Tips on how to survive bootcamp induced burnout
This article is the second and last part of a series. The article titled “I went to a bootcamp got really sick and failed..” and this one go hand in hand.
Assuming that you have read the article I’m referring to above, I will continue in this one giving some tips and advice on how to deal with bootcamp induced exhaustion symptoms like burnout.
So by now you know that I started attending a bootcamp while already experiencing burnout symptoms, I just went on and on, depriving myself of sleep to the point that I got really sick and as a result of that I failed.
Here are a couple of things I wish I knew and did earlier on — not only to have completed the bootcamp successfully but for my own health’s sake. I hope they are as useful to you as they are to me.
Listen to what your body is telling you
Ah, yes! The huge mistake I made.
Listening to your body and taking the necessary action is essential.
If you’re tired, sleep. If you need a break, take it.
A teacher at Codaisseur told me something along these lines “Take care of your body, it’s all you have.” And the way I interpreted it was as follows; all of these things that we try to keep ourselves busy with and stress about are superficial things, and when you are busy doing them, make sure you don’t forget what eventually IS priority. Because one day when you are old, none of these things actually matter anymore, you’ll be stuck with that body you ignored and that is IF you even get to become old.
Find balance
Something I struggled the most with during the entire programme was finding a balance. Due to the time I had to travel, I had to leave quite early and arrive back home quite late. As a result of this, I did not have much time left to do other things like physical activity.
The more I went on, the more out of balance I felt. Mentally I was exhausted and physically I was just fine.
I find that getting out of balance is unavoidable, especially in a fast paced industry like tech. And if you’re in the same situation as I was, you know that it is impossible to get more time, which limits your choices.
A way to find balance when you don’t have much time is to limit the amount of work you put in. By not overdoing it, and working smarter and more efficiently, you lessen the amount of strain and conserve your brain.
Another thing you can do is try to plan in advance some physical activity. Once you’re a couple of weeks in and you’re used to the routine, set a few hours or days (weekends) aside where you’ll do some non-technical activities.
Know when to step away
Overdoing it, I noticed, significantly lowers the freshness of the brain; our ability to think, plan, work, study, come up with ideas and further essential functionality is greatly decreased and we’ll have to work extra hard in order to compensate. So why just not do the better, easier thing? Get up, and walk away, distract yourself even if it’s for a few minutes. The change of setting is a great way to reward yourself for all the hard work. Usually walking away and coming back to your work a while later even helps you get “unstuck”, so you’ve literally got nothing to lose.
If you still get burned
First of all, ouch!
Second, there are different kinds of burnouts, but the following advice covers — if not all — most of them.
People usually think that you can’t get burnt doing something you like. An example of this would be those that merge their hobby into their work.
In my opinion, this is more common in tech, compared to other industries.
Now, don’t take me the wrong way. I’m all for doing what you enjoy doing for a living, but it’s not how I choose to live. Yes, I love coding, but there are other things I like slightly more. Things like hobby and work shouldn’t be mixed because when you hit rock bottom, it’s really hard to find something to get you back on your feet. Humans are very complex creatures and above everything, whether we’d like to admit it or not, get bored easily and need some sort of variety to keep going.
By not combining hobby and work too much or by avoiding that all together you can rest assured that you won’t gamble and risk losing what drives you/your true passion.
And if all goes to shit and you end up failing just like me; this is my advice for you.
Know that failing has a positive side
There is no shame in failing or walking away. I know that sometimes it sucks, walking away from something doesn’t only let yourself down, it feels like you’re letting everyone and everything else around you down as well.
It’s important not to dwell on the mistakes that got you there in the first place and how things would’ve been.
If you’ve always seen failing as a bad thing, try rewiring your brain into thinking that it’s not. I’m not shitting you; failure has taught me so much, more than I could ever learn in school.
It’s failure that teaches you the essentials on how to cope and deal with life the most. After allowing yourself to heal, you can look back, analyse, better and move forward.
And remember,
“It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.”
- Bill Gates
Looking back there’s so much I could and should’ve done. I could’ve listened to my body, allow myself some rest, find balance, etc.
But still, this is the way things went. I cannot change them anymore and even if I had the ability to do so, I wouldn’t.
2017 has taught me a life lesson; it taught me that I am only human and that I too, just like anyone who reads this, have limits.
Sure, graduating would’ve been awesome, but I like to believe that my efforts weren’t in vain because the experience and the gained knowledge won’t be leaving my head soon.
Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, remarks or just want to get in touch feel free to do so.
