Mark L. Reyes 
Introduction
I swore I wouldn’t let it get that far. But I did. And in one fell swoop, I crashed.
I couldn’t see past my own hand. My eyes were in a permanent squint from stress, sleepless nights blurred into loops, and weekends? Forget it — every day felt like it ended with “Y.” I didn’t even know what “Sunday Scaries” were until they became my new personality trait, served up alongside ads for calming gummies in my doomscroll feed.
I’d become a heartbeat at the dinner table and not much else. And that, friends, was a major red flag.
The tech industry is incredible — full of chances to level up and reinvent yourself. But what no recruiter ever puts in the job description is the hidden cost of working in a profession that never, ever powers down.
What was I chasing? Or better yet, what was I running from? Was burnout just the pandemic catching up with me? Did I let job titles inflate my ego past the point of balance? Or did I just pile so much pressure on my “future self” that I forgot to ask my current self the simplest of questions: Why am I doing this?
The more I tap this out — writing, backspacing, deleting, re-typing — the more I realize: burnout doesn’t hand you answers. It hands you questions.
So no, today’s not the day for me to pitch you “5 Steps to Guaranteed Happiness” or a 30-day productivity bootcamp. Instead, consider this an invitation: if you need it, take a pause. Check in with yourself.
Here’s what’s helped me in the thick of burnout, a sabbatical, and a career gap. No particular order, no silver bullets — just things that worked for me.
- Pen & Paper
- Phone a Friend — Virtual
- Phone a Friend — IRL
- Move of the Day
- Do It For You, Not the Resume
1. Pen & Paper
I trust the weakest pen more than the strongest memory.
— Tim Ferriss
Ferriss also coined the term brain vomit — which, gross as it sounds, was exactly what I needed. My head was jammed with thoughts swirling like a blender on high, and writing them down became the release valve.
I tried all the classics: morning pages, gratitude journals, the 5-minute journal. None of them stuck long-term. What did stick was keeping it dead simple: bullet points, no ceremony, no templates. Just pen, paper, and whatever was in my head.
If a thought kept repeating across days, that was my signal it needed more attention. Otherwise, the act of writing was enough to quiet the noise.
2. Phone a Friend – Virtual
Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art… It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival.
— C.S. Lewis
There’s something downright intoxicating about reconnecting with someone you haven’t talked to in ages. Seriously, try it today. DM or call someone you haven’t spoken with in months. Anyone but your ex — unless you want a different kind of burnout, haha.
Just don’t go digging years back to that one random acquaintance. Otherwise, you’ll sound like you’re about to pitch them a pyramid scheme or sell them knives.
3. Phone a Friend – IRL
Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain… But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything.
— Muhammad Ali
This one hits different. Face-to-face matters. And no, you don’t need to book a weekend bender at an Airbnb to get it. Coffee works just fine.
For me, it’s a tall hazelnut oat milk latte. One hour, phone silenced, just talking with a friend. No algorithm can replace that.
4. Move of the Day
If you can’t fly, then run. If you can’t run, then walk. If you can’t walk, then crawl — but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
I don’t “work out” anymore. Back in the day, workouts meant chasing vanity muscles and late-night aesthetics. Now, it’s about function. Staying strong for my family. Staying present.
In Jiu Jitsu, some instructors promote you if you can successfully apply a new move the same day you learned it. That stuck with me. Movement doesn’t have to be intense — a walk, a jog, or just active recovery counts. Bonus: those are free.
5. Do It For You, Not the Resume
The irony is that this kind of pause is exactly what makes me better at the work when I come back, but the industry isn’t built to reward that. We’re wired for velocity. We celebrate the visible wins.
— Ashley Willis, GitHub
Career gaps can feel terrifying. No Teams notifications. No calendar invites. No dopamine hit from “being busy.” But here’s the thing: not everything needs to produce a bullet point for your LinkedIn profile.
This is where pen & paper come back in. Capture the thoughts, the temptations, the little urges to “do something that looks important.” Then remind yourself: this pause is important.
A Few Things That Gave Me Perspective
- AI has leveled up. It’s way past ChatGPT now. Between Sora, Google’s Veo, and “Nano Banana” (yes, that’s a real name), the spaghetti-eating Will Smith meme might finally get its sequel.
- Volunteering at my kid’s school. Especially as a dad, it was eye-opening. I even got to teach JavaScript to first graders with robots (spoiler: they loved block coding, not text coding). Teachers, I salute you.
- Cannabis as a career path. I took a 6-month horticulture course at UC Riverside. Being informed felt more responsible than staying stuck in stigma.
- I earned my brown belt in Jiu Jitsu. Joe Rogan calls purple belt the hardest to get, and he’s right — it mirrored my sabbatical struggle. Brown only came through consistency. Same lesson applies to life and work.
- Learning is faster than ever. Choose your channels wisely. Scrimba is great for hands-on coding. Frontend Masters is rock solid for structured learning. And if you’ve never coded? That’s fine too — you don’t always need code to create something awesome anymore.
Closing
So yeah — burnout sucks. But it doesn’t have to be the end of your story. Pause. Reconnect. Move. Write. And do things that matter to you, not your resume.
I’ll leave you with this:
The only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work.
— Steve Jobs
Cheers, friends. Here’s to finding your version of “great work.”