Become a 10x Engineer by Avoiding Burnout

by Jacob Lowe on Jul 25, 2019

Do not burn yourself out.

Sitting at my desk, I had an overwhelming feeling doing too much but also getting nothing done. I would look back at my time and think I did a lot of things, but I just do not recollect any of them. It’s like my body was on autopilot and my mind was taking a nap.

Transcripts (auto-generate)

00:09
hey they're just working cool
00:14
before I started I just want to say
00:17
thanks to JSLA for organizing this I
00:20
mean these events are tremendous and
00:23
there's a lot of work that goes into
00:24
organizing an event like this can get
00:27
around a little pause for JSLA in
00:28
general and actually I want to say it
00:35
thanks to Google as well this is a you
00:37
know tremendous venue with the venue
00:40
like this usually the tickets sell out
00:41
really quickly and that's because they
00:45
have a lot of pull here at Google of
00:47
course the speakers do you have a pull
00:49
as well but I'm also sorry to let you
00:52
know that for us isn't going to be
00:53
speaking tonight but yeah but I'm here
00:57
to talk to you today about something
01:00
that you know a lot of people have been
01:02
wondering about lately and that's how
01:05
not to burn yourself out sometimes
01:08
there's some large expectations that is
01:10
put on us as engineers they kind of push
01:14
us to like a mental edge whether we're
01:16
supposed to be deity like engineers that
01:19
are TEDx engineers or you know we need
01:21
to learn how to do algebraic expressions
01:24
before the next meeting but it sometimes
01:27
it's hard to balance on that edge so
01:31
many of Jacob blow i'm JC b LW across
01:34
the web and you know I wrote a talk
01:37
about this because I got burnt out I got
01:40
burned out multiple times before but
01:42
just recently got burnt out and I'm kind
01:45
of on a sabbatical right now which has
01:47
actually been kind of great because it
01:48
allows me to like think about these
01:50
types of things and I also used to work
01:52
at a company called headspace which you
01:54
know it's supposed to help with well it
01:56
does help with things like stress
01:59
burnout and whatnot but things have been
02:03
kind of weird lately so I mean so burned
02:08
out just in case you know y'all haven't
02:12
experienced it or really know what it is
02:14
it's just to ruin your health and this
02:16
is mostly done through overwork just
02:19
overworking yourself and mental health
02:22
is like super important and there's a
02:26
lot of things you can do to you know
02:28
help your mental health and if you could
02:30
take a little bit of time during each
02:32
day to you know support your mental
02:34
health like I would do it like it's
02:37
totally worth it
02:39
and I want to say that like there's like
02:42
this stigma around you know mental
02:44
health being you know mental health
02:46
issues like burnout or anxiety or
02:47
depression being people that are weak
02:50
you know it's definitely not that you
02:53
know I have to say like I've
02:54
accomplished some things in my life that
02:57
I feel like I had to be pretty
02:58
disciplined about and I still run into
03:01
things like burnout and I still run into
03:02
things like anxiety and depression so I
03:07
don't know if you guys get the luxury to
03:09
work at a company that has these things
03:11
called no meetings blocks but they're
03:14
actually fantastic and if you don't work
03:15
at a company after listening this talk
03:17
you should probably ask for no meetings
03:19
blocks but this is actually a fantastic
03:22
time to kind of just reset and you know
03:27
it's not an implicitly say like take a
03:28
break time right it's kind of supposed
03:31
to be uninterrupted work time but I
03:33
definitely took advantage of these times
03:35
at my prior job to actually take breaks
03:38
and to kind of like in the latter half
03:41
of the no meetings blocks to be able to
03:44
get my work done and I would even like
03:47
on my breaks I would actually invite
03:49
even my co-workers to come with me I'm
03:51
like I'm gonna go walk around the block
03:52
you want to come hang out and just talk
03:54
or hey would you you know spend a couple
03:57
minutes with me in a meditation session
03:58
but I did find out that a lot of my
04:01
co-workers didn't actually view these no
04:04
meetings blocks in the same way a lot of
04:06
times they viewed it as you know this is
04:09
a time for me to get ahead to catch up I
04:12
can
04:12
you know get some work done I can shove
04:15
in a couple you know extra lines of code
04:17
during this time because it's uh none
04:18
your up to work time so I'm just gonna
04:20
like push through something and as a
04:23
manager like that does sound appealing
04:25
like more work more time I like I can I
04:29
mean more time is more work and I can
04:31
actually like you know see tickets
04:33
moving and whatnot checkboxes and but
04:36
what I found out is that like that's not
04:38
actually the case that's not the reality
04:39
of it and it really was more like more
04:44
time does not equal better work like a
04:47
lot of stuff that got pushed through
04:48
when people were stressed out and they
04:50
weren't taking breaks things had bugs in
04:52
it you know wasn't a good product there
04:54
was corners cut you know in a lot of
04:56
places and it's more or less like I
04:58
don't want to like push them you'd be
04:59
like oh well you gotta fix this like
05:01
little thing here you got to make a
05:03
better product or whatever especially
05:04
when I know I'm dealing with somebody
05:06
who's going through something that you
05:08
know they're feeling burnt out or
05:09
whatnot now I put in here meaningful
05:12
breaks because your body wants
05:14
meaningful breaks now going and getting
05:16
in a snack or a coffee I think you know
05:19
a lot of us will associate that with a
05:20
break which actually it is but you know
05:24
doing something like viewing nature
05:25
doing meditations some type of
05:27
mindfulness practice actually has been
05:29
shown to be more effective in sustained
05:32
attention then just doing other things
05:36
like getting a snack or a coffee and one
05:41
of the reasons why you should take a
05:43
break is that your brain is actually
05:45
really good at automating things and
05:48
it's a good thing too because like I'm
05:51
not constantly thinking about breathing
05:52
I'm just doing it you know it helps me
05:55
survive my body automating things but it
05:58
kind of can get us into these weird
05:59
loops of thought to where we stop
06:01
thinking about problems in the same way
06:04
and whenever new variables get inserted
06:06
into the problem it's very hard for that
06:08
loop to actually be able to handle those
06:11
new variables in that loop itself is a
06:17
little thing called flow and flow can be
06:20
great it actually is often romanticized
06:23
in our
06:24
stree it's often you know associated
06:28
with things like creativity productivity
06:31
people even will rearrange their
06:33
schedules around flow you know I want to
06:36
make sure all my meetings are at the end
06:38
of the day so I can have this unfetter
06:40
ated block in the middle of the day that
06:42
I can just get into the flow and stay in
06:44
the flow the flow is actually kind of a
06:48
weird thing because it can also cause
06:50
some pretty crazy human behaviors
06:53
casinos actually will utilize flow to be
06:57
able to keep people in the seats of a
06:59
machine which they actually use the term
07:01
time on device which was actually coined
07:04
a long time ago very before I phones
07:06
were a thing and you know we have to ask
07:10
ourselves sometimes is this the best
07:13
life that we're living when we're
07:15
getting into these flows and we're doing
07:16
all this stuff you know like when I'm
07:19
you know there's been many times where I
07:21
will kind of get into a really good flow
07:23
and then I'll kind of run off to the
07:26
bathroom at the last moment because I'm
07:28
like oh I forgot to go to the bathroom I
07:29
need to go real quick and then I can
07:31
jump back to programming and that's not
07:35
you know healthy if I'm starting to
07:37
neglect my cue my body functions just
07:40
because I'm like I want to write one
07:41
more line of code they actually there
07:44
was a study and they find that people
07:46
actually will sometimes hold their
07:47
breath when checking emails which is a
07:50
very bizarre thing to do so I actually
07:54
adopted I started to adopt some of the
07:56
mindset of some of my peers on my last
07:59
place where I would start skipping kind
08:01
of my no means box and just working
08:04
through them and actually it made me
08:07
unhappy in that unhappiness also gave me
08:09
a bad perspective on kind of just the
08:12
work that I was doing didn't allow me to
08:14
reflect on the times that I was able to
08:16
complete things and do wonderful things
08:18
with my group I just kind of was like
08:21
what's the next problem and to work
08:22
through this now reflection is actually
08:25
a pretty interesting word here as well
08:27
because I think that's actually what
08:29
brakes give you the time to do you get
08:31
into these loops of thought and then
08:33
you're able to kind of like pull
08:35
yourself out of them when you take a
08:36
break and just
08:37
look back at that process and say it
08:39
like was that good you know and if it
08:42
was you jump back into it
08:43
if it wasn't like figure out what's
08:46
wrong and we actually do have techniques
08:48
like this already who here has used the
08:51
rubber ducky technique so only a few of
08:54
you it's interesting so I'll tell you
08:57
about what that technique rubber ducky
09:00
technique is essentially you have this
09:02
inanimate object usually it's a rubber
09:04
ducky or some type of thing that has a
09:06
face and you put it on your desk and
09:10
then you when you run into a big problem
09:13
you essentially will ask this inanimate
09:16
object the problem and actually the
09:19
craziest thing is is that a lot of times
09:21
it will give you a little bit of clarity
09:22
and either you'll be able to see the
09:25
problem in a new light or you'll be able
09:27
to maybe even fix the problem and I
09:29
think what's actually happening here is
09:31
that you're jumping out of the flow of
09:33
montt here you're kind of the flow that
09:35
you're in the same train of thought and
09:37
you're able to throw this problem to
09:40
another side of your brain which
09:41
actually processes language and then be
09:44
able to like look at this thing and
09:46
verbalize it which actually is another
09:47
part of your brain and so you kind of
09:50
like are jumping out of that flow and
09:53
and are able to look at the problem more
09:56
clearly by verbalizing it to this rubber
09:58
ducky there's been many times where I've
10:00
used this technique and actually been
10:01
amazed at like just how well it works
10:04
and I would encourage you to try it out
10:06
there's also another good analogy so I
10:10
just watched a talk by this famous
10:12
Buddhist monk called mingzhou red
10:13
Porsche and he was talking about
10:16
emotions and meditation but I think it
10:19
actually works really well with flow and
10:21
reflection or taking a break so
10:23
essentially when you're in the flow of
10:25
programming you are kind of in the
10:28
middle of a river it's great you're
10:30
moving fast you're going down the river
10:31
but you run into problems
10:33
maybe that's legacy code or something
10:36
like that and you know it gets a little
10:38
bumpy and actually sometimes it can get
10:41
so bumpy that it can turn into a
10:42
waterfall now being in a river a
10:46
waterfall is you know coming up on a
10:48
waterfall that's a terrifying thing and
10:50
that can do many things to your
10:52
but the act of taking a break is like
10:55
going onto the shore and looking at the
10:57
river and being able to observe what is
11:00
going on and you know there's been
11:02
countless times where I've looked back
11:04
at like a crazy bug that you know that
11:07
may have caused us to not deploy into
11:09
production or something and looking back
11:11
at that and saying oh well we fixed it
11:13
and look at this elegant solution you
11:15
know this is so beautiful it's because
11:17
when you step back from a waterfall it's
11:19
a beautiful thing now I work on stuff I
11:25
work on stuff so you get it because
11:27
you've done it I work at stuff at home
11:30
and I work on contract work and I wanted
11:32
to figure out a way that I can promote a
11:34
healthy lifestyle for myself without
11:35
actually just running into the same
11:37
problems that I ran into you well at
11:39
work so I wanted to figure out a way
11:42
that I can actually eject from the flow
11:47
and now you might be thinking and
11:49
rightfully so that there already is
11:52
techniques for this a Pomodoro Pomodoro
11:55
is where you set a little timer and the
11:58
timer goes off you have this checklist
12:00
that you're going through but the
12:03
Pomodoro didn't really work for me and
12:05
it was only a few small problems that I
12:07
ran into with the Pomodoro and tell you
12:09
too if you're using the Pomodoro and it
12:11
works for you do it like I that's one
12:14
thing I want to encourage is like if you
12:15
find something that works for you just
12:17
stick with it and keep doing it but the
12:20
issues that I had was that a lot of it's
12:22
like very based off of static time
12:24
frames and you can actually adjust those
12:26
time frames over time but just like
12:28
during the day the time frames are very
12:30
static and it's also super focused on
12:32
being the most productive human being
12:34
and I kind of don't have the life goals
12:37
of being super productive I I want to be
12:39
a happy person
12:40
more than anything so that was a little
12:43
it wasn't too bad of a thing because
12:46
productivity can help with your
12:47
happiness but I wanted something that
12:48
focused on happiness so if I was into a
12:50
flow that was really bad I'd be able to
12:52
you instead of jumping out and happy
12:54
need to do a checklist or check back in
12:56
I would actually you know find doing
12:59
activity that made me a little bit
13:00
happier now my solutions is really just
13:03
the inverse having relative time frame
13:05
and this could be based off of the
13:07
activity that you're doing you know
13:09
being able to track activity and say
13:11
like oh well I'm really active right now
13:14
so that means that like I'm I'm in a
13:17
state of flow that you know isn't
13:20
necessarily bad but there's I should
13:23
probably jump out of this in some time
13:24
and then also I wanted to focus on
13:26
happiness now this is actually even
13:28
trickier because what is happiness right
13:30
and but one thing I've learned through
13:34
years of meditation is that kind of just
13:37
being able to observe the things that we
13:40
do on a day to day and being able to get
13:42
in touch with yourself a little bit is a
13:45
way to kind of put different
13:47
perspectives on things and to see normal
13:50
things or to see the activities that you
13:52
do in a different light that sometimes
13:54
you can look at it in a positive light
13:56
so essentially I wanted to change this
13:59
to something that's more like a
14:02
breathing exercise now I looked for
14:06
something out there and I think it's
14:09
pretty neat you know like I I can't say
14:11
that like everybody's probably looking
14:13
for the same thing I am but being an
14:15
engineer and we get this amazing
14:18
opportunity to take things that are in
14:19
the back of our head things that were
14:21
like oh this is really cool like is
14:24
anything out there and try to find it
14:26
and if we don't find it we actually have
14:28
the opportunity to build this so I
14:29
decided I was gonna build something and
14:32
there's a couple of decisions that I
14:34
made I decided to build it on the web
14:36
platform I am a web engineer just like I
14:38
would assume probably half of you are as
14:40
well
14:41
and I spend a lot of time in my browser
14:44
so I actually built it in a Chrome
14:45
extension and I wanted to inject it into
14:48
a point that I think is probably one of
14:49
the worst behaviors that I have on a web
14:52
browser which is opening up new tabs I
14:54
had I just like will open up a ton of
14:56
them and I feel like it's just such a
14:58
bad behavior that I have so I wanted to
15:01
inject it into a new tab page and you
15:05
know being from coming from a meditation
15:07
company I was like oh I should use
15:09
meditation and I was like but you know
15:10
what meditation actually is a pretty
15:12
heavy thing to do even if it is like two
15:14
to three minute sessions doing it you
15:17
know every hour and a half
15:18
every three hours that can be a little
15:20
bit heavy of a practice I mean just
15:23
getting myself to do five minutes a day
15:24
is sometimes difficult doing it multiple
15:26
times a day would be very very difficult
15:28
so I actually looked to my meditations
15:31
little brother mindfulness and just kind
15:34
of decided to do a breathing exercise
15:37
because breathing exercise is a very
15:38
light touch and I actually didn't want
15:41
to make it a game but it ended up
15:43
becoming sort of like a game because the
15:45
more you actually start to interact the
15:48
application interacts with you know the
15:50
activity that a user is doing the more
15:53
it starts to become more game-like
15:54
like if you're able to do something to
15:57
reset all your activity or if you know
15:59
that your activity now starts to build
16:01
up and and and creates this kind of like
16:03
you know this application like it starts
16:06
to behave more like a game and it was
16:11
very interesting and how does everybody
16:13
feel right now do you guys need to take
16:15
a break I mean I'm kind of going through
16:19
a cycle right now so so this is going to
16:21
be a breathing exercise it's pranayama
16:23
breathing it so it just slows down a
16:25
little bit and so I'm gonna be five
16:27
breaths so bear with me
17:10
so it's simple very small very small and
17:17
something like that
17:19
you know gives you time to reflect you
17:21
might be thinking what the hell am i
17:22
doing listening this talk right now
17:24
but it's also you know a great way to
17:28
kind of just like pull yourself out of
17:30
the flow and just like think about it
17:31
and and with something that lightweight
17:33
like it's you're not taking a break
17:36
really but you're also pulling yourself
17:38
out of a flow that you're able to think
17:40
about you know what you're doing so if
17:43
you're you know you're like oh well I
17:45
was really getting this stuff done I
17:47
want to continue doing it go for it
17:49
that was like what five seconds now it's
17:51
a little bit longer than that but
17:53
essentially if you're in a bad flow or
17:56
you're like angry at something maybe
17:58
this is the you know just give me that a
18:00
little bit of time will give you the
18:01
ability to like think about and be like
18:02
oh maybe I should go walk around the
18:04
block or maybe I should go go and talk
18:06
to you know one of my co-workers or
18:08
something like that take an extended
18:09
break so you could try this out get
18:14
mucho calm is where you can find the
18:17
link to download it and actually if
18:19
you're interested to see my slides or I
18:21
actually did write a blog post about why
18:23
I built get mucho it actually goes
18:25
through a little bit more of my story
18:27
you can all find find all those links
18:29
there but really I want to encourage you
18:32
like find what works for you fine you
18:35
know the injection point the lengths of
18:38
the brakes you know the type of bricks
18:40
that that work for you because maybe it
18:42
works for me doesn't work for you but I
18:44
think your mental health is the
18:45
important thing and finding what works
18:47
for you is great and but most
18:49
importantly just don't get burned out
18:51
thanks
18:59
you
18:59
[Applause]
19:11
you