I'm feeling really burned out.

Or, a great book works - it's worth picking up something you've been wanting to read for ages, or browsing your favourite section of a good bookshop, or getting recommendations from I Love Books :)

Hobby is a good suggestion, especially if you have time one evening a week to take some kind of class or whatever--breaks up the week and more to look forward to besides just the weekend.

and It must not be the job, because I had the same job for five years once and it was incredibly monotonous but my co-workers were awesome and I could deal with it.

I'm also tired of commuting an hour each way. It's like a total waste of two hours.

Taking a break from work, socializing, the internet, life.

Only last month I was really motivated, getting things done and doing well at work - this week it's like I've just given up. I'd have thought moving house would help my motivation but if anything it's made me want to slack loads.

My advice is easy to say, hard to do. Figure out what sort of job you would look forward to doing. Try to choose something you'd actually be good at, if you ever found a way to make a living at it. Don't limit yourself to what seems "practical". If someone somewhere is making a living at it, and you're pretty good at it, you could try your hand at it, too. (Keep your day job, as they say in the music business.)

If what really seems attractive is completely remote from any chance of earning a living (let's say, you want to walk from Nova Scotia to the Bering Straits) then figure out what you'd need to to do to make that happen anyway.

Then jump in with both feet, daydream about it, make plans, scheme, dream some more, wholly throw yourself into it. Get closer week by week to making it real. If your latest scheme falls apart, learn from it and try again.

Having crazy dreams and getting all caught up in them is not a sign of a weak mind, it is a way to keep your mental health in the face of a dreary, impersonal and indifferent world. Because even if you never quite succeed at getting the best work in the world for you or walking across a continent, you'll succeed in centering your life around what really matters to you and is fun. And you'll give yourself a fighting chance at grabbing the brass ring, too.

It's better than utter frustration and self-loathing.

After that, you can set up a barter system with The Man, wherein a certain number of boys/pizzas become available to you in exchange for letting yourself be mind-fucked for a certain number of hours a week. But never, never for one instant listen to all the people who say you should relax and enjoy your mind-fuck. It is rape, goddamit. That's why you had better come up really good purposes and goals of your own instead of settling for half-assed crappy purposes and goals. You've got teeth. Use them.

Even just on a regular workday, I try to have something to look forward to (talking to my bf on the phone at lunch, popcorn in the afternoon, something fun I plan to do after work or in a few days...). Also, I find that being productive in your personal life at work really makes you feel good, when you have a chance. I mean, paying a bill online or getting directions to somewhere you wanted to go.. Anything that could give you a slap on the back like, hey, way to go me, but on the company dollar.

That said, I am a total commitment phobe when it comes to work. But I decided I would much rather have smaller (ie: worse paying, less respected) jobs for a year or two at a time than to get so overwhelmed in one job that it BECOMES my life. When I leave at 5, I want to be able to forget everything about work until the next day. When that stops happening, I start looking for something different.

Am I Just Unemployable? (Sacked. Again. Part Three.)

Pick your tantrums wisely!

Good advice on this thread already I think.

OTM

I'm excited now.