Ask HN: Burned out. How can I make the most of a sabbatical leave?

The right ideas will slowly come to you, but getting some perspective is essential and that's not going to come from sitting in your apartment staring at your laptop. The two things I suggest are:

* Exercise. Mens sana in corpore sano. Lift some weights. Run, cycle. Anything. Be yourself, only better (as seen on a t-shirt). You will not believe how much regular exercise will change your state of mind.

* Travel. Get out of town. Get out of your hole. Get some perspective. Even if you just go to stay with some relatives in another city for a few weeks. If you can afford the flights, go somewhere warm and cheap and bask in the sun like a lizard. Meet some strangers. Make friends. Talk to girls. Read, eat, drink.

I wish you the best of luck, and please let us know how you get on.

Edit: I also really, really recommend reading Siddhartha by Herman Hesse. It will definitely help shape your thoughts, and it's a very quick read.

Athletics - Pick something that is so far out of your reach that it doesn't make sense why you would do it. For example, I just signed up for a double-marathon without having ever done a marathon first.

The reason you can't re-factor the pile java in front of you is because you don't really care about it. If its a startup and something you own, something you create then its likely to be easier to get yourself to work on it. And the code will be new and not carry all the horrible baggage that old java tends to.

You discount yourself too much, you clearly are smart, and you clearly are a hard worker(otherwise why would your boss let you go for a year) and you clearly know a thing or two about things you care about. Get out and do something, anything -you- care about.

How I've found that people (myself included) get into burnout is that they work their hardest on things with no positive emotional feedback. (such as completing a physics phd or dare I say programming for a startup pre-launch) Its not about toughness or anything here, that "some people just cant cut it." What is going is that the people that stay afloat have family, friends, hobbies and fun to keep them going.

What I would do is the following:

1. Identify the things emptying your gas tank (programming is extremely taxing after long periods of time)

2. Identify the things filling your gas tank (... as I said earlier ... friends, family, hobbies and fun with them)

3. Make sure you are working out, eating right and sleeping decent hours. (if your body's hormonal systems are going to be a help not a hurt they need to be taken care of)

4. Work on adjusting your balance much towards the fun stuff for a while and less from the draining stuff.

5. Slowly integrate some more draining stuff making sure the filling stuff isn't coming in faster on average.

I've burned out before, and this is how I got out of it. I wish you the best of luck here and hope to follow your way out.

There are also some changes to the diet that may help you (started with vitamins and eating some meat - helped to alleviate my symptons. May help with you, may not).

But that is just a first step. You must then strive to find the causes of your problem, only then it will disappear. Usually, heavy meditation does the trick. If you train martial arts, your teacher may know something about it. If you don't find anyone, there are lots of books on the subject.

Please note that whatever cure you're offered, you'd better not believe it at first. Test it, and if it works, stick with it.

I hope what I wrote helps you. Feel free to contact me.

I'm convinced the only way to really "cure" burn-out is to change scenery and time. It sounds like you've got both, so go do something, or do nothing at all. It doesn't matter too much.

I know you have lots of things you're thinking about doing now, but start your sabbatical anyway. It only takes a couple of weeks of doing nothing until you're ready to plan -- anything -- to get out of the boredom.

Take the time, do nothing, and then decide.

http://www.slowmovement.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_Movement

2. Meet a lot of new folks. Find meetups happening that have nothing to do with your field. Buy lunch to one new person everyday and have long conversations. Go on a road trip maybe to meet and connect with all your old college friends.

3. Read good fiction. Read magazines that have nothing to do with your interests.

4. Travel. But without fix leaving dates. Slow leisure travel.

5. Eat healthy. Exercise. Sleep well.

Inspiration for this post taken from the quote:

"There are four ways to know much: live for many years; travel through many lands; read many good books; and converse with wise friends." - Baltasar Gracián

I find a meditative activity to be of some help. I enjoy rifle marksmanship, gardening, and washing dishes.

They might look and feel different though.

I resort to physical work, it still requires me to keep my focus but it doesn't require me to think nearly as much, in fact I'll find myself zoning out completely. I hand wash dishes and it gets me into the same zone where I don't have to think for 30-minutes.

If you've got property and you'll have no work commitments I would suggest learning how to maintain your property, there's lots of physical work that will release your mind and keep you away from things (IE technology) that will keep your mind in that exhausted state.

Build a shed, you'd be surprised how difficult it is to actually get it to sit level. You'll have to work the ground, then frame it and then side the walls and shingle the roof. It can be especially daunting if you've never done this sort of work, but it may be worth it to learn because not only is there economic benefits (IE you can do the work yourself rather than pay the 6x mark up companies charge from the cost of materials for this work) but 5 years down the line when you start recognizing you're feeling a bit burnt out you could use the skills you've learnt to put up a fence or something.

Physical work also has the added benefit that it helps your diet and metabolism, both of which can contribute to that burnout feeling. I'm not saying your diet will improve, I'm saying you're likely to end up eating more protein and fat, which certainly helps me. I always get into that burn-out feeling when I start eating more carbs.

I've discussed my problem with a fellow procrastinator recently and we agreed that this feeling of "I won't finish what I start anyway" was a major contributing factor.

Granted, some things on your list sound easier than others. Namely the bicycle thing. I suppose you need some planning for such a big project. On the other hand, if you just jump into it, you'll probably figure out quickly what you need. If you have some money left, you can always just stop at some bicycle gear shop by the road and get what you need.

And even if you fail (take a flight home), it doesn't seem like such a catastrophe.

You could combine the bicycle thing with the grassroots protest by simply claiming that you are "cycling for cause X" (I never understood those, but lot's of people do that and it seems to work). Hm, maybe I could eat chocolate to help save the whales?

A startup could work, if you chose something else than Java. But it might be more beneficial to do something entirely different than your day job.

I recommend reading Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel.

Traveling can be extremely enlightening. If for no other reason than it will give you plenty of time to think. If you find yourself thinking about different startup ideas (like I do when I travel) then you know you are probably in the right line of work.

You will also open your mind up to a million other things that you probably weren't aware of before.

non-profits are always grateful for someone who wants to help, beyond the token one day of service

Otherwise, the suggestions to exercise are great. Travel is also a great idea, but I'd say go somewhere and stay there for a week or month, get a sense of natural rhythm and pace. Also, try and just hang out and talk with some people, without any goals.

Good luck.

And thats where you're going wrong. There's nothing stopping you from doing a single thing on your list besides you. Sometimes being naive about what it will take to accomplish something is actually whats needed to do it.

Not to mention most of the things on your list, while amazing experiences, take little more than minimal finances to do so. Pack a backpack, fly to vancouver and buy a bike and just start riding. Plan as you go. You could be biking across Canada by Tuesday and $1500 later if you wanted to.

Just because you don't donate money or pick up litter doesn't mean you can't go volunteer. There's plenty of organizations online you can look up, most of them will plan your trip from start to finish, you just put up the cash. Go teach english somewhere, provide medical assistance, build a school.

Stop focusing on what you are(n't) doing now, and have(n't) in the past. It takes little more than an idea or goal and the drive/desire to do it to make it come true. Clearly you feel that who you _think_ you are right now limits you to who you can be. That's not true at all. Do what you have to do to be the person you want to be. You only live once, don't let anything hold you back from being the person you want to be, and experiencing the things you've always wanted to. Live your life with no regrets. Every day you spend thinking "if only..." is another day wasted.

The good thing about this is you realize where you're at now and you're actively taking steps to improve your situation. Be strong, follow your dreams and dont get intimidated. Try and take a small step forward every day and in a few months you'll feel like a totally different person and in a way better place.

Also, I was a homemaker for a long time. I didn't join the "9 to 5" club until relatively recently. Go do something with a different relationship to time. It can be very mentally and emotionally freeing. I think that is part of the theme of your "escapist fantasies": A completely different kind of schedule/lifestyle/relationship to time and the world. Those can very much be good things.

Good luck with this.

I ended up at Esalen for almost 6 months in their work/study program

http://www.esalen.org/workshops/workstudy.html

I worked in an organic garden overlooking the pacific picking/planting food that we ate the same day for 32 hours a week.

And had cheap access to incredible massage/yoga/healing programs, and the support of intelligent and conscious people who were also trying to find their center again.

Best thing I ever did, and I highly recommend it.

My advice: Give yourself time. I believe we are all fundamentally good and have the will and energy to work and express ourselves in the world. Sometimes, it's ok to rest and step back, and find our grounding again. Give yourself that permission.

A wise friend once told me "If someone else can do it, you can totally do it."

1) Your problem will be there for a few days but will most likely be forgotten in weeks.

2) Bring a notebook, write your journeys in detail. The food you eat, the tea you drink.

3) Observe local culture.

4) Take a lot of pictures.

Basically, try to forget your day job.

If you travel, I'd suggest you to go to Asia (Japan, Korea, China, India, and SE. Asia countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia). Go to a place with rich culture. Spend a few weeks or even months there.

Those pictures and stories would hopefully make you feel better on your gloomy days.

I've been living in North America for almost 10 years (in particular Vancouver) and the cities get boring quickly. Lack of personality and culture. Asia is completely different; more vibrant.

More importantly: change your perspective on how to live life.

Starting wit traveling is a very good option. This is also what I did. Go to a totally different place. A different (non-western) culture. Not to help or work, just to be there. A lot of people go to South-East Asia. I did that too and loved it. My thinking and problems were reduced to what to eat, where to eat, where to sleep and what to see next.

You can do this for months. Then you may start to miss your work, you may start to have ideas again. You'll probably miss thinking and you will find out what to do during the rest of the leave.