I have found it physically impossible to burn out
I work non-stop from 8am till about 10pm every weekday for two years and just cannot burnt out
So this one is gonna sound a bit like i’m bragging but that really isn’t my intention. My intention is to make a point.
And that point is that I think folks spend so much time thinking about how to avoid burnout or what to do when they do burnout… that they stop to ask the first principles question that comes before that.
Do we even need to burnout? Maybe we can just more or less eradicate it physically?
That is the question I want to explore today.
First a recap on how I currently operate
I’m 47 and I’m not done with this journey but I expect to finish by about the end of this year. However i’ve been making steady progress for close to four years now.
And for the last two years now I consider myself to operate like a machine.
Meaning I work from about 8am (after I drop my son off at school) till past 10pm every weekday. Plus I work an average of probably 10 hours in total over my weekend.
I have not gotten sick. I perhaps take like 2-3 weeks of vacation time over the course of the year (during which time I also typically work at least a few hours per day).
I eat whatever I want. I take no supplements. I do no exercise.
And yet I have not even felt close to burning out this entire time. I’m just like an energy machine that feels happy 24-7.
So what do I do with all of these working hours?
Well, as some of you may know I am very systematic. I use Clickup for everything I do and have a method I call the “Everything is a task” method where everything is captured as a task. And any work i do is captured as an update to a task.
Plus I have a daily ‘to do’ list that looks like this below. Basically every checked circle represents something I took care of on thursday.
A few explanations about how to read this:
Tasks that are bold are more important (ie. I must finish those to go home)
I do 20-minute uninterrupted sprints using a time. These are the ‘Sp1, Sp2, etc”. I need to do at least 10 of them before I can leave my office.
I typically finish my last sprint sp14 or sp15 around 10:30pm at night.
I try to avoid recurring meetings except short standups with a couple of my teams
I am a fractional CTO/COO of a venture backed startup
I run three of my own startups: Techzi, Taskbeasts, Reviv
I have a weekly blog (Techbeast) and podcast (Million Dollar Ideas) that I’m involved with
Also note that I work by myself for the past four years in my own office at a co-working center. I take a short ~5 minute break to throw down my lunch.
And other than that I just motor though my day as if I am in a race to get home on time.
I do this same thing day after day for years. I just copy & paste my to-do list, adjust it a bit for changes in priorities, and then I jam.
Nobody I know gets more shit done in a day than i do. Not anyone in their thirties. Nobody in their twenties..
I feel like i’m just a machine.
But I also love what I do and I work for myself. That also probably plays an important role.
I repeat this same shit, day in and day out, and just cannot burn out
Each day for the last few years looks like some variation on what I have written above. I just feel a ton of energy the whole day and my system keeps me very focused.
I try to test my limits to see if I can burn out. I just can’t.
This doesn’t mean i pull all nighters and shit. No, that shit is just stupid to me.
But do i consistently work till 10 or 11pm with very few breaks all day, everyday? Yes. My wife will attest to this.
Because even though she is 8 years younger than me, she cannot keep up.
I wasn’t always like this
I was not always like this. Not at all.
In 2020 after i’d had an open posterior bite for almost a year and had screwed up my system, I was cooked by 6pm max.
I just felt exhausted and couldn’t focus anymore. All i could do was watch Netflix and Youtube. Back in the first part of 2021, I think I clocked in an average of 6-7 hrs of Netflix or Youtube every night because my brain was incapable of doing anything else after about 6pm.
Now I perhaps do 1 hour.
Did I make any special effort to make that change? No. I made zero conscious effort.
My brain and body just work very differently now.
I don’t think there is anything special about me, everyone can do this
As i’ve been on both sides of the plate, I am sure that there is nothing special about me. It is not as if I have some special genetics or mindset or something.
Everyone can operate like this.
It is purely a function of this biomechanical process.
It is like testosterone and other hormones are released that just keep your foot on the gas. And you get used to it.
You get used to the fact that… you just don’t have to stop and rest like the others. They stop… and you just keep goin.
