I know I’m bad with overworking myself. Got put in the hospital doing it last year even 
But its been a ride doing my best to slow down and stop occasionally. Found I do better quality work when I’ve stopped to rest, usually I unplug for a few days and make myself a little bored.
Curious as to what others do to fight off burnout.
I usually try to be very intentional about blocking out my time. Certain time is work time, certain time is project time, certain time is free time. It takes me a time to get into the right headspace to do different things. I also find that it’s easier to fall into burnout if I’m constantly context switching or letting things leech into my other work. I make sure to drop everything when time is up then note down where I left off if I need to. I’m not quite as disciplined with it as I should, but it’s improved my life significantly since I started with this.
Another thing I like to do is make sure I’m engaging in a diverse range of activities in a day. My day job and game dev is obviously very computer-centric work. I try to contrast it with different types of activities or at least force myself to work in different spaces. My main goal is to just engage different parts of my brain and escape from some of the monotony of sitting at the desk all day. Exercise always helps with this too!
I like doing something that turns my brain off and helps kill time a bit. The best thing for this for me has been going for a long run, usually on a treadmill or elliptical machine. I’ll just close my eyes (which is why I usually use a machine instead of running outside), tune out the world, and listen to music for 2-3 hours.
For me, work usually means a lot of mentally exhausting tasks spent behind a computer screen for like twelve hours at a time. Getting out of the house and working out is like the exact opposite, and I think that balance has helped me a lot when I’ve felt overwhelmed, stressed out, and of course burnt out.
I think going for upwards of three hours really pushes me to get back into work by the end of it. By the end of that, I get so bored of doing nothing that my mind starts racing, and that kind of pumps me up to get back to whatever I was doing.
Making myself a little bored is so real, that’s something I do sometimes too, to help with motivation. Sometimes I do this by cleaning up a space a bit even if I would rather be productive.
Though, I’d like to point out that, at least for me, burnout is created by:
So, usually in these cases I find that it’s better for me to take a step back and ask myself if I really want to continue, or if it’s better for me to quit and move on. Sometimes I find something that I can change about the process that helps me feel like I can maintain a more positive outlook, noticing that I am in need of a break, and/or realizing that I need to walk away from doing this specific task.