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I just turned 43. I've been doing this for about 25 years now. I remember having a similar issue right around 30-33. Here's what helped me: Sleep. Make sur

I just turned 43. I've been doing this for about 25 years now. I remember having a similar issue right around 30-33. Here's what helped me: Sleep. Make sure you're getting enough. Seriously, prioritize this over many other things in your life. Address that fucking RSI. Go to a doctor if you have to. Experiment with breaks, standing desks, ergonomic keyboards, better chairs. Find what works -- this is the only body you get. Hydrate. Make sure you're drinking enough water. Dehydration can lead to brain fog and irritability. Change the way you take notes. I used to be able to hold large parts of a system in my head. That changed around 30. I had to start taking better and more structured notes. Incidentally, QA started really liking the bugs I fixed because my documentation ended up being so good. So, good things all around there. Make sure you're doing fun things. These don't just have to be technology related of course. But seriously, enjoy life. Play board games if that's your thing. Go hiking. Take pictures. Read a book (or three). Plan in downtime to walk during the day.

son_of_gloin 9y ago
Daily meditation might help as well. Even just 10-15 minutes.
tboyd47 9y ago
This is great advice. I recently started doing something for myself that's fun, playing video games with friends late at night, but it may be eating into my sleep too much.
- PeachPlum 9y ago
  Switching from bed at "2am, up at 7am" to bed at "10pm up at 6am" is one of the best things I ever did. Also "get off the computer at home and do other stuff" if you're at the computer all day at work
  - tboyd47 9y ago
    I guess part of it is just that I don't enjoy my work anymore (for a lot of reasons - technical and personal), so I'm not really motivated to optimize my life around being perfectly prepared for it. I mean, as terrible as I feel during work without sleep, I wouldn't have felt much better with sleep, and it will all be over at 5 anyway.
    - PeachPlum 9y ago
      The bright side is I don't mean "work is better" I mean "life is better". Having an hour or so before leaving the house in the morning is a gift. It changes the focus of getting up away from "must get to work".
    - rogerrohrbach 9y ago
      I'd say it's time for you to reassess what you want from life. What look like symptoms are sometimes signals from our subconscious. At 33, you've a chance to change course. Try, for example, the exercises in the book What Color is Your Parachute.
Tade0 9y ago
I'm younger than the OP and currently at a turning point at which I'm realizing that sleep is this thing that I just have to do now more often and can't skip on it anymore.
- agumonkey 9y ago
  Yeah it's a bit sad not to be able to push long nights of code, because getting out of sync becomes a big no.
  - canyon289 9y ago
    Same, I'm 28 now and sometime in the last two years I just started needing to sleep a lot. At 25 I was out drinking multiple shots and beers in a sequential nights till 3am. Sometime between now and then If i did the same I'm basically a zombie for a week
    - agumonkey 9y ago
      Yeah, either we find medical ideas on what's going on we need to work around that. Also I think a lot has to do with excitement. Maybe in another context you stay up late and wake early because now you're too excited again.
weaksauce 9y ago
> Change the way you take notes. I used to be able to hold large parts of a system in my head. That changed around 30. I had to start taking better and more structured notes. Incidentally, QA started really liking the bugs I fixed because my documentation ended up being so good. So, good things all around there. I found that org mode in emacs is a huge note taking boon for me. all the stuff is nice ootb when you use something like spacemacs as a base configuration.
- servilio 9y ago
  And its benefits can go way beyond note taking, e.g.: http://www.howardism.org/Technical/Emacs/literate-devops.html http://www.howardism.org/Technical/Emacs/literate-devops.htm... I used parts of that approach for sharing notes with the peers and boss, besides my own notes.
gozur88 9y ago
tl;dr: He has to start taking better care of himself. There are a lot of things you can get away with when you're 23 that you can't get away with when you're 33. As you noted, sleep is the biggest thing. It will help with the stress and memory.
samuell 9y ago
Same story here! Well, I'm 33 now, but I faced a similar situation over the last couple of years, but has managed to pretty much get over it by putting in most or all of the above adjustments, getting plenty of sleep being the most important one. I have also realized that sometimes, when I have really important and mentally requiring work to do, I stop caring about work hours and just follow my body's rhythm, which is mostly afternoons/evenings. That can make wonders to productivity. Absolute wonders.
AnimalMuppet 9y ago
Get some exercise. Go find some people to play ultimate frisbee with. Or, if that isn't your cup of tea, go for a walk at lunch. This not only gives you exercise, it also gives you time to look at the trees and sky - to put your mind on the physical world around you instead of on the code you're trying to build.
probinso 9y ago
I would like to agree and second this.

son_of_gloin 9y ago

Daily meditation might help as well. Even just 10-15 minutes.

tboyd47 9y ago

This is great advice. I recently started doing something for myself that's fun, playing video games with friends late at night, but it may be eating into my sleep too much.

PeachPlum 9y ago
Switching from bed at "2am, up at 7am" to bed at "10pm up at 6am" is one of the best things I ever did. Also "get off the computer at home and do other stuff" if you're at the computer all day at work
- tboyd47 9y ago
  I guess part of it is just that I don't enjoy my work anymore (for a lot of reasons - technical and personal), so I'm not really motivated to optimize my life around being perfectly prepared for it. I mean, as terrible as I feel during work without sleep, I wouldn't have felt much better with sleep, and it will all be over at 5 anyway.
  - PeachPlum 9y ago
    The bright side is I don't mean "work is better" I mean "life is better". Having an hour or so before leaving the house in the morning is a gift. It changes the focus of getting up away from "must get to work".
  - rogerrohrbach 9y ago
    I'd say it's time for you to reassess what you want from life. What look like symptoms are sometimes signals from our subconscious. At 33, you've a chance to change course. Try, for example, the exercises in the book What Color is Your Parachute.

Tade0 9y ago

I'm younger than the OP and currently at a turning point at which I'm realizing that sleep is this thing that I just have to do now more often and can't skip on it anymore.

agumonkey 9y ago
Yeah it's a bit sad not to be able to push long nights of code, because getting out of sync becomes a big no.
- canyon289 9y ago
  Same, I'm 28 now and sometime in the last two years I just started needing to sleep a lot. At 25 I was out drinking multiple shots and beers in a sequential nights till 3am. Sometime between now and then If i did the same I'm basically a zombie for a week
  - agumonkey 9y ago
    Yeah, either we find medical ideas on what's going on we need to work around that. Also I think a lot has to do with excitement. Maybe in another context you stay up late and wake early because now you're too excited again.

weaksauce 9y ago

> Change the way you take notes. I used to be able to hold large parts of a system in my head. That changed around 30. I had to start taking better and more structured notes. Incidentally, QA started really liking the bugs I fixed because my documentation ended up being so good. So, good things all around there. I found that org mode in emacs is a huge note taking boon for me. all the stuff is nice ootb when you use something like spacemacs as a base configuration.

servilio 9y ago
And its benefits can go way beyond note taking, e.g.: http://www.howardism.org/Technical/Emacs/literate-devops.html http://www.howardism.org/Technical/Emacs/literate-devops.htm... I used parts of that approach for sharing notes with the peers and boss, besides my own notes.

gozur88 9y ago

tl;dr: He has to start taking better care of himself. There are a lot of things you can get away with when you're 23 that you can't get away with when you're 33. As you noted, sleep is the biggest thing. It will help with the stress and memory.

samuell 9y ago

Same story here! Well, I'm 33 now, but I faced a similar situation over the last couple of years, but has managed to pretty much get over it by putting in most or all of the above adjustments, getting plenty of sleep being the most important one. I have also realized that sometimes, when I have really important and mentally requiring work to do, I stop caring about work hours and just follow my body's rhythm, which is mostly afternoons/evenings. That can make wonders to productivity. Absolute wonders.

AnimalMuppet 9y ago

Get some exercise. Go find some people to play ultimate frisbee with. Or, if that isn't your cup of tea, go for a walk at lunch. This not only gives you exercise, it also gives you time to look at the trees and sky - to put your mind on the physical world around you instead of on the code you're trying to build.

probinso 9y ago

I would like to agree and second this.