Thoughts of work invaded my life until I learned how to unplug
I struggle with this daily. As the founder of a startup, I would routinely pull 100 hour weeks. I remember being invited to a Halloween party and just showed up as &quot;exhausted software person&quot; because I had no time to prepare a costume.<p>I took a break for 8 years from startups, because I was unable to create boundaries in my mind.<p>This April, after what I thought was a long enough break, I just joined another one.<p>I&#x27;m writing this right now because I woke up early in a panic attack about an announcement from one of our competitors. We have a big launch coming up this week, and I&#x27;m afraid that we&#x27;re already too late. I feel my stomach clench and my mind race when I think about the next steps for the company.<p>The problem is that I&#x27;m only 4 months into the startup and I&#x27;ve already alienated my partner enough that I have to move out. My whole life has become devoured by this puzzle, and I&#x27;m always checking Twitter and Discord to see what I can work on next. I can&#x27;t slow my heart-rate down and just work at this job normally.<p>If any of you have a good way of &quot;turning off&quot; in order to keep your family stable and mental health okay, please let me know. And I&#x27;m not looking for a run of the mill response -- I really would like some advice from people who have really dealt with this before. It&#x27;s easy to give advice if you have good boundaries, but I would like some help from those who have really struggled.<p>I love my work, but I don&#x27;t like how it makes me feel. Thanks for your help, everyone.