The Exhausted Programmer

How I prevent mental and physical fatigue

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

At my first programming job, I worked at a very early stage startup. It was one other person and me. We met at a library in the suburbs of Paris at opening hours and stayed there until 8 pm, or sometimes until it closed. I was young and full of energy — I enjoyed the challenge and was motivated to work overtime.

Maybe it was because I felt ownership over the project. Perhaps it was the excitement of building something from scratch or the thrill of being in Europe for the first time.

I loved it. The only problem was I couldn’t sustain it.

When you spend too much time at work, you don’t have time for much else. You don’t have time for family and friends, you don’t have time for your hobbies. It quickly and inevitably wears you down.

You can feel it happening. Your energy levels drop no matter how much caffeine you ingest. You end up staring at the screen and scrolling up and down the code editor instead of producing something of real value.

You feel less creative. Less motivated. Irritable. Unhappy.

One of the biggest lessons I learned as an engineer is to work around my energy levels and know when to go home.