The StopBurnout Blog
No hustle-porn, no ten-step morning routines. Just honest, practical writing on burnout, focus, and the breaks that actually keep you working for years instead of months — from the people who built a break enforcer for Windows.
Burnout rarely announces itself. It creeps in as cynicism, brain fog, and "just one more commit" at midnight. Here's how to catch it early — and a recovery plan that doesn't require quitting your job or booking a silent retreat.
Seven things that decide whether you'll still be using a break app in six weeks — enforcement, real activity tracking, multi-monitor behaviour, privacy — plus a five-minute checklist to run on day one.
Dry, gritty, aching eyes by late afternoon come from three specific things a screen does to them. The fixes that work, and an honest look at what's mostly marketing.
The pauses that decide how you feel at 6pm are much smaller than a lunch break. What counts as a microbreak, how often to take one, and where they stop being enough.
How long to study, how long to stop, and why the break you're taking — your phone — is the one that doesn't count. Plus a schedule that survives day five of exam week.
Three states that feel alike from the inside and need completely different responses. What burnout actually is, and why a fortnight off doesn't fix it.
Some people don't struggle to concentrate — they struggle to stop. Why notifications bounce straight off deep absorption, and how to build an interruption that lands.
"Just five more minutes" is the most expensive sentence in knowledge work. Why willpower fails at the exact moment you need a break — and what to put in its place.
The 20-20-20 rule, microbreaks, and the 52/17 rhythm — a practical guide to resting your eyes, wrists and back without wrecking your concentration.
You've tried Pomodoro. You've tried the pretty timer app. You still skip the break. The problem isn't the technique — it's that a reminder asks permission.
The commute is gone and so is the line between work and life. Why remote burnout creeps in differently — and how to rebuild the boundaries that protect your time off.
The valuable work happens in long, uninterrupted focus — exactly what notifications and meetings destroy. How to defend deep work, and why rest is part of it.
Rest isn't the opposite of work — it's part of it. What attention fatigue, memory consolidation and the brain's "default mode" reveal about why breaks pay off.
RSI builds silently over months of typing and mousing — until it doesn't. The early warning signs, and the breaks and habits that keep your wrists, neck and back healthy.
Your focus isn't a flat line — it rises and dips in roughly 90-minute waves. How to ride the peaks and rest in the troughs instead of fighting them.
StopBurnout watches how long you've actually been working and locks every screen until you've rested — a break you can't talk yourself out of. Free for 14 days, no account, 100% local.