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A guy in a Chiang Mai cafe warned me about co-working space burnout, and I didn't listen
Last year I was working from this popular spot in Chiang Mai called Yellow Bar Cafe, and an older nomad sat down next to me. He told me I looked exhausted and said "you're going to crash hard if you keep grinding in coffee shops every day." He explained how he'd seen dozens of new nomads burn out after three months by not taking real breaks or finding a proper desk. I brushed him off, but six weeks later I had the worst migraine of my life and couldn't work for a week. Has anyone else ignored solid advice from a veteran nomad and regretted it?
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christopher_sullivan19d ago
Jumped into a similar situation myself back in 2019... a guy at a hostel in Bangkok warned me about not taking real days off, just like that nomad in Chiang Mai. I nodded along and then spent the next month bouncing between cafes and coworking spaces without a single true break. Ended up with this weird eye twitch that wouldn't go away for two weeks, and my work quality tanked hard. @loganthompson mentioned the border run headaches, and it's the same kind of stubbornness, thinking we're the exception until our bodies force us to stop. It's like ignoring the check engine light in your car then wondering why it breaks down on the highway.
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jakeb2522d ago
The guy who warned me about the 90-day visa bounce did the same thing. Told me to actually leave Thailand for a proper reset instead of hopping to the border and back. Laughed it off, thought I knew better. Found myself stuck in a guesthouse in Phnom Penh with a splitting headache after my third visa run, basically useless for two weeks because I wouldn't listen. It's almost like these people have seen the exact same movie play out a dozen times before us.
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Rent is 800 baht a night in that guesthouse I crashed at in Phnom Penh, and the hangover from doing border runs three times in one month is something else. I learned the hard way that immigration officers at places like Mae Sot can spot a worn out passport from a mile away. They'll just stamp you with a 30 day entry and a side eye, then you're stuck trying to figure out if you can fly out to Vientiane or Kuala Lumpur for a real reset. My best advice is to book a cheap flight to somewhere like Penang or Chiang Mai for a week, not just a day trip. The extra money on a hotel and food beats spending two weeks sick on a lumpy mattress.
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