Burnout does not announce itself. It accumulates.

I did not notice I was burning out until I was already there. There was no single moment. It was a series of small things that individually seemed reasonable:

• Answering one message at 11pm because it would take 30 seconds

• Skipping one workout because there was a deadline

• Taking one call on a Sunday because the timezone worked

• Not taking a day off because nothing was on fire

Each one was defensible. Together they were a slow leak. By the time I noticed, I had been running on fumes for months and had convinced myself I was fine because I was still shipping.

The thing that helped was not a vacation. It was writing down a hard rule: no work after 8pm, no exceptions, for 30 days. The first week was uncomfortable. The second week I started sleeping properly. By the fourth week I was making better decisions and had stopped dreading the morning.

For those who have been through it: what was your warning sign that you only recognized in hindsight?