Someone asked me at the end of a talk recently whether I'd ever burnt out. I said no. I put it down to still loving the work, and to communicating pressure rather than absorbing it, and we moved on to the next question.
It was a true answer and a useless one. So I've spent a while since unpicking what I actually do, to see whether there's anything in there someone could use.
Positive thinking won't fix your manager
In the Q&A I described two friends. The first up until 3am building side projects because they were too excited to stop. This is a choice, and stopping is available. Nobody is waiting on a hobby project. If it's costing you your sleep and sanity, go to bed.
The second friend was ground down by corporate deadlines, they felt their employer was a source of constant pressure. What I said at the time was that my friend could have taken some responsibility for communicating those choices instead of holding it all themselves. I still think that, and I've written before about bringing stakeholders into a trade-off rather than sulking about a decision you've been handed. Don't accept the impossible deadline, don't refuse it outright either, find the version where you're both after the same outcome.
