Wait, this isn’t a blog post about product management?

Actually, it is. It’s been a good start to the year professionally and personally, but I’m starting to feel a little burn out creeping in. Like that legacy codebase everyone’s afraid to touch, I’ve been running my life in “production” without proper maintenance sprints.

I’m one of those people who gets angry at myself when I’m not “productive”. I have a lot of ideas and projects going at any given time, and I find myself thinking of time I don’t spend doing those things as “wasted”. That leads me to start letting things slide and build up more and more personal debt. Each distracted moment with my fiancé or rushed meal is like another note on a feature we need but we won’t get to - a small negative compromise that compounds over time.

I know this is a problem that spans just about anyone with a job in the US, but I only know product management and software, so I’ll stick to that.

The Warning Signs

If you’re in any tech company past the MVP stage, you probably have robust monitoring set up. A request hits the app and if something goes wrong, a ping shows up in the console and it’s time to act. It’s unavoidable and you add more and more ways for the app to communicate an issue. The idea is that eventually it will be impossible to ignore.

Personal issues though? Those are the easiest to ignore.

In my world, burnout creeps in through the cracks of daily work. It shows up when I start putting off writing product specs or when I catch myself zoning out in meetings I used to love. The real tell? That pit in my stomach when I open up my project management tools and see all the decisions waiting for my attention.

When I start to dread getting into calls with my engineers to talk architecture or about an experiment we’ve been running, I know I’m starting to slip. These are my warning signs, my system alerts that something’s got to give.

Maintenance Time

Just as software needs maintenance to keep it running as expected, you need to set aside time to keep your life in balance. No one wants to be stressed out and overwhelmed 24/7 and no one deserves to be in a constant state of “just getting by”.

Here’s what’s actually worked for me:

• Take a break: I protect two nights a week for things I enjoy - whether that’s trying a new restaurant with my fiancé or having a movie night.
• Book Time With Yourself: When I need to get something done, I block time on my calendar for a meeting with myself. I add an agenda of tasks I need to get done, and then I block time for that. It’s so much easier to get things done when you have dedicated time.
• Personal Retrospectives: This is a new one for me, but something I’ve come to value quickly. Much like my agile teams do retrospects, I’ve started to do them for myself. They’re a space where I can reflect on what I’ve been doing and how I’ve been feeling. This has helped me focus more on the things that are important to me.
• Setting Good Boundaries: This is one I really struggled with early in my career. I thought always being available was the way to become indispensable. However, that isn’t the case. I’m at my best when I have time away from work and I can come back ready to focus and solve problems for the customer.

Continuous Improvement

Here’s the thing about burnout - it’s not something you fix once and forget about. It’s more like those pesky bugs that keep popping up in different forms. You don’t eliminate them entirely; you just get better at spotting them early.

The goal isn’t to become some productivity machine or stress-free zen master. It’s about finding your sustainable pace. The one that lets you do good work without losing yourself in the process.

Great products aren’t built by people running on fumes. They come from teams who have the space to think clearly, create boldly, and yes - rest regularly.

Take that break. Your roadmap will still be there when you get back.