Of all my blog posts, break glass in case of burnout has served me best. I’m amazed at how frequently I visit that list, when I’m feeling even the slightest hints of burnout coming on. I want to add an addendum to it:

In the event of feelings of burnout, focus on small cycles of activity & rest. This is indeed the way to get back in the swing of things after crashing. Do something small, then rest, then do another small thing, then rest, etc. Get the ball rolling. Like a snowball, building size and momentum, each thing will be easier so it’ll be easier to do more.

It’s paramount that once the rhythm gets back up to speed, it doesn’t get more extreme. Extreme activity is how burnout happens. Once a steady pace/magnitude is achieve, strive no further.

Another point to make: even without feelings of burnout, one might find themselves out of habit for whatever reason. Same rules apply: start back slow, with a rhythm, build momentum, and reach a steady state. It’s really no big deal.

The key reason why this works is because it’s so easy to do a small task. So when you don’t want to do something, or procrastinate. Do something small. If it’s particularly bad, the procrastination, do something particularly small. Doesn’t matter. It’s like kindling a fire. All it takes is a spark to set things in motion. A spark is not much energy, and from a spark a fire always starts small and grows.