My highest ever record was 3 years, but I’m out of the burnout phase thankfully

It gets tiring cycling through the stages of “Woah, how did you do that? You’re a rockstar!” and “What the fuck is this shit? Where’s the [stupidly simple feature involving small but rote tasks] I asked for 3 weeks ago?”

It really does. It wears me down. It turns me into a human vegetable sometimes when I can’t cope with it. The only thing I found that works is to strictly follow a schedule to separate work time from hobby time. Make an ironclad schedule and stick to it. If it’s not working hours and the system is burning, don’t fall for it. Fuck everything else when it’s your “me” time.

Edit: also, resist “inspiration” when it’s a work thing. Don’t spend your weekends improving/re-imagining something work-related because your mind convinced you that it’ll make your life easier later on. Tell your boss/manager about the idea and see if they’ll let you do it on company time. If a task is taking longer on company time and they don’t want to fix it, then it’s not your problem, it’s theirs, and you’re getting paid either way

Who? OP?