Avoiding Burn Out

[calexanian]

For those of you who work in the electronics field. Who leave a bench at work, then get home to your own bench, and stare at the wall because your brain is mush.. How do you keep the personal project work flow moving without going nuts?   

[Hypernova]

Do it at work

[Gribo]

I play with my kid. He makes the mush go away.

[German_EE]

I find the nearest river then sit there for a couple of hours watching the boats go by. Having two cats at home helps as well.

Did the burnout thing two decades ago, not a fun time 

[N2IXK]

The work I do on my home bench is FAR different than my workday stuff.   I get my fill of modern electronics that you need to use a microscope to work on during work hours, so my hobby pursuits are largely "retro" stuff like restoring vintage gear, building tube amplifiers, playing around with boatanchor era ham radios, etc.

Sufficiently different technology that it reduces the burnout factor...

[nctnico]

Like others said: do other stuff. Fortunately I just shut down before getting a burn out. I *have* to keep calm otherwise I end up lying in bed for the biggest part of a week (this seems to be a family-illness).

[Fred27]

Definitely do other stuff. My work isn't electronics. That's why the hobby is.

[dfmischler]

Putting on the old bite suit and getting bit by a few dogs still takes my mind off everything else.  And they like it, too.

Doing different stuff at home and work helps, but instead of just changing chairs the physical activity makes a big difference to my state of mind.

[Kjelt]

Most important thing here is to learn by recognizing the symptoms/signals of your subconcious or body. Almost all the persons I talked to that had a burnout didn't see it coming BUT their relatives/colleagues did.
So if you don't recognize the signals/symptoms yet (which differ per person) ask the trusted persons around you that see you around once a month, two weeks if they want too warn you if they think you're not doing well, better a few false positives then no signal at all.

Remedies also differ per person but you want to do something that gives energy and makes you feel more positive.

[EEVblog]

I do this:

[marshallh]

Do other stuff tha isn't electronics. I get out and move around as much as possible

[dannyf]

How do you keep the personal project work flow moving without going nuts?

Make sure you enjoy it, either personal or job responsibilities.

If you don't, move on.

[sacherjj]

I've always been a software and hardware guy.  For years, my work job was 100% software so I did mostly hardware at home.  Now my job is more hardware and I find I'm doing more software at home. 

You need to have something that is a little different.  But if you enjoy your job and it is constantly changing, there is no problem.

[calexanian]

I work in a family business, where i am currently managing not only all of the new projects, but production. Since we are very small many of my functions are not duplicated.

[mtdoc]

I do this:

Common Dave - you're not supposed to bounce. It puts undue stress on the rap (abseil) anchors! 

Then again - I'm an old climber and climbers try to avoid rapping if possible....though I reckon I've done several tens of thousands of feet of it over the years.

[Kjelt]

I do this:

and this   

[lapm]

I quess i should consider myself lucky then.. i work at brewery and that docent involve doing electronics at all... So electronics, programming,etc are more hobby to me to give my brain something more challenging to do then press blinking button to reset machine and press another to start it again... 

But seriously if someone notices that there might be some burnout symptoms raising their heads, its time to do something about it... when you hit full blown burnout its going to take a lot of time to recover... Early symptoms are warnings signals that your reactor is about to overheat...

I have had to learn few things the hard way. And i don't recommend it. 

[HighVoltage]

We just had a documentary running on German TV "Schluss mit schnell" and they explained that this is a worldwide phenomenon.
For the German readers:
http://www.arte.tv/guide/de/048763-000/schluss-mit-schnell?autoplay=1

It is imperative that we take our out time.
I am self employed and I am keeping the balance between job and family by just taking some time off.
But then, it is hard to judge, if that is enough.

[sacherjj]

Common Dave - you're not supposed to bounce. It puts undue stress on the rap (abseil) anchors! 

Then again - I'm an old climber and climbers try to avoid rapping if possible....though I reckon I've done several tens of thousands of feet of it over the years.

But if you can't jump when rapping, then where is the fun?

[EEVblog]

Common Dave - you're not supposed to bounce. It puts undue stress on the rap (abseil) anchors! 

You clearly haven't seen the anchors at the top of Empress Falls!

[mtdoc]

Common Dave - you're not supposed to bounce. It puts undue stress on the rap (abseil) anchors! 

Then again - I'm an old climber and climbers try to avoid rapping if possible....though I reckon I've done several tens of thousands of feet of it over the years.

But if you can't jump when rapping, then where is the fun?

Rapping is not supposed to be fun - it's supposed to just get you safely back on the ground and it's statistically the most dangerous part of climbing/mountaineering.

But I get it - for canyoneering - which I've done a little of - it can be fun, especially if you have bomb proof anchors and a waterfall to play in.

Here's a pic from one of my few canyoneering trips. Rapping out of  Mystery Canyon into the Narrows - Zion National Park.

[free_electron]

Eventually you pull the plug. I did last monday. After 22 years messing around in the (highly refined) sandbox i called it quits.
I'm joining a small company that dabbles in electric cars as lead PCB Designer. Not sure you've heard of it : Tesla Motors.

[mtdoc]

I'm joining a small company that dabbles in electric cars as lead PCB Designer. Not sure you've heard of it : Tesla Motors.

Excellent!  You can help Dave get his Model S for review and Teardown Tuesday !

[SeanB]

Well done Vince, you will at least be able to make sure the motor drive is as efficient as possible, and will work under any conditions and fail safely.

[djacobow]

Rapping is not supposed to be fun - it's supposed to just get you safely back on the ground and it's statistically the most dangerous part of climbing/mountaineering.

But I get it - for canyoneering - which I've done a little of - it can be fun, especially if you have bomb proof anchors and a waterfall to play in.

Among roped climbing accidents, rappels are indeed a pretty major contributor of accidents. Most of those accidents, I'm guessing are of the rap off the end of your rope variety than the anchor failed variety.

RMRG did some good stats on all the accidents in Boulder County from 1998-2011. Check out the tables page 226. Looks like getting stuck on a rappel is pretty common, though I would categorize that as an accident so much as an incident.

http://www.rockymountainrescue.org/publications/2012_WEMJ_RMRG_Rock_Climb_Accidents.pdf