Hey, what’s up, John Sonmez from simpleprogrammer.com.
I got a question here about taking time off before a new job.
Gosh, should I just link you to my mind stopping lazy play list?
No—well, go ahead, click that maybe.
Maybe that’s what you need to do if you’re thinking about this question.
But anyway, a serious question here, I’ll try to give a serious answer that doesn’t
just say work harder.
Anyway, this is from Oliver and he says, “Hi John, I’ve been watching your videos for
quite some time and would appreciate it if you could cover my question on one of your
videos.
So I have been working for a company for a year and a half without any time off, sometimes
even on holidays.
I was laid off 2 months ago.”
Interesting spelling on laid off.
“I started working on personal projects since day 1 of being laid off.
I have been working almost the same amount, if not more hours than when I had a job.
I was already feeling a little burnt out even before I got laid off and this has only gotten
worse since.
I have a few job interviews coming up soon; I expect I’ll get at least an offer too.
question is, when is the right time to take some time off/vacation?
I don’t want to be burnt out before I start a new job, but I also feel there are many
things I can learn while I have the time.
Thank you, Oliver.”
I’m going to give you—I’m basically going to tell you to work harder.
I’m giving you answer that’s not going to be very popular and most people are going
to disagree with.
But here’s the thing—well, let me tell you happens every time that I go on a trip
or go on vacation?
This is what happens for a lot of people.
You’re working really hard, you’re looking for your vacation.
You go on vacation for a week or 2, you take some time off, you get back and do you feel
more refreshed?
No.
You feel more stressed out and you feel less ready to work.
You feel more burnt out than when you started.
Why is this?
Well, it’s because as human beings one of our main motivations, one of the main things
that makes us content and happy in life is growth, is growing.
When you’re on a vacation where you’re taking a break you’re not necessarily growing
a lot of times.
You actually—it’s sort of contradictory.
If you’re feeling—well let me point you to another video here on another thing that
motivates human beings which is hard work.
I did this video on hard work and what I came down to realize is that a lot of times when
I’m feeling bad, feeling down, not feeling my best the cure for it that I always forget,
the cure for it that I think is going to be best . Oh, just take some time and show and
relax and play some video games or get away from it all for a while.
That’s what I think is the cure and it’s never the cure.
The cure that always works, just about every time is go get some serious hard work down
whether that be working on writing my book, whether that be doing some yard work or just
some intense labor or doing something, something that I’ve accomplished, something that I’ve
worked really hard for, that brings up your mood, that makes you feel good.
When people get “burnt out” I’ve done this video on burnout and you can check out
that video on why you’re burnt out.
It’s an embarrassingly old video, by the way.
But anyway, and I actually have a chapter on this in my book Soft Skills: The Software
Developer’s Life Manual.
You can check that out.
I’m just going to plug everything in this video.
But anyway, what people don’t understand about true burnout is burnout doesn’t come
from working too hard.
If you are passionate about what you’re doing and you love what you’re doing and
it provides growth and interest to you, you’re not going to get burnt out, right?
You’re not always going to have motivation.
Again, my editor is going to kill me, but I’ll point to a video on how to work without
motivation and how you’re going to lose motivation here, but the thing is like people
get burnt out or they feel burnt out because they no longer feel like they’re growing
from the opportunity because they feel like they’re doing a lot of work and not getting
anywhere.
It’s like running on a treadmill.
If you keep running on the treadmill and you’re not moving forward, you get frustrated.
That’s when you start to feel burnt out.
A lot of times the solution is not to take time off because—especially when you’re
feeling that way.
What can happen—and this happens too often is that someone feels like they’re starting
to get burnt out or they’re stressed and they think, “Okay, I’m going to take some
time off” then they never come back.
They’re like—this happens all the time to athletes, runners, lifters.
I’ve done this before is you say, “Oh, I need to take some time off” then you lose
the momentum.
You lose the habit and then pretty soon, bam, you’re sitting on the couch eating Cheetos
and collecting unemployment checks.
Honestly, there’s a real risk of that.
What I would say is that—I think—Winston Churchill, one thing that he did was he talked
about the value of still engaging your mind but switching what you’re doing.
He took up painting.
He was a crappy painter, I think, but he did it anyway because he realized that engaging
your mind in some other activity sort of renewed you.
That’s maybe what you need to do is instead of taking “time off” and taking a vacation,
not that there’s anything wrong with taking some time off and taking vacation from time
to time, but just don’t do it because you think it’s going to solve the problem of
you feeling burnt out.
It will make you feel more burnt out.
Take vacation because you’ve planned it, because you’ve planned relaxation time and
not because you “need to.”
You see what I’m saying here?
Instead of taking a vacation, maybe try to do something different.
Try to take up a new hobby or something like that and continue—and maybe you do take
some time to work on that hobby while you’re transitioning to a new job.
But honestly, I would say just go into the new job.
I think that taking the time off, just point blank taking the time off is going to be a
bad choice.
Instead, if I were you, what I would honestly do is I would go ahead, take a new job, take
up a new hobby and then maybe a month into the new job then take some vacation time,
because then you’ll be taking—the best time to take a vacation is when you don’t
want to take it, when you’re excited about your work and you’re ready to work on the
next project, and you’re like, “Oh man, I’m kind of excited to go to Mexico or to
Hawaii for 2 weeks but I really want to get this project done.
I’m excited to go but I’m excited to get back so I can finish this project.”
You’re going to enjoy your vacation so much better then.
Think about it, right?
Because you’re going to be on vacation, you’ll be sitting on the beach and you’ll
be thinking, “Oh man, I have such a great job.
I’ve got such a great life.
I’m excited to go and do my work.”
But if you go and you take a vacation because you’re feeling super burnt out now you’re
sitting on the beach and you’re like, “Man, I’m so stressed out.
Chill.
I just need to chill.
I just need to relax.”
You’re trying to coax yourself into relaxing and chilling which never works.
Again, not a popular viewpoint I think that I have on this, but this is a very practical
one.
Honestly, like I’ve made—the only reason why I’m saying this is because I’ve made
these mistakes and now I realize that I plan my vacations, I don’t take them when I feel
like I need them.
When I feel like I need them I figure out what’s wrong with my current work situation
and I fix that or I work harder because a lot of times one way that can really make
you feel burnt out is procrastinating, when you’re supposed to be getting stuff done.
It actually feels like you’re working harder than when you’re actually working hard.
A lot of stuff here.
Unpack it and think about some of these things that I’ve said.
But yeah, good question though.
I think a lot of people run into this and hopefully this is helpful to you.
If it is helpful for you, then obviously you can share this video with someone who else
you might find it—who else might find it helpful to them and definitely click this
subscribe button below and you’ll get more advice from me telling you not to take a vacation
but to work hard you lazy bastard.
All right, take care.
I’ll talk to you next time.