Hey 👋 this is Luca! Welcome to a new 🔒 weekly edition 🔒 of Refactoring.

Every week I write advice on how to become a better engineering leader, backed by my own experience, research and case studies.

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For almost 10 years, I have been CTO and co-founder of a VC-backed startup.

We often worked long hours and weekends. There have been tough times, and I may have experienced burnout.

I say “may” because, really, how do you know?

Recognizing stress has never been easy for me — especially by living and working in a fast-paced environment where it’s hard to find room for self-reflection.

Fast forward today, in the last six months I have worked almost exclusively by myself, on Refactoring.

I spend most of my days reading, writing, engaging (async) with the community, and developing product improvements for Refactoring itself. I have almost zero calls and very few distractions.

In such an environment, I became much more sensitive to how I feel, how productive I am, and my relationship with work.

Mind you, it’s not all rainbows and unicorns.

The work as a creator, or solopreneur, brings its own set of challenges and worries, which I would love to cover in another article. But the point is, for the first time, I managed to develop my own process to keep myself in check.

In the last few weeks I reflected on this and got curious about how others deal with the same. I surveyed the community and talked with some of the smartest people I know.

This article sums up what I learned, and is organized into three main blocks:

• 🔥 What causes stress and burnout — the six main areas of your work life.

• 🔍 How you can monitor your state — systems and tactics to keep yourself in check.

• 🧘‍♂️ How you can relieve stress — real-world routines that help your mind, your body, and your relationships.

Let’s go 👇