Dealing with Burnout (psych, not motor)

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

I lived in Maine for a while Jay and judging from that second picture you could use a thing called a snow rake. Yup it's fer raking the snow.

Ya gotta rake the snow in the north country.

I remember the first time someone told me I needed one. I looked at 'em like hey had four heads.

[Greg Cole]

I lived in Maine for a while Jay and judging from that second picture you could use a thing called a snow rake. Yup it's fer raking the snow. Ya gotta rake the snow in the north country.
I remember the first time someone told me I needed one. I looked at 'em like hey had four heads.

Cliff, I grew up in northern Vermont. Now living in Kansas City I was trying to explain having to "rake the roof" when I lived with the folks. Nobody here knew what I was talking about, and they thought I was full of BS.
Well, might be full of BS, but I was always the one raking the darned roof!
Hadta google it for the coworkers to admit I'm only partially full of BS.
Greg

[Marty Rose]

Sir, you DO NOT HAVE BURNOUT, you have luck. One year ago my foot was bothering me. I went to my Dr. who sent me to a Orthopedic Specialist, who operated on my foot. I still sit here with my foot raised. Two operations later, Staph infection, Antibiotics everyday between 2:00 and 6:00 PM, Home Nursing so my leg DOES NOT GET AMPUTATED, this will continue for at least 6 more weeks. Looking at all of my tools just sitting there staring back at me, MY FRIEND THAT IS BURNOUT-DEPRESION,what every you want to call it. Feel lucky and fortunate that you can walk and work, and not just sit with your leg up in the air so blood clots as well as the infection don't get to your heart. But I am of a good mind,because I know it is for JUST SIX MORE WEEKS.

[Ben Grunow]

Hi Eric. I am going on almost 3 years of every night after work and every sat and some sundays (10 hours ish these days) having done all my framing (help here only), siding/flashing/ext trim, ductwork, electrical, plumbing and I am finally making kitchen cabs (made our cape into a 2 1/2 story colonial so old kitchen is still in use).

To say the least, I am burned out. In addition, I am a carpenter during the day so I take of my tools at 4, drive home and get out of the truck and put the belt back on and go after it. I will tell you what keeps me going.

1. wife who is interested and supportive of what I am doing. Does NO work but make dinner/lunch and does laundry and takes care of kids 1/4.

2. occasional party where friends (who I never see anymore) can marvel at what I have accomplished. Boosts the ego.

3. well set up/organized shop so work is easy not aggravating. I tend to make several measurements and go to the shop to cut several pieces and return to fit and install. Keep a list with you of the lengths and gang them up to increase production/quality and limit dust in the house and clean up time.

4. the pleasure of living in my creation.

I look at this time in my life as a once in a lifetime opportunity to build something right and live in it for a long time. I think that perspective is the difference here. I realize that my situation is temporary and the long term benefits will exceed the hardships. I actually wake up on saturday tired and somewhat self destructively enjoy pushing my sore body to work at full speed. Only because I know that every hour saved now is an hour on the other end that my job will be done and I can sit back and enjoy it.

Try the party thing. It works. Push yourself relentlessly until it is over and you will be satisfied knowing that you had no more to give and you accomplished a great feat.

[Brian Elfert]

I spent about a year spread out over 15 months finishing two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and the basement along with sheetrocking the garage. This is all so I can sell my house which might not happen this year in today's market.

I originally thought it was a three to four month project working evenings and weekends. In early July last year I still wasn't done and the best home selling season was over for the year. I quit for about three months to do some other things in my life for a while. I restarted in October and finally finished in late March this year. It didn't help that I was sick for almost three weeks in March and did very little then.

To keep from burning out completely I didn't come straight home and start working. I spent up to two hours relaxing before spending a few hours working. Most of my work got done on weekends. I also kept a lot, but not all, of my social obligations so I wouldn't go totally crazy.

I would have hired out more stuff had I know how long it would take and the amount of energy required. I ended up spending more money than I planned along the way.

[Eddie Watkins]

LOML and I remodeled our first project while we lived in it. We were both working fulltime jobs and coming home and working half the night on the house. We finally decided we had to have an area where you could not see any of the remodel so we picked out the master bedroom and completely finished it so we could go sit down and have someplace that was clean where we could not see the devastation and chaos around us. We put a chair and TV in there so we could sit and relax after we showered and just unwiind. It seemed to work for us.

Eddie

[Eric Larsen]

Great news! I'm taking the next two weeks off from my "finish the house" project.

The bad news is I'm taking the time off because of bursitis. I can barely move one knee -- all the flooring took its toll.

[Jim Becker]

I recommend all kinds of physical therapy, Eric...

[Chris Padilla]

Everyone here pretty much as the right idea. One just needs to take a break to charge the old batteries. My wife and kid left for vacation one September and I took the same time off of work to work on my garage/shop. Out of that 3 weeks, I probably spent 12 hours/day working but I took time to go see 2 or 3 matinee movies. It weird going to see a new movie for cheap, no crowds, sun above my head but it was really cool, too!