we also have that sense of disappointment in ourselves for not reaching that level.

1. One thing that I do to overcome this, is to write down reflections.

Look back at yourself a few years/months ago, just how much have you improved? We don’t compare ourselves to others as everyone has a different set of situations and starting points. Who we should compare to is yesterday's self. As long as we are 1% better than that, it is something worth celebrating. There is no way that you could not become a better person in the LONG RUN by doing this.

2. Another action that helps me a lot is to get rid of my social media apps on my phone.

People tend to show us the better side of their life and we might start doing comparisons subconsciously. “Look at these people, they are all living fulfilling and productive lives … I am such a loser.” If you are able to turn all these into motivation to go forward, I think that is good for you. However, most of us will just feel the frustration. Thus, I would suggest that you may uninstall those applications from your phone, but access them through the phone browser if you have to do some catchups with friends. With this, you can increase the resistance to turning them on and get your own life back. It works for me and highly recommended that you try it out.

3. Lastly, take a break if you have to.

The activity that I would suggest is to have a casual walk (it would be even better to walk in nature), just to flex your brain a little bit. It is totally fine to grab a cup of coffee with friends, watch a great movie or take a short nap. Exercising is also a great way to reduce anxiety. The point is that you could find something that you can laser focus on, without thinking of all those bad ideas.

Fortunately, I have been feeling much better nowadays and I am able to share these with all of you. I treat myself much better and I have learned how to slot resting time into my time blocks.

Hope this article helps.

Do follow me on Medium, Twitter, or Linkedin for more articles on topics of web development, Web3, and others!