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Watched a coworker burn out in 6 months flat because he never took a real day off
Guy I shared a co-working space with in Medellin started strong posting from cafes every day, but after 6 months he looked dead inside and finally admitted he hadn't taken a single full offline weekend. Anyone else see the same thing happen to people who treat nomad life like a permanent vacation instead of a job?
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ivancoleman11d ago
Man I feel that. I had a similar thing happen to a buddy who was crashing in a Bali coliving place for like 8 months straight. He was at the desk by 7am every day and never really stopped until he crashed hard with some kind of stomach issue they said was stress related. It took him another full month just to feel normal again after he finally took a real break.
That "pretending to be productive" thing you mentioned hit close to home. I've caught myself doing that even on vacation days, scrolling through Trello just to feel like I'm still in the game. Its a trap.
One thing that helped me was just turning off my phone for a whole afternoon every Saturday. No checking anything. I'd go to a market or just sit in a park and watch people. Its amazing how much clearer my head felt the next Monday.
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noah_black2mo ago
Exactly 4 months into my first stint in Chiang Mai I hit a wall hard. I was in a hostel common room at 11pm on a Saturday pretending to be productive. @riley595 is right, you're just burning out in a nicer location. What broke the cycle for me was forcing a strict Sunday shutdown no matter what. No laptop, no Slack, no "just checking one thing." I'd go walk around the old city or find a random street food market. That one full day off every week made the other six way more sustainable.
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