I’ve burnt out. I’ve been working non-stop to get my startup to work. Now I can’t get myself to do even the simplest tasks.People keep telling me to rest but I honestly can’t disengage from my startup even when I’m not working on it. Fuck

I found that sometimes even just getting up and doing the dishes and making your bed, if you're really in a bad way, is enough. Call it a success and then move on, and then the next day you do it a little bit more.

I think that that is the best way of regaining one’s motivation and one’s energies after flirting with burnout. Those kinds of techniques enable you to keep going when otherwise other entrepreneurs might just have given up.

Spend <em>one</em> full day hiking through nature, by yourself, where you won't come across other people or have chance for conversation.

Consider it a work day -- you'll be thinking about work the whole time.

Steve Jobs used to walk everyday alone through sidewalks and paths with lots of trees. He said it was where he found the most clarity and best ideas.

Two things.

1. Burnout is real. Always has been. "Can't see the wood from the tree's" is a malady that has effected all of us, not just people working in startups. But understand the problem the above describes, you are so overwhelmed people are noticing your work rate is slipping, probably because you are so fixated by the million other things you also have to do. Something has to give. You need perspective.

As others have suggested, take some time off. Maybe not a week, but a few days. Try clocking off for Thursday + Friday, as well as the weekend. Don't check your email. Don't answer your phone. Disengage from technology. Take a stroll, go to the park, see a movie, whatever! Just pull yourself away far enough from "the problem", and give your brain something else to think about for a while.

I can guarantee that this lightweight recharge of batteries will help you. It will focus you. And you will probably think of more creative ways to solve your problems. AND....AND, you will realise there are a million more important things for you to do/think about rather than the million you were.

Good luck

Burn out happens. I work through Sundays (Is Saturday really a weekend) as there's just so much to do...

My answers:

I've taken up distance running (half & full marathons) - and I never did run before. It burns out all the stress and gives me a jolt for the day.

twice a year, I disappear for a weekend in a remote place where I don't meet very many people. Just walk, and think.

My full month vacation. I walk the Oxfam Trailwalker (it just blows your mind clean of all the debris that accumulate in 2d).

All the best.