It's not without reason that IT people often joke about burnout. Pau Yerbo data, 42% of IT professionals experience emotional burnout after 6 months of intensive work. 43% of them are forced to give up professional development due to excessive workload, and 25% quit to take a break to recuperate.
Why does burnout become a joke? Humor allows you to quickly improve your well-being, masking the symptoms of the problem. But this is a short-term solution that will not fundamentally change the situation. Sooner or later, the joke will contain more truth than humor, and then there will be no laughing matter. Therefore, every IT specialist needs to find the key to the fight against burnout. And you need to do it just here and now, even if you don't feel any alarming symptoms yet.
The deep recovery technique is well established both in IT and in other industries with a high level of intellectual and emotional stress. It allows you to work at maximum efficiency for a long time without approaching the limit and without feeling burnout. Today we will take a closer look at the theoretical foundations of deep recovery and talk about ways to implement this technique in practice.
Why does a specialist need deep recovery?
In fact, this question has several answers:
- This is in our nature. In the lives of our ancestors, intense efforts to survive alternated with periods of absolute relaxation. Civilization has changed this regime, making work continuous and reducing the duration of rest.
- Allostatic load. This is the name of stress, which is the body's natural response to changes in its environment. Like heavy metals, allostatic load accumulates in the body and is not excreted on its own. And, like heavy metals, it poisons people, reducing their quality of life.
- Adaptation mechanisms. They exist both physically and emotionally. By alternating training sessions with rest periods, you improve your performance step by step. This works with both muscles and intelligence. But continuous stress without the possibility of relaxation leads to the accumulation of microtraumas and mental disruptions.
These three points show the nature of burnout. To maintain high productivity and be ready for any surprises, a person must rest, recover and gain strength. Moreover, it is active. An evening watching your favorite show, a beer with friends or a skating rink in an online game is just a fleeting episode of relaxation that doesn't do much good.
But don't be afraid of the word “active”. Just because you'll be making an effort to restore your body doesn't mean that your stress levels will increase. On the contrary, reasonably selected activity will replace allostatic stress, which will lead to emotional and intellectual cleansing of the body. What kind of activity works this way? Let's figure it out.
Active recovery techniques
Naturally, every person is a Personality and Individuality with a capital letter. Each of us has our own physical and mental characteristics. Therefore, everyone chooses their own method of active recovery or their own combination of methods. Don't be afraid to experiment, test hypotheses and analyze the results — this works both in IT and in self-development.
Sports and training
Changing the type of activity is also a vacation, or rather, high-quality active recovery. Physical activity leads to the formation of a powerful hormonal cocktail in human blood. It contains adrenaline, serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, and other neurotransmitters. Immediately after exercise, these hormones cause a surge of energy and a sense of unlimited potential, and after a while, a sense of peace and tranquility.
But training also requires careful planning. Physical development should be gradual. Start with 15-minute walks at a comfortable pace and daily gymnastics. Move smoothly to more intense and intensive programs - add short-term running or 1-2 strength exercises a couple of times a week. Choose a comfortable destination for yourself and start carefully testing your strength limits, getting closer to perfection step by step.
Sleep
Experienced bodybuilders know that success in muscle growth depends on training, nutrition and sleep. The same is true with emotional “musculature”. Sleeping is an ideal way to relieve stress on the physical and intellectual levels. Modern research They show that the healthy 8-hour sleep we were told about as a child is a very rough generalization. Adults need at least 7 hours of sleep. But the optimal length of rest varies for each person. On average, people under 35 need more sleep than middle-aged people, and women need more sleep than men.
But the duration of sleep does not solve everything. The quality of rest is much more important. To increase it, follow these guidelines:
- Ensure a constant supply of fresh air into the bedroom.
- Keep the room at a temperature of 18—20 °C.
- Remove all devices with control lights and lights from the bedroom.
- Make sure to soundproof the room and protect it from outside light.
- An hour before bedtime, discard any gadgets and backlit screens, including TVs and laptops.
- 2-3 hours before going to bed, you must finish your work and physical activities.
- Do not take caffeine and alcohol 5-6 hours before bedtime.
- Eat a moderate diet and never overeat. Avoid going to bed with a full stomach.
Temperature fluctuations
Scandinavians are considered to be among the happiest people on the planet, not only because of their high standard of living. People who live in extreme climatic conditions are not afraid of heat or cold. Mothers often take newborn babies in strollers outside in winter, allowing them to adapt to frost. Young people wear thin pants with turns of -15°C. And adults enjoy visiting the famous Finnish saunas.
And this is not about traditions and habits. Cold is good for the body — it improves the tone of the nervous system and causes blood vessels to contract, strengthening their walls. And heat helps to relax muscles, relieve emotional stress and remove metabolic products — toxins. Temperature changes are not only natural, but also very beneficial for humans — they stimulate the release of neurotransmitter hormones that improve mood and well-being. Of course, everything is fine within reasonable limits: do not expose yourself to extreme hypothermia or overheating in an attempt to overcome burnout.
Muscle relaxation
The relationship between physical and emotional well-being is not limited to sports. Excessive muscle tension causes feedback in the nervous system. If you do not want to rest and relax voluntarily, the body will force you to do it forcibly. Overstrained muscles significantly impair well-being and distract from work, reducing productivity. Moreover, their hypertonia can be caused not only by stress, but also by other factors such as stress, intellectual overload, and an uncomfortable posture while working.
To relieve excessive muscle tension, self-massage should be done at least once a week. Special rollers, balls and exercise equipment are suitable for this purpose. Electric massagers that can significantly increase the intensity of the effect on the body will not be superfluous either. And once a month, you should contact a specialist who will provide a professional relaxing massage.
Meditations
Meditation is talked about at every corner, but most of the recommendations are limited to general statements like “meditate and be happy.” Many of us think of meditation as a state of calm with our eyes closed. But it's actually more than that. This is a complete cleansing of the mind — a voluntary rejection of emotions and alienation from physical sensations. Meditation can be a very difficult practice, so you have to find your own path to calm down. But we can share some helpful tips:
- Look for your meditative image. Imagine a monotonous dynamic picture behind closed eyes. Someone looks at the endless sea, and someone looks at the sun over the desert.
- Ensure maximum silence. If this is not possible, use noise-absorbing headphones. They can include quiet, monotonous music without fast rhythms and sudden bursts of frequencies, such as ambient, lounge, or psi trance.
- Direct your thoughts inward, not outward. Don't think about work, everyday problems, communication with other people, past events and plans for the future. Imagine yourself inside your meditative image or chant a mantra.
Meditations can be combined with breathing practices. One of the most famous breathing exercises is called “4-7-8": you need to inhale with your nose for a count of 4, hold your breath for 7 seconds and slowly exhale through your lips folded for 8 seconds. Another technique is box breathing. The point is to inhale, hold your breath, exhale and hold your breath again, allocating equal intervals for each stage. You can start with 3-4 seconds and gradually increase the interval.
Both meditation and breathing exercises help to clear the mind of stress. They are especially effective for people who are exposed to visual hyperstimulation — exposure to saturated colors, short videos and bright flashes on digital gadget screens.
Conclusion: How to restore your body wisely?
The main rule is to break the endless chase that the lives of IT professionals turn into. By refusing to rest in favor of work, you increase productivity in the short term, but significantly reduce it in the distant future. Without taking time to actively recover right now, you will be forced to take long breaks from work, refuse to upgrade your skills and miss opportunities to move up the career ladder.
Therefore, at least one day a week should be devoted to actively restoring the body and mind. On this day, it is advisable to completely abandon your usual job, changing your type of activity. Better yet, turn off all your gadgets and don't get in touch to spend time only on yourself.
And this is just the first step towards creating a healthy work-life balance. Do you want to receive regular advice on self-development and improving professional productivity? Subscribe to our blog, which regularly publishes useful materials for IT professionals.
