Chapter11: HowtoAvoidBurnoutinaRemoteTeam 126 pajamas,andthenI’dbecurledupwiththecomputer,writingblogposts,back in bed at night. It was bad. Not surprisingly, I got pretty burnt out doing that. I was working every day of the week, unhappy, never feeling done, and focusing more on quantity than quality. But I figured if I was working all day, I must be pretty important and doingpretty important things, right? ThenonedayIrealizedtheworkwasnevergoingtostop.Thereisalwaysmore to do, and when you work remotely, there is no one to tell you to go home or that the office is closing, so it has to be YOU who decides when to stop. You have to decide that the rest of your life is worth making space for, and not let worktakeoverthattime. WhenIdecidedtocutbackmyworkinghours(Idon’tcheckemailafter6p.m., I don’t work weekends, I don’t bring my computer to bed), it made me focus onquality over quantity. I had to make sure I was maximizing my 7-8 working hours, instead of just aimlessly moving from task to task over 12-14 hours a day, or being overly reactive to small fires and delaying more important work. I worked with my cofounder to define the most important priorities for my role, so that when 5 p.m. rolls around I can ask myself, ‘Have I done the most important work I could do today?’ And when I can say yes to that, then I can log off, recharge, and invest in the other areas of my life. That is what makes it possible for me to keep working without getting burnt out. JoshPigford,FounderofBaremetrics I think things like ‘motivation,’ ‘procrastination’ and ‘burnout’ are all kind of intertwined and burnout, to me, is essentially the sum of choosing to work on thewrongthingsfortoolong.We’renaturallymotivatedbysuccessfulfeedback loops,andyougetburnedoutwhenthatfeedbackloopsgetsbrokenoverand overagainfortoolong. Showup,workonthingsthatmovetheneedleandyou’llbefine. “Likeyourgrocerylist,mostthingscanwaituntiltomorrow.Setaside timeforworkandrest.”-ChrisGallo,Highrise