What is burnout

Burnout is the loss of drive to do a particular task. Often the act of burning out isn't so much the problem as the effort we put in to try to push through that burnout. As a whole, it is a state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion. It happens when we become overwhelmed by the constant demands of a task. This often happens in an office scenario. Where the team is pushing to complete a project. Burnout often is very prevalent in the crunch for game programmers.

What causes burnout?

The main culprit is when you are not feeding your soul. The job is just that a job. You don't receive any emotional or mental reward for doing that particular job. When a person is doing a job that is in their Zone of Excellence but not in their Zone of Genius.

When you are not in your Zone Of Genius you are often having a bit of resistance at first but as you go that resistance gets greater and greater till you burn out.

Problems with burnout

Burnout is one of those things that can be a slight irritation or it can even lead to a person's death. Depending on how severe the burnout is. I have seen men who have left their dream job simply because they just can't do it anymore. There is a reason Sunday night and Monday morning are when most suicides occur.

Physical problems

Take all the problems of stress and happy them here.

High blood pressure? Yep

Heart problems? Yep

Weight gain? Yep

Headaches

Overall body aches? Yep yep yep

Decreased libido? Yes to the limp noodle

Mental problems

Irritable or even anger

Lack of focus

sadness and depression

Lack of sleep

Emotional problems

Causes people to seek other forms of escaping

Increased alcohol intake

Other drugs

Affairs

How do you avoid burnout?

Notice the Signs of Burnout.

Lack of motivation

Sense of dread when thinking of work

Avoiding Burnout

Take a break!

Take an extended break

Mix it up

find how to apply your zone of genius to the project

Say No

Talk to your Band of Brothers

Eliminate

delegate