How I Stayed Motivated During Burnout

A personal journey through tech burnout, the kind nobody talks about honestly.

I gave up on coding. I gave up on applying.

For almost a month, I didn't touch a single line of code or open my CV. Not once. I'd sit in front of my laptop and just... close it. I felt done. Fully exhausted. Burnt out in a way I didn't know was possible when you're doing something you actually care about.

Here's the context: I had just graduated from university and immediately enrolled in a 12-month coding bootcamp because I knew school hadn't made me job-ready. I was grinding. Coding during the day, applying at night. I had a system. I had momentum.

Then the rejections started piling up. Or worse, the silence. No reply. No feedback. Just nothing.

I started applying to internships that were literally advertising that they'd teach you to code, even though I was already building full-stack projects. I felt overqualified but under-chosen. That gap between what you know you're capable of and how the world is treating you right now? That's where burnout lives.

What Actually Helped Me Survive That Season

I'm not going to give you a polished list of productivity hacks. This is just what genuinely kept me afloat.

God first. I prayed a lot during that period. Not just "please give me a job" prayers, but real conversations about purpose, direction, and peace. When you have zero control over outcomes, faith gives you somewhere to put the anxiety. That helped more than anything else on this list.

Gaming. GTA RP, Fortnite, FIFA. Don't let anyone shame you for this. When your brain is cooked from rejection and frustration, sometimes you just need to not think for a few hours. Games gave me that. They weren't a distraction from my goals. They were maintenance for my mental health.

Music. Headphones in, world out. I've always used music as a reset button and burnout was no different. Some days it was the only way I got through an afternoon without spiraling.

Talking to people in tech. This one mattered more than I expected. Just knowing other developers were going through the same thing, the same silence from recruiters, the same imposter syndrome, the same "am I even good enough" moments, made the whole thing feel less like a personal failure and more like a shared experience. Find your people. Talk to them.

The Thought That Kept Me Going

Before all of this burnout hit, I had landed a well-paying gig. It wasn't permanent, but it was real. I had done it once.

And that one fact became a lifeline.

If it happened once, it can happen again.

I kept coming back to that. On the worst days, when I hadn't heard back from anyone in weeks, when the progress felt invisible, I'd remind myself that I had already proven I was hireable. The market was tough. The timing was off. But my ability wasn't the problem.

That thought was fuel in a very dry season.

The Social Media Trap

Let's be real: social media made things significantly worse.

Every day I was seeing people post wins. New job. New offer. Big salary reveal. While I was stuck, watching from the sidelines, questioning everything. I had to learn to take breaks from it, not because those people didn't deserve their wins, but because the algorithm wasn't showing me anyone else's struggle. Just the highlights. And comparing your behind-the-scenes to everyone else's highlight reel is a losing game.

You're on your own timeline. That's not a cliché. It's just true.

How I Came Back

I didn't come back with a grand plan. I just started coding again. But this time, not for a job. For myself.

I built things because I wanted to see them work. I stopped applying desperately and started applying intentionally. I gave myself permission to be imperfect and still keep moving.

That shift, from "I need to prove myself to get hired" to "I'm building because I love this", changed everything. The motivation came back. Slowly, but it came back.

If You're In That Space Right Now

Exhausted. Discouraged. Wondering if it's worth it.

It is. You're not behind. You're not failing. You're in a hard season, and hard seasons end.

Take the break. Actually take it. Don't just feel guilty about taking it. Pray, game, breathe, talk to someone. Then come back on your own terms.

You've got this. 🙏

If this resonated, I write about the real side of being a developer in Accra. The wins, the struggles, and everything in between.