Build my way out of burnout

Counterintuitive as it sounds, yeah I think I’m gonna do that.

Build my way out of burnout.

It might sound stupid and will backfire since it seems like I’ll just be working more.

But here’s where it’s different:

I feel most alive when creating something from scratch
I’ll make something one-off and micro in scope
I can timebox the effort to just a few days
No expectations for monetization
It can be for jokes and laughs
I’ll give to others for free
It’ll be play, for fun
Still goalless

I’ve always done this. Back in first year of the pandemic, I was locked down, stressed, sleepy, tired, going crazy. I went on to build over 10 products for social good.

It helped. A lot.

We often think of rest as doing nothing. But active rest works too, if not better in some case. Especially true where the root cause of burnout isn’t because of working too hard physically, but a burnout of the spirit. Stuff like working hard with little results or rewards (depletion of motivation), stressing out over money, and just accumulated ‘PTSD’ from the pandemic (worries over something out of my control).

All an inner game.

Hopefully, the life-giving joy of creating would top me back up.