Burnout in Tech is a huge problem, huge topic. Combine that with people who work in tech and volunteer in open source⊠itâs a great topic, thanks for starting it Tanner!
Around the time I started volunteering in a core-capacity at Mozilla I made a new yearâs resolution to to do âless, betterâ (taking one or two things, and focusing on doing those really well) vrs a mediocre job of many things), because like many of you ( I think ) I tended to over-commit. Some reasons I did that were:
- Guilt / not wanting to let people down (not good at saying ânoâ)
- Love of the work (hard to say no to great opportunities)
- Unrealistic Optimism (basically I had no idea how I would fit things in, but I just figured I would find a way lol, which I did but not in healthy ways.
When I follow my resolution to âdo less, betterâ, it feels like permission to say no. I find the burn out feeling slows, and the sense of accomplishment increases because (surprise, surprise) I did a better job. I would say that a similar pledge is worth taking when you feel this way. In the long run it will help the things you care about as well (ie: really investing in one or two areas at Mozilla vrs all of them will benefit Mozilla better overall).
Also + 1 to MIchaelâs comment, I have done this too:
and sometimes, at least for me, itâs good to not care for a moment and see what happens