Burnout

This week on WPwatercooler we discuss burnout, dealing with grinding and finding an escape.

Jason drives for Lyft to take himself away from his normal 9-5 to a different environment

How to define burnout - Se mentions burnout almost like a bounce rate. She mentions community and how sometimes things doing get done due to burnout. Lack of fulfillment. Answering the same questions over and over many things can lead to burnout.

The danger of burnout is not noticing it before you snap. The important thing is to recognize it. Russ recognized him by noticing things and talking to others about it. Things needed to change so he found a change and did it himself.

Taking on small projects that relate but aren’t the exact same thing is a great way to work through burnout. Find a relatable skill and work on that a bit to stop burnout.

Russ worked on a project to add styles to gravity forms and used this as a way to escape burnout.

Russ has taken 3 months off from WordPress bases social media to walk away from frustration before getting burned out. Admining groups on Facebook can drive people crazy, Russ recognized this and took some time off from it.

Se is burned out on interpersonal drama in the community, people “trying to help” and found that removing yourself from it may help you but doesn’t resolve the issue. Nitpicking and telling folks to post this there and not here in Facebook group is annoying and can add to burnout.

Russ was burned out on Gutenberg. Russ is a big fan but the journey to Gutenberg being released was frustrating.

Jason talks about what really grinds his gears. Jason finds that not doing everything and picking battles may help with burnout.

Russ talks about the age-old issue of menus on a casino website and keeping them all up to date.

Sé talks about a talk she did with dealing with menus and pdf menus on sites.

Russ hates PDF menus and build a way for his staff to update the website using custom post types and taxonomies.

Russ loves WordPress dearly and makes sure that he does some changes to his own website as a way to work through burnout.

Sé talks about if Matt Mullenweg was just burnt out on the old editor and this is why we have Gutenberg.

Russ builds different sections on his personal website about band names, weird places his baby’s binkie was found. Mix it up a bit and try new things.

Is the take away to find something that has multiple avenues? This seems to be the case. If your interests and your work are the same find a way to enjoy it by doing something different so you feel productive and are learning but lets you walk away from the rut you are stuck in.

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