MEV is a nice place to be for a lot of activities. Tweet enough to foster discussion but not so much you get sucked in to the vortex.
Check email often enough to not get fired but not so much that you're wasting time.
Conversation
don't get too serious with quantifying these values.
Knowing that your daily MRV for writing is ~2 hours: useful
Stopping at exactly 120 minutes when you're on a roll because you wanted a concrete number: silly
1
1
4
Replying to
I must ask: how do you know that this is true? Genuinely curious.
“Look for absence of recovery not presence of stress” sounds insightful but goes against most contemporary research on burnout. The Maslach burnout inventory specifically looks for markers of stress.
1
1
Replying to
I'm not sure Ryan's aiming at a boolean statement here, more like a corrective heuristic
1
1
Replying to
Interesting. I’ve used Maslach’s inventory to develop a different heuristic (test for resentment), which allowed me to keep going in my previous startup. I’d be curious to know if you (or he!) have *actually* used this in practice? Is it effective? Are there nuances in use?
1
1
The reason I ask is because Maslach developed her inventory for doctors & nurses who dealt with death. It’s possible to ‘recover’ on a holiday and then burnout upon returning to work. It also explains why her development model is so effective at checking for burnout.
1
1
To clarify: I'm curious to know if this is actually verified by practice, so I can adapt it to my own life. But if it's simply 'statement that sounds right', then I'll wait until it's been verified.
My priors are that it shouldn't work as effectively as 'check for resentment'.
1
2
Replying to
I'm not familiar with Maslach's inventory (will do some reading, would be curious to hear how you applied it) and I'm not well versed in nor experienced burnout. Anecdotal use in practice:
3
Nowadays I track my sleep hours. A few days of poor sleep in a row will impact my output at work, even if I'm fine after the first night. If I can I'll shift creative work to other days; if I've got a tight deadline I'll mitigate with other recovery strategies
2
1
Replying to
Ok, another good idea, but this isn't burnout. (I'll definitely add this one to my repertoire though — sleep deprivation is something I continue to struggle with).
What other recovery strategies do you use?