Manic / Burnout

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Last week I was talking to my friend Fritz, and he mentioned that he wrote a post on coding burnout. I thought it was funny because I had been thinking about writing a post on this topic as well. His post was geared more toward getting burned out on a specific coding problem, and things to do to help get you through it. It is a very good post, and I recommend reading it here: https://fritzpassow.blogspot.com/2018/06/programming-as-cure-for-burnout.html

My post is more on larger scale burnout. I really seem to go through two phases in my work life. Like someone with manic depression, I go through manic phases where I am extremely productive and excited about everything I do, but then I have my burned out phase where everything I work on is drudgery. Both of these phases are usually influenced by the type of project I am working on. 

Right now I am in one of my manic phases. I am running a project at work that is using modern coding techniques and tools, and I am learning new things every day. I have a couple of side projects I am working on that allow me to work on more client-side frameworks as well as mobile development. I am excited when I get to work in the morning, and in the evenings I look forward to working on code or going through a Udemy or Pluralsight course on something new. Even when I sit in my hot tub after a workout, I have my kindle with me reading about some new coding techniques. 

Now last fall was a totally different story. I had started a project then that I was excited about, but after a couple of months of working on getting it going in ASP.NET Core, it was decided to just update the old VB Web Forms application and change to a new database. Everything about the project was frustrating. I hate working in VB, and I have never liked the web forms model. Once I learned MVC, I never wanted to go back, and that was about eight years ago. The only thing that could have been worse was to get stuck on another SharePoint project.

I don't mind fixing an old application or adding a single feature, but when a full project is done in out of date tech, I really feel like my very soul is dying. If you are touching every file in an existing app and making changes, a full rewrite would make a lot more sense to me. I work very hard to keep my skills up to date, so it is frustrating when I have to try to relearn the things that I have forgotten. It is a huge waste of time, and in the process, I end up losing some of the new skills I worked so hard to learn. 

In the past when I would get burned out on a project, it would become a downward spiral where I would lose newer knowledge and get frustrated with old sloppy code. Then when I would start a new project where I could use the new technology again, I would have to relearn what I knew six months to a year prior. Last fall I fought the burnout by working steadily on side projects, going through online classes, and attending user group meetings and conferences. This had the positive effect of keeping my soul from leaking out, and when a new project came along my skills were even more up to date than they were before. 

There are some downsides to my manic phase though. I get so wrapped up in the projects that I miss out on things like summer. This year especially it seems like May and June flew by, and I didn't do much of anything except do programming work or study. Like everything else in life, there has to be a balance. I wish I could schedule all my exciting projects to happen during the winter months.

If you have any tips or tricks on keeping burnout at bay, let me know in the comments. 

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