Coding Through Burnout: How Hobbies Helped Me Heal
Introduction
Being a fullstack developer sounds exciting on paper — and it is. But over the years, working across different projects, stacks, products, industries, and teams, I found myself teetering on the edge of burnout more than once.
I love what I do, but when your profession is also your hobby, the lines blur dangerously fast. I was coding all day for work… and still coding at night for personal projects. There were weeks where I felt more like a machine than a person.
And yet, what helped me recover wasn’t stepping away from development completely — it was redefining what coding meant to me, and reconnecting with the things that remind me why I create in the first place.
When the Burnout Hits
The signs came slowly at first: exhaustion, irritability, brain fog. I’d sit in front of the editor and feel nothing. No curiosity. No drive. Just a mechanical push to “get things done.”
Burnout isn’t just being tired — it’s feeling disconnected from what used to bring you joy.
I tried taking weekends off, turning off Slack, muting notifications. But the real shift came when I learned how to disconnect deeply and with purpose.
My Cats Were My First Wake-Up Call 🐈
Sounds silly, right? But my cats reminded me how to exist without performance.
Watching them nap in sunbeams, chase shadows, demand affection — it grounded me. Pets don’t care about your deadlines. They don’t measure your worth in commits.
They just want you present.
In the quiet moments with them, I remembered I was a person first — not just a developer.
Music Helped Me Breathe Again 🎵
I’ve always been an amateur musician. During some of my lowest points, I’d pick up the guitar, not to write songs, but just to play. To feel again.
Playing music has no backlog, no Jira tickets, no standups. It’s just you and the moment.
And yet, my love for tech snuck back in — in a good way.
Turning Burnout Into Creation: Cadenza 🎹
At some point, I realized: maybe I didn’t need to separate my love for tech and music — maybe I could let them feed each other.
That’s how I ended up building Cadenza, a tool to help me with musical composition and music theory practice.
I made it for myself — a simple way to experiment with harmony, discover new voicings, and explore theory in an interactive way. But without even realizing it, I was also building something genuinely useful for other musicians.
That moment — when friends and fellow musicians started telling me they found value in it — reminded me why I started building things in the first place.
Not for performance. Not for productivity. But to solve real problems, to create tools that matter, and to bridge passions through code.
That realization brought me back to life as a developer.
When Your Hobby Is Also Your Career
This is the paradox a lot of us devs face: code is what we do for a living and what we do for fun.
That’s powerful — but also dangerous.
Here’s what I learned:
- 💡 Not every side project needs to be “shipped.” Sometimes, building something just for yourself is enough.
- 😌 Rest isn’t laziness — it’s fuel. True rest means disconnecting completely, even from side projects.
- 🎯 Purpose heals. When I stopped coding for output and started coding for expression, I remembered why I fell in love with tech in the first place.
Conclusion
Burnout doesn’t mean you’re broken — it means you’ve been running on empty. As a fullstack dev juggling many roles, it’s easy to forget you’re not just a producer of features. You’re a human with needs, rhythms, and a creative spark that needs care.
So if you’re feeling burned out:
- Pet a cat 🐾
- Play a chord 🎸
- Build something just for you 💻
And remember: the same skills that wear you down can also be the ones that lift you back up — if you let them reconnect you with joy.
👉 Try Cadenza if you’re into music too — maybe it helps you like it helped me.