Ask HN: How to stop taking on too many projects getting burned out?

9 points by annie_muss 8 days ago | 23 comments

I am currently swamped with projects. I can't point to any particular project and say "This one was to much" but all of them combined have got me totally overwhelmed.

Even though I know I have a tendency to take on too much, I still find myself in this situation repeatedly. I think back to 6 months ago when I was agreeing to do some of these projects and I remember my thought process: 'I better be careful not to take on too much. I better make estimates extremely conservative.'

Nevertheless I find myself having far too much to do and not enough time to do it in.

What techniques do you have for not taking on too much? How do I get to the magical state of being able to underpromise and overdeliver?

andyjohnson0 8 days ago | next |

Is this work or non-work?

If its work then have an honest conversation with your manager and get better at saying no (or, at least, not saying yes). If necessary, leave and find a better working environment.

If these projects are filling your non-work life - otherwise known as Your One and Only Life - then recognise that this isn't sustainable. Just stop, give it a few weeks, go for walks, peoplewatch, breathe. Then choose the project that engages you the most, and which you can fit into a healthy part of your free time, and focus on that. Park the rest.

world2vec 8 days ago | prev | next |

Whatever estimate you came up with: double it. You think it will take 3 weeks, conservatively? No, it's going to take a month and half. If somehow you deliver earlier then so be it but give yourself ample space to do things properly and avoid burnout.

Another thing, which I'm still learning to do, is saying "No" to new projects until you finish at least one of the WIPs.

muzani 8 days ago | root | parent |

There's a trap to be careful of here, because your estimate now is 1.5 months, so it's actually going to take 3 months.

The general rule is 80% of the work takes 80% of the time, and the remaining 20% takes 80% of the time. Try to get 80% of it done in 50% of the time.

So the goal should be to get development 80% done in 3 weeks and begin QA by then.

tene80i 8 days ago | prev | next |

Start with asking yourself why you are agreeing to the projects. Is it that you want to do them, or are you being pressured?

If it’s you, then it’s about clarity. If it’s them, then it’s also about clarity.

You need to make your workload clearer to yourself. How can you even know if you have capacity to take on a new project?

You could simply list your projects and commitments / deadlines. Sometimes the list is enough.

You could block out your time, which is your actual resource.

If that’s failing, you could try better estimation, but it’s extremely difficult.

I would argue for simply having a maximum number of spinning plates. Like, two.

SonuSitebot 8 days ago | prev | next |

I’m in the same boat, working at a startup where taking on multiple projects isn’t really a choice. No matter how careful I am with planning, I still end up overwhelmed. Curious to see what others suggest!

One thing that helps me a bit: I try to prioritize based on impact—if something doesn’t directly contribute to growth, engagement, or key goals, I push it down the list. But still, balancing everything is tough. How do you manage?

scarface_74 8 days ago | root | parent |

Saying “no” is always a choice. If a startup can’t afford to hire enough people to not stress out its employees, it doesn’t deserve to exist

SonuSitebot 7 days ago | root | parent |

I get where you're coming from, but startups often have to make the most of limited resources. It’s less about saying 'no' and more about prioritizing smartly. Have you found a good way to manage workload in a fast-paced environment?

scarface_74 7 days ago | root | parent |

My thought doesn’t change. Are you a founder? Are you getting outsized compensation for your work? I manage my workload by being able to communicate trade offs between cost, requirements and time and setting a ceiling on how long I’m willing to work.

I put in 40 maybe 45 hours of work and the company gets to choose how they get to use that time. I give my input. But they make the decision.

When I need to do “deep work”, I turn off Slack and email. Even before remote work was a thing, I would tell my managers I need some quiet time to get $x done and I’m working from home. They would get a couple of more hours in from me then.

I’m not afraid to say “no” traditionally because I thought I could get another job quickly. Things are of course crazier now and I’m a lot less cocky. But I still have a years expenses in the bank in addition to investments.

I have been working for 30 years almost and I have found that early stage, underfunded startups aren’t worth the effort or the monetary return.

In my later years, I’ve had multiple opportunities to be a “CTO” or “director” of a startup. The positions were always just a glorified team lead. I’ve said no.

SonuSitebot 7 days ago | root | parent |

Fair points. I’m not a founder, but I’ve navigated three very different domains—business development in high-end fashion (traveling across multiple countries), niche technical leadership hiring, and now technical marketing, SEO, and product advocacy at a product-based startup. Burnout or feeling overwhelmed isn’t pushing me to quit.....I just want to manage it better.

Prioritization helps, but in a high-growth environment, trade-offs aren’t always straightforward. You mentioned setting a ceiling on your work hours—how do you enforce that when leadership keeps shifting priorities?

scarface_74 7 days ago | root | parent |

They can shift priorities as needed as long as they understand that the trade off is going to be not getting something else done.

I was the second technical hire by the then new CTO of a startup I worked for from 2018-2020. He was hired to bring the development in house from a third party consulting company after the company had traction. He was in his 50s and very technical and I was in my mid 40s. The founders were also adults with families. None of us were young tech bros who put the job before everything else.

I was over the architecture and much of the technical strategy. I knew how to talk to them in terms of the business and they trusted my judgment.

> You mentioned setting a ceiling on your work hours—how do you enforce that when leadership keeps shifting priorities?

Just saying “no” especially after I had proven myself. I knew they weren’t going to fire me as long as I was respectful and professional because I was good at what I did - “cloud native development”. They were forced to make a decision about priorities.

Honestly, would I do that now in 2025 with the job market the way it is? I wish I could say I would. But I would probably just suck it up to a point. But most of the time, you can get them to prioritize.

I left that company in 2020 when a job at BigTech fell into my lap. But in 2023, the company that acquired the startup offered me a job as a staff architect based on a reference. When I spoke to the new CTO and described my thought process about trade offs between on time, on budget and meeting requirements and prioritization without burning people out, he liked my response

SonuSitebot 6 days ago | root | parent |

I understand where you're coming from, especially with the shifting priorities and the need to make trade-offs. I resigned from my previous job in February 2024 after 10 years with the company, and although I interviewed with a client of the same company, they rejected me, saying my skills weren’t enough—despite successfully placing niche Director-level candidates in tech.

After that, I received a solid offer from another company with a decent salary. However, during that time, I was traveling to the USA to visit my sister, and I was truly inspired by my brother-in-law, who was building products for his Silicon Valley startup. It opened my eyes to the reality of the startup world—a high-risk, high-reward environment where "no" isn’t really an option. I am here by my choice now, but a lot of things are new, and the work is overloaded, so I’m actively finding ways to simplify things. That said, balancing everything is still tough. Exploring discussions like this is helping me. How do you manage?

scarface_74 6 days ago | root | parent |

The sad truth is then that you can’t.

If you aren’t willing to say “no” and prioritize, there isn’t anything else.

We all make choices based on our priority stack. I don’t judge anyone for having a different priority stack than mine. I do however try to let people know the tradeoffs.

Before I got into consulting, I fell into roles as an early hire when mostly new to the company managers, directors, CTOs were starting new initiatives.

I talk to them about how they manage priorities and work life balance. If I saw a situation like yours I personally wouldn’t accept the job.

In fact, I didn’t accept a job that would have paid significantly more than I was making to be over the cloud migration and strategy for a largish company. I didn’t want the stress.

Again, I’m not saying that a high stress early startup is not the right choice for you just be aware of the tradeoffs and have an exit plan before it starts affecting your mental and physical health and your family if you have one.

I’m 50 and while I still need to work, I don’t need to chase comp. I enjoy my relatively low stress job as a staff architect at a consulting company with unlimited PTO.

SonuSitebot 4 days ago | root | parent |

I completely understand the importance of prioritizing, and I’m actively looking for ways to manage the workload better. I’ve started hiring interns for time-consuming tasks and providing them with proper training. I believe shortlisting from good colleges is key to finding quality interns. It’s a challenge, but in my 47 years of age I’m finding creative ways to balance it all.

pizza 8 days ago | prev | next |

I'd suggest spending more time revisiting your calendar/remembering your current work, and/or finding what's not worth it any more. That way, you can either better say 'no' at the moment of new proposals, or make space for more important work as it comes up. Rather than have looming things that actually aren't as important as the mental space they've occupied.

hodder 8 days ago | prev | next |

Learn to say no in life. Simple as that. Easy? Not always, but it is simple.

Much like losing weight is simply about being in a caloric deficit - it is truly that simple. It isn't easy mentally but it is that simple.

chistev 8 days ago | prev | next |

I'm currently joggling three projects and time management is an issue. This time last year I was just hoping for an opportunity, now I'm struggling for time.

I used to pray for times like this.

Rh4v1_0 8 days ago | prev | next |

Give your projects a deadline. For example, if you want to start making a game but you still did end up that course, end the course first and then start making that game.

hiAndrewQuinn 7 days ago | prev | next |

The best advice is to simply take on less projects, and close some you currently have going on. It's alright to have limits.

soumikmahato 8 days ago | prev | next |

Think about the project's future, 5 years from now. Do you still want to continue doing that. If yes, choose that project

aosaigh 8 days ago | prev |

Say no. If you're like me, you don't want to disappoint people so say yes to too many things and end up overworked.

Pick the things you want to work on, not the things people want you to work on.