What is "Burnout"?

ODP burnout, or just burnout, is when an editor feels their contributions are no longer helping the mission of the ODP. There are many symptoms of burnout, and I didn't see any of them coming. You see, I've been around a while, just over three years now. That's a long time to be with one project, in Internet time. Yes, there have been others that have been around nearly twice as long as I have, so why haven't they burned out? I really don't know, maybe they have. It is difficult to tell when someone else is experiencing burnout. I think that's why it's always surprising when someone quits or suddenly becomes inactive.

Around January of this year (2005), I began to experience feelings that I wasn't doing enough to move the project forward. There was lots of editing going on. But as I was doing it, I wasn't thinking about how it would make the directory better, I could only think about how a monkey could do what I was doing, with enough training. In order to combat those negative feelings, I started thinking that if I did enough edits every day, then that would make up for the fact that I was doing "simple" edits. Well, it didn't quite work out.

In short order, I began reading the forums religiously. Don't get me wrong, reading the forums is a good thing, but I was refreshing every five to ten minutes while at the computer to see who would be the next person to post. I wasn't reading them to be caught up on the current ODP happenings, it was compulsive. I couldn't stop. And the more I read the forums, the more I felt like the projects I liked to work on were less important than what "everyone else" was doing. I tried other things, like building new categories in my bookmarks, but it wasn't that satisfying. I like to find new sites to add, but describing them is boring for me. Almost every one of my description is "Includes x, y, and z." Substituting provides, describes, and offers for includes as appropriate. I have no imagination when it comes to writing descriptions. So I avoid it if at all possible.

How to Avoid Burnout

Avoiding burnout is easy, once you recognize it. The hard part is recognizing it the first time. Since the symptoms will be slightly different for each person, it's hard to predict when it will occur. Don't do things you don't like, don't let ODP take over your real life, and don't try to do too much. Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither was the ODP.

Coping with Withdrawal

If you do succumb to the urge to resign, don't despair. The urge to come back will most likely be overpowering the next morning. After a few days, the urges to try to edit will disappear. Life continues on without you, and so does the ODP. If you're lucky, you'll get a message from someone saying that they miss the work you have done and won't you come back. Needless to say, this doesn't really help with the withdrawal symptoms.

After about five days, I started to feel the need to edit again. I don't know why, it just happened. I managed to fight the urges to ask for reinstatement for almost two days, but it didn't last. I was back. This time, I vowed not to get too involved in pointless forum discussions, and not to get down on myself for the type of editing I like to do. Neither one is going so well at the moment. But it's a process.

Could the whole resignation and reinstatement circle have been avoided? Probably, but I'm not entirely sure. It was nice to have almost a week off, and for the most part not even think about ODP. I'm not sure that could have happened if I had been an editor. In any case, it worked (kind of). And that's what's important, right?

- ishtar