Burnt Out...Sorta Options

[Coomer]

Every few months I seem to come around the site and do some work on it for a few days...then I disappear for months at a time with no explanation. It's a pattern that, despite my self-imposed goals to keep-up-with and improve the site, always seems to hold true.

It's not fair to you guys, especially when I promise big features and nothing comes of it. Nothing except disappointment from you guys, the loyal members, management, everyone who's made this site what it is today. You guys deserve a great site run by an admin who cares, and I'm truly sorry that time-after-time I fail to keep up with the site.

A lot of it stems from my job as a web developer for WhitePages.com. I frequently work 10+ hour days, and when I get home, the last thing I want to do is work on code, or admin the forums, a responsibility that's not appealing when I've been busting my ass dealing with work-related responsibilities since sunrise. I love my job, but I hate what it's done for my websites.

Ever hear that the hardest part of doing something is the first five minutes? That is so unbelievably true in my case. I love to build websites, especially 6GC, and once I'm five minutes into coding a new feature, I'm engaged, happy, and can go on working on the site for hours at a time. It's really a great joy for me to work on 6GC - I get to build stuff for me and for you guys, not for a tech lead, product manager, executives, a board, and tens-of-millions of single-task-focused visitors like at work. The freedom to build what I want, my way, is great, and once I'm immersed in my own code I love it.

But all too often, it's too hard to even start. I want to get better at that. I really do.

I'm not saying that I'm back and will be updating the site frequently from now on...I've said that before and I don't want to lead you guys on again. But I'm going to try. Anyone have good advice for situations like this? I'm very open to suggestions.

I want to thank you all for staying here and keeping the site alive, even though I neglect it at times...like 98% of the time. A huge thanks is owed to the moderators especially - without them I have no doubt that this site would be dead. So thank you everyone! I hope this place gets even better over time.

[CAMAricer]

When work burns me out, I take a mini vacation to "reset" myself. Lately, I've been taking more and more mini-vacations which is helping less and less. Working on cars takes me away from all the stress and crap of work. Fortunately, my work and working on cars are two completely separate fields. That being said, it's the little things that happen that makes me enjoy my work (like small compliments from my patients). After a bad day, it only takes a seemingly insignificant "thank you" from someone to make it all worth while again. I'm not too sure how your work is like, but take comfort and joy in the small stuff, it will definitely make life/work much more enjoyable.