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Ask HN: My brain refuses to think, what should I do?
I have a problem I've been experiencing for some time now. I hope someone experienced something similar and has some good advice.
I've come to a point where it's really hard to do even the easiest work. Each time I sit to code and I face the slightest "problem", I start looking for a distraction as soon as possible. I realized it today when I had to write one line of code to calculate the scale of an image.
It was really a trivial problem, I just need to figure out a couple of measures to put into a division, but since it requires 30 seconds of thinking, my brain guides my hand to the nearest distraction (i.e. the facebook/email/HN). I really have to struggle to do some work (as a side note this goes away a little when I manage to begin working, but the danger always lurks waiting for some more difficult task to distract me from).
It's not a lack of motivation. This is a project I want to work on and when I'm not at my computer I think about how to code it and I just wait to have some time to work on it. I feel motivated thinking how cool it will be and really want to do it. But as soon as I have time, like in weekends, I start wasting it in useless activities. When I force myself to sit and code, my mind surrenders at the smallest obstacle.
It looks like my brain is not used to think anymore. I can spend time reading a lot of things, but as soon as I try to actively do something, my mind refuses to do it. I think I have some sort of addiction/disorder and I can look for psychotherapy, but I wan to know if there are easier and cheaper remedies. Any advice?
- goodside 16y agoInstead of asking HN, ask a doctor. What you're describing sounds like the textbook symptoms of ADHD. Numerous studies have shown psychotherapy to be ineffective for ADHD compared to medication therapies, which have remarkably high success rates (much more so than, say, antidepressants do for depression) and relatively good side effect profiles.
- Eliezer 16y agoSitting next to another person while I tried to write my rationality book increased my productivity by at least 400%.
- jmount 16y agoPerhaps you are habituated to the distractions (if so find a way to block them, like killing your router for an hour). Another possibility is you are procrastinating to put off dealing with the stress of success or failure of your project. If you are having general trouble thinking there should be tons of other symptoms (and run don't walk to a doctor). Over all it is up to you to consider some alternatives explanations and come up with a counter strategy.
- yannis 16y agoTry writing your code by hand for the next two hours.
- saurabh 16y agoDownload the documentation that you need for offline use. Yank the Ethernet cord. No Hacker News, Reddit, GMail, Facebook. If you need anything from the net, connect and yank the cord ASAP. Make it a ritual. I think we are getting addicted to the drugs similar to what we are trying to synthesize. Do tell me if it works for you.
- fmora 16y agoYou probably just have programmers block. Give in to your distractions for an entire day or two. You'll get so sick of them that you may want to go back to programming. Going to a cafe to work is also a really good idea. Have done a lot of work in them. We all go through these problems.
- lionhearted 16y agoQuestions that might illuminate if there's a problem - When's the last time you went for a walk? When's the last time you were in nature for a while? When's the last time you spent a day absolutely, completely relaxing? How's your diet? How's your sleep? How's your sleep schedule? When's the last time you had a vacation? How much inspirational media have you been through in the last week - books, movies, audio, whatever. When's the last time you hung out around or talked on the phone with someone really inspirational? Beyond that - changing environment can bring you out of a funk, bringing a laptop to a cafe with no internet can be a great option if you can do some work offline.
- Alex3917 16y ago"Beyond that - changing environment can bring you out of a funk, bringing a laptop to a cafe with no internet can be a great option if you can do some work offline." Even the best entrepreneurs have a really hard time focusing because they have so many different kinds of tasks that they can never really get into a flow state. Trying to do work as an entrepreneur while having access to the Internet is like trying to study for finals in a crack house.
- DeusExMachina 16y agoYou are right, internet is a huge time sink. On the opposite site sometimes I need to look for something and if in that moment I do not have a connection, I use it as an excuse to stop working and procrastinate.
- robryan 16y agoYeah, your defiantly going to need a lot of resources handy to work off-line and even then you probably hit something that you need to lookup online. I can see that given the right task though it would be beneficial, the slightly slower working pace by lack of resources could be made up by the concentration you get. It works for me studying for exams when I can have all the course content in front of me, even then though I end up finding something interesting that I want to look up in lecture notes or something that makes no sense so I need to search for a better explanation online.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- mahmud 16y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique Worked wonders for me.
- DotSauce 16y agoI love this. Finally, a use for my alarm clock.
- da5e 16y agoThanks for the link. I do a less formal version of this sometimes. If I've got so much to do that I can't do anything, I make a list of everything then start doing as little as 30 seconds on each thing and cycle through them till something gets traction.
- toumhi 16y agoworks for me too. Especially useful the pomodoro log: you can see instantly what you did during the day. If you are supposed to work and you only accomplish 3 pomodori today, that will convince you to achieve more tomorrow.
- redraga 16y agoIf I find that if I'm not concentrating or get easily distracted I just do something fun for a while. Soon I'm refreshed and I can start working seriously. Maybe you can take a break, go away on a weekend or watch a movie to refresh your mind?
- fintler 16y agoGo for a long walk in the park. Stop coding for a few days. Isolate yourself from tech in general for a while. Let yourself reset.
- datawalke 16y agoFrom time to time I suffer the same issue. I look back hours later and get angry at myself for 'wasting' so much time. There are a few things you can do to help you out that others have mentioned. However this works for me the best: I edit my hosts file (Windows: /Windows/System32/drivers/etc/hosts, Mac: /etc/hosts) to look something similar to: 127.0.0.1 news.ycombinator.com 127.0.0.1 techcrunch.com www.techcrunch.com 127.0.0.1 reddit.com www.reddit.com etc. Alternatively you can use other tools to block traffic. RescueTime (http://www.rescuetime.com/)is http://www.rescuetime.com/)is an awesome tool as well.
- datasink 16y agoI wrote a small PHP command-line tool for turning on/off these host file entries. It's fairly simple, but I've found it to be extremely useful in killing off stray checks of favorite websites, which inevitably end in larger blocks of misspent time. http://github.com/killsaw/Timeguard http://github.com/killsaw/Timeguard
- jacquesm 16y agoMake it a command line utility only for turning those entries on, but make it as hard as it could be to remove them again.
- datasink 16y agoI considered this while writing it, but figured there's a fine line one must walk with a utility like this. If it's too annoying to disable, you won't use it. Typically once I flip it on, I forget about it, until I actually try to check a site that's been blocked. I find that being unable to load a site or loading a local webserver hosted file injects just enough time to realize I should be doing something else. Previously I wasn't in the "trick yourself" camp, but having used this for a while, I definitely am. Used in conjunction with the Pomodoro Technique, it's a really solid way to keep oneself on track.
- thebigshane 16y agoI have to mention Leechblock again, a firefox plugin that lets you customize times/days that you can (or can not) view certain webpages. Great for keeping yourself from surfing when you come home from work but letting you surf on a lazy saturday morning. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4476/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4476/
- aneth 16y agoI highly recommend learning meditation. I meditate once a day for 15 minutes and it's worked wonders for my ability to feel well and focused. Personally I learned a cheaper and less cult like variation of transcendental meditation, because it requires little training, time, or even effort. A day without meditation for me now is worse than a day without sleeping.
- justlearningnow 16y agoHello, could you please elaborate a bit on the meditation technique? What exactly do you do? Thank you so much for answering. I've been trying to learn TM but all the courses cost a fortune..
- aneth 16y agoI don't remember the name of the course but will respond when I get home tonight. Message me if I forget.
- DeusExMachina 16y agoI'm getting interested in meditation too and I'm starting with this: http://www.mro.org/zmm/teachings/meditation.php http://www.mro.org/zmm/teachings/meditation.php
- justlearningnow 16y agoHello, thank you for sharing this!
- aneth 16y agoBetter late than never. The course I used was this one: http://www.naturalstressreliefusa.org/compare.php http://www.naturalstressreliefusa.org/compare.php I'm sure there are many like it, but this one was well done and taught me the basics of this type of meditation.
- rhl 16y agoI just spent a useless day not managing to get in serious productivity mode, and I tried 15 minutes of meditation -- I am SO relaxed now, it is like a short nap that also stretches your body and makes you high on oxygen... It's still very hard to control the flow of thoughts, but I guess that comes with practice. I couldn't get in Lotus position, but this page at Wikihow helped quite a bit: http://www.wikihow.com/Meditate http://www.wikihow.com/Meditate
- mhb 16y agoWe're happier when busy, but our instinct is for idleness: http://bps-research-digest.blogspot.com/2010/07/were-happier-when-busy-but-our-instinct.html http://bps-research-digest.blogspot.com/2010/07/were-happier...
- jacquesm 16y agoI suffer from the exact same thing from time to time and I've learned to resort to lists when I am like that. Anything I need to do goes on a list and I reward myself with some kind of distraction only after any item on the list gets completed. Usually it's a sign that my mental batteries are running low or even past empty but some stuff still needs to get done. I find that after the third or the fourth item from the list gets completed habit takes over and I'm getting 'in to it' more and more and those molehills-turned-mountains disappear with greater ease. Good luck combating this, it can be a real problem, especially if it persists for a longer time. I've found that sometimes it is symptomatic of some underlying issue, something else in life that is deadlocked and needs solving first, not sure if that could be the case with you.
- tortilla 16y agoLists are key. A simple text file labeled todos.txt sits in my dropbox and I have it set to open with a hot key (quicksilver, osx). I tried all types of apps for todos/project management, but the simplest is the best, for me.
- smallblacksun 16y agoI prefer using a physical notepad for my list. I really like being able to physically cross out items after I have completed them.
- spatulon 16y agoSomething similar solved the problem for me too. I used to spend most of the day reading HN, reddit and other sites. I even remember a week last year where I sat at work for the required 40 hours and didn't get a single thing done. Now I sometimes close my browser at the end of the day and realise I never got round to looking at the HN tab I opened first thing in the morning. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say I'm at least 10x as productive. All it took was to start keeping a log book. Any time I get something new to do (e.g. new feature, bug fix), I write it down, prefixed with "TODO" and highlight it to make it easy to spot as I flick through the book looking for unfinished tasks. Any time I solve a problem, I write down what the problem was, why it was happening, and how I solved it. Having the book next to my keyboard serves as a constant reminder of what I should be working on, and that really helps to focus whenever I get the temptation to open my browser and get distracted. Keeping a record of how I solve problems always has a chance of being useful in the future, but it's incredibly rewarding (and therefore motivating) to see the pages fill up each day. It's just a nice, quick visual indicator of progress.
- honopu 16y agoyou a drinker? I find that if I was out partying the night before, my mind just likes to do brainless and mindless tasks like watching tv, surfing reddit, etc. That's why I try to limit it these days. I wouldn't have a problem writing documentation, but actually creating productive code is a chore in and of itself during those days.
- gte910h 16y agoYou need a vacation, and you need to cancel a huge number of things in your life that you "need to do".
- asnyder 16y agoYou're burnt out, it happens, more so in the thinking oriented fields. As some of the other comments mentioned, you need a break. Fortunately my gf forces me to take time away from work, otherwise I would be burnt out half the year.
- jacquesm 16y agoThat's the second time in a few weeks this comes up on HN, if you 'need a break' you are not burned out (yet). Burn-out is not something you're going to solve with a break or a change of scene for a few weeks, but is a pretty serious state of mind that will probably affect your life for many years and will leave lasting scars for the remainder of it.
- jacobolus 16y agoCan you elaborate? What do you mean by “burn-out”?
- jacquesm 16y agoIt's not just what I mean by burn-out, but more about what the accepted meaning of the term is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnout_%28psychology%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnout_%28psychology%29 Edit: Thanks for the downmod, that article has a very thorough description of what burn-out really is and goes in to a lot more detail than I ever could in a comment here. If you think that linking to a wikipedia article instead of writing an essay sized entry is bad form you're more than welcome to enlighten me as to the proper procedure.
- jacobolus 16y agoI didn’t downvote you, but the OP’s comment doesn’t seem to me to reflect “burnout” as it is described in that Wikipedia article (e.g. the Tracy quotation “burnout is largely an organizational issue caused by long hours, little down time, and continual peer, customer, and superior surveillance”). Then again, I’m still not sure I understand either a formal technical definition, or quite what people generally mean when using the term colloquially. Seems like a broadly and fuzzily defined term.
- Gerd 16y agoMost likely you have given your brain the task to do so. You have given your brain the task to care about a lot of things without letting go. The best things to start with that I know and have done: 1. Make a list of things that cost you energy. Mark the three most importan. Solve them or let them go. 2. Free your brain from your todo list. It has better things to do. Apply the book "Getting things done" to give your brain peace from the things you haven't done yet. 3. Use a countdown timer to work 50 minutes on one task. Make a 10 minutes rest and then do the same thing with a completely different task. What this does to you is NOT to urge you to get something done. What it does is giving you complete freedom not to care about anything else for 50 minutes. (I know a similar method with 25 minutes. I prefer 50. It is no accident that it is exacly half the time. Do 25 or 50 but nothing between.) Feel free to combine this methods ad lib. Gerd, brain hacker, hypnotist, NLP master
- aaronblohowiak 16y ago"But as soon as I have time, like in weekends, I start wasting it in useless activities." Are you familiar with the concept of a duty cycle?
- goldenthunder 16y agoSleep more! This happens to me when I don't get enough sleep for a while.
- maqr 16y agoI'll say it: You should do drugs. You're describing a brain problem. It might be caused by poor diet, sleep, life perspective, etc. But whatever the cause, it's a problem in your brain; and it's probably fixable with drugs. If you feel you have an ADHD problem (which is what it sounds like), there's a variety of pills that can correct your symptoms. This quiz is fairly accurate in terms of diagnosis (really, self-answered questions are one of the few indicators available to psychs for ADHD): http://psychcentral.com/addquiz.htm http://psychcentral.com/addquiz.htm If you think you're too stressed, there's pills for that too. I've also read that marijuana is helpful (counter-intuitive as it may seem) for reducing both ADHD and anxiety symptoms; so depending on your local laws, you might want to consider that. My point is that lifestyle improvements are good, and I'd certainly advocate them, but don't rule out the possibility of using chemicals to your advantage. It's 2010 and we have that technology now.
- joe_the_user 16y agoDiagnosing someone over the Internet seems a bit premature.
- maqr 16y agoNo diagnosis here, it's just what it sounds like to me. I'd encourage the OP to go see a doctor and consider medication. But it seems silly to me to rule out drugs at all, given how much effort has been put into researching and applying them.
- forgottenpaswrd 16y agoI think this is a very bad advise. Don't use drugs EVER. Drugs never fix problems. The only hide them. if your body is telling you something, you should fix the root of the problem, not remove the symptoms. Whatever a drug does(stimulant, depressant...)the body will balance it giving the opposite effect over time(the roller coaster effect).This means instability of everything from mood to chemicals on your blood. Not to mention the body getting used to it, needing each time more and more to cause the same effect and getting addicted.
- rajivn 16y agoThis usually happens to me when the task at hand is not challenging enough. Try and develop some genuine interest in what you are doing and everything will just flow.
- stan_rogers 16y agoTake this seriously. Very seriously. What you're describing may be no more than acute stress, something that can be fixed with a proper vacation (as in "completely vacate your life" -- go on a camping trip, visit an ashram or monastery, spend some time wwoofing) and a subsequent lifestyle change to allow for periods of relaxation and enjoyment during your normal routine. Or it may be something much bigger. As a sober alcoholic (25 years), I can tell you from my experience that the number of people who say "I think I may be addicted" without actually having a problem is statistically insignificant. Not that you necessarily have an addiction as such, but that you probably sense that you're using (whatever) in a different way than you once did. In other words, you're self-medicating -- and you want to address what it is that you're medicating. Again, that may be acute stress, and a quick fix may do the trick. ("Mental illness" includes things like acute stress, depression, anxiety and so forth, so even if you aren't heading for major psychosis, the feeling that you're going crazy is more than just a feeling. And it's a positive feedback loop -- anxiety about your anxiety is crazy-making.) If you've stepped over the line into real dependency, then it'll take a little more work, and there are a lot of solutions out there. The alternative to getting help is exemplified in the gutters and alleyways of any major city. On the other hand, medicating aside, you are also describing what I went through during the early onset phase of Lewy Body Dementia about five or six years ago. Not fixable, not fun, a bugger to diagnose, but its progress can be slowed. I ignored the symptoms for long enough (there was always a reasonable explanation) that I now walk around like a late-stage Parkinson's sufferer, get lost on familiar streets, forget the names of the people closest to me, and soil my trousers from time to time despite receiving the best possible medical care. Are you taking this seriously yet?
- DeusExMachina 16y agoI must admit that your answer is pretty scary. I wasn't taking it seriously till now because I was not totally aware of it. But today I realized how I was behaving, so that's why I wrote it here. I hope is not LBD, I did some research and I think I'm quite young for that (I'm 30). But the main reason for which I think it's unlikely it's because I get this only when I try to code on my projects. I can get other things done outside of coding and even write code if I'm really compelled (like in my daily job). But when I'm on my own my mind drifts away. I can read books and manuals, even think about solutions for my project, but as soon as I start to code it strikes me (not always, to tell the truth, two weekends ago I got a lot work done, but this is increasing). I'm going on vacation in 10 days, I will take them very seriously.
- jawngee 16y agoMarijuana + Exercise. Seriously. I was having exactly the same issues recently, mostly the result of burning out in a giant flame from my last gig. MJ and getting off my mildly chubby ass were huge boons to productivity. YMMV, but it's worth a shot. I'd go for something a long the lines of Sour Diesel or BC Blueberry are strains I've found to really increase concentration and focus without making one lazy or sleepy.
- binspace 16y agoAlso, try coding while high. I find it does not really diminish my IQ, it just changes the how I think. Basically, my thinking becomes more tangential, so I'm able to explore scenarios with depth. It also relaxes me and helps me to let go of certain notions create boundaries to coming up with different solutions. Usually, when encountering such a problem, I will pace around the house exploring the line of thought. Of course, focus can be a problem, so it's not exactly something that should be done all of the time. However, there are things that can help you to stay on task, such as having the code you are working on open. Of course, YMMV.
- fmora 16y ago"Does not really diminish my IQ" You remind me of a TV program where they did a study how drinking affect driving. The test subjects would swear that they drive even better when drunk. They got them drunk, put them behind the wheel, and it was horrible. They completely suck. How do you know is not the same thing with you. We would need to do an experiment to verify your claims.
- ellyagg 16y agoIt surely lowers you IQ, although it still may still be a net positive. Many brilliant people are also anxious, and can't get things done because of it. If marijuana helps you relax enough to focus, this is a win. I don't smoke, and I've hardly done any sorts of drugs at all ever actually, but I kind of get the appeal when I take Benadryl (I know it's weird), because the tiredness relaxes me and I stop worrying about a lot of peripheral problems.
- watty 16y agoI've also suffered from the same problem. I'm very interested in my project and motivated to do it but some days I just can't. I've found one thing that can change my day from zero productivity to 100% is a todo list. I just write down on a piece of paper some tasks I want to get done that day and usually I've crossed them all out by lunch time. Of course then you'll procrastinate from writing todo lists but that's another issue. If you try todo lists, exercise, motivational books, etc. and still can't seem to focus on something you should be able to focus on, go talk to your doctor.
- mrleinad 16y agoModafinil
- jiganti 16y agoOr provigil. But I don't suggest either as longterm solutions unless you get psychiatric confirmation that medication is necessary.
- anigbrowl 16y agoI think I have some sort of addiction/disorder and I can look for psychotherapy, but I wan to know if there are easier and cheaper remedies. The loss of productivity from what sounds like ADD will be a lot more expensive than the cost of consultation and medication.
- gcheong 16y agoYou might try this: http://contextualpsychology.org/act_for_the_public http://contextualpsychology.org/act_for_the_public
- desigooner 16y agoSleep on time .. atleast 7 hours of sleep. Exercise ... Either early morning or early evening. To quote Frank Costanza, I feel vigorous after working out. Try to use natural light vs. Artificial light. Meditate. If you're losing focus, switch off the lights, lower the blinds and look at the flame of a burning candle for a few minutes and try to keep a blank mind. Haven't done this for a while but did help me reduce stress.
- maximilian 16y agoYou have this problem: http://xkcd.com/477/ http://xkcd.com/477/ I know I have it sometimes. I think sometimes we just get in this bad habit of letting our mind escape to easier things. I'd say just redirect that traffic, turn off the internet or something and just force yourself back into a working habit.
- j_baker 16y ago"I think I have some sort of addiction/disorder and I can look for psychotherapy, but I wan to know if there are easier and cheaper remedies." I'd highly recommend seeing a doctor of some kind. This isn't necessarily something that's all in your head. What you're describing could be the symptoms of any number of physical or mental disorders, many of which need a doctor's attention. Don't be afraid to seek help. It could very well change your life.
- warmfuzzykitten 16y agoWelcome to Short Attention Span Theater. You must read email, but write as little as possible. Remove yourself from all email newsletters. Swear off facebook, twitter, HN and all other distractions for at least two weeks. When you discover you didn't actually miss anything, you'll be on the road to recovery.
- Ratufa 16y agoI have similar issues at times. One cause (for me, at least) might be anxiety -- if you are very worried about a failure or have had negative experiences with evaluation of your work, it can carry over into small tasks. Our brains can be pretty clever about avoiding stressors. Bringing your work with you at all times (e.g. always thinking about some problem) doesn't help. Some suggestions that sometimes work for me: Get enough sleep (though, sometimes I find that lack of sleep, to a point, can help with focus, especially if paired with loud music). Cut down on the caffeine. Segment your time. Specifically allocate blocks of time to do something totally unrelated to work (see a movie, read some mindless fiction, whatever you like to do for fun). Make an effort not to think about your work projects during those periods. Exercise and/or meditate. Train yourself to be mindful of what you are doing, so that you catch yourself when you switch from work to some distracter. When you sit down to work, use a timer to set how long (at a minimum) you will stay on task. When you feel yourself starting to drift during that time, close your eyes and concentrate on your breathing for a minute or so, then back to work. If all else fails, you can try psychotherapy, but shop around for a therapist who specializes in this sort of disorder (adult ADHD would be one way to classify it). The person you visit will probably try to prescribe some drug as treatment. From my experience (long ago), Ritalin really really worked as a focus-enhancer -- perhaps too well, in some ways -- though the side-effects were unpleasant enough not to want to use it for very long periods.
- ohyes 16y agoI'm guessing that this is not a disorder, because if it is, then we all have it. Every programmer has trouble sitting down to code at certain times. You say that when you are not at your computer you think about how to code it. Why not keep a paper notebook with you and write down how you think you are going to code it? Or keep a laptop with you and boot it up and start coding when you get excited thinking about it? Later on, when you want to jump start your programming process, read through the notebook and let yourself get into the mental state you were in when you were excited about it. (Also, unplug the internet). In my experience, coding isn't as easy as 'making' yourself code (unless you are typing boilerplate or doing copy/paste coding). You have to either take advantage of the times that you are excited and want to code, or you have to coax yourself into that mental state. It is just like creative writing. Most good writers do not sit at a desk with a blank piece of paper and just start writing. They make notebooks and journals and they write down ideas as they come. Later when they do have to write, they have all of these cues to start the creative process. For me, at least, this is roughly equivalent to "writer's block," so you may want to read some literature on that. (first off of google: http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/acadwrite/block.html http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/acadwrite/block.html)
- greenlblue 16y agoSet up your router to block certain sites during certain hours so that you are forced to work.
- da5e 16y agoPerhaps do the parts of the task that do not require thinking and that will lead to the thinking part of the process. Perhaps write out a detailed description of the task (even if its a small task) without a commitment to tackle it. That might concretize it for you. A recent article on procrastination referenced on HN summarizes the ideal process as thinking in concrete terms to get started and then visualizing the wider ramifications as you are moving forward.
- forgottenpaswrd 16y agoI think you are exhausted and bored. Other people has told you what to do: force yourself to relax, to take vacations or take a break, sleep well, eat well, and exercise. Read "The power of full engagement" Tony Swartz's. It has a very useful video on youtube. Force yourself to use facebook or read hackernews ONLY when you had finished your work(evening-night), never when you start it(morning). Your short memory is clean after sleeping(it gets backed up in medium and long memory), and you don't want to fill it with pasive stuff but with active info. Creating something(code, making things, writing a book...) takes way more resources than consuming something(reading code, using things, reading a book or what someone has updated on facebook). You should do what is harder first. Your work environment should be at the right temperature, if it is too hot(now the north hemisphere), your brain shuts down(so you don't generate more heat), if too cold your body wants to move(not good for programming). Maybe you are in love, who knows. Don't worry too much, it's normal, the only problem you face is to know consciously what your mind knows unconsciously as the origin of the problem. Once you know, it will be easy to solve. Bye
- skalpelis 16y agoIf you're getting enough sleep and don't have any other psychological disorders, e.g., depression, etc., most likely it's burnout. A serious lifestyle change should help (e.g., spend 6 to 12 months travelling through Europe, work as a logger in the Canadian wilderness, join the Peace Corps) but, alas, not all of us have the luxury of doing that. Perhaps also just finding a less stressful job might help.
- cammil 16y agoHere's yet another idea: Your mind and body need to be in balance. I believe this is the essence of the solution. One factor that I believe is amiss is their speed. It appears that your mind is thinking quicker than your body is acting, and this is causing your discomfort. There are of course two remedies, and they can both be administered: 1. Speed up your body. As many here have suggested, anything that increases what you do will be a good thing. Exercise, work, chores, personal errands, etc. 2. Slow down your mind. Realise that your body is not functioning at the speed that your mind thinks and simply accept it. Your mind will naturally slow down and you will begin to appreciate your task, the present moment, and your life. This will release your body from the paralysis as it now becomes possible, and even enjoyable, to do that which your mind is currently thinking.
- paolomaffei 16y agoyes yes yes this is me too :( i dont find code/work to be enough interesting to need to do them, and since i have no fixed deadlines i end up researching/reading a lot and producing almost nothing.
- mtipton 16y agoI'm guessing you are working LOTS of hours. This adds up when thinking is involved in your work[like with programming]. You are most definitely bured out. I'm almost certain. What you've described is a pretty decent description. Being burnt out is a very strange thing. Even though it may not sound quite right... trust me, that is the case... this is the best description of what is going on with your brain- as others have pointed out. It's strange that the term "burned out" is used so widely- yet most people don't recognize what it is or what it's like to experience being burned out. Even first hand (obviously) people most likely may not be able to recognize what exactly is going on.. may take a few weeks or so to realize something is really really wrong and depression could even start to set in at that point if you don't catch it quickly. B-complex vitamins and fish oils can help repair your brain from this type of subconscious distress... BUT the real answer is like minimum 1 week vacation RIGHT NOW. You may want to change your long term routines as well and just make time for lots of non-computer-related things.
- malkia 16y agoI've noticed that since I've been using internet - circa 1997-1998 right after I was out of the army (Bulgarian's army). Too much distraction - even news.yc is one for me and TCE (thechaosengine)
- dnsworks 16y agoThe past month I've been hitting the gym in my building whenever my brain doesn't want to work, and clear my mind completely. I'll put on the noise canceling headphones, find some good 100 -> 120bpm music, and get lost in it while pedaling as fast as I can for 30 minutes, then a shower and a snack and some coffee seems to be a good way to really put me back on track for a few hours.
- isnoteasy 16y agoSound as if your mind is in another place. Your mind is on vacation and you want to get it to work again. Unfortunately it refuses to do so and you are in this situation. Speak with your mind as with a friend and try to convince it that today is not a holiday. You need to order your life, to have a plan for the future, that will give you the strength for today.
- jacoblyles 16y agoTry Rescuetime's focus time. Warning: it is a little broken on Mac with Chrome.
- plainOldText 16y agoRead "Pragmatic Thinking & Learning" by Andy Hunt.
- sruffell 16y agoWhen I'm having trouble getting started I like to reread Joel Spolsky's "Fire and Motion" post with this quote: "Maybe this is the key to productivity: Just getting started" http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000339.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000339.html
- krmmalik 16y agoRead a book called "The power of full engagement" by Tony Schwartz and Jim Loehr. Its a life-changing book.
- noxn 16y agoI have had this for quite a while now, and I cant be burnt out or anything because I´m just 16. And its not just on coding, but anything, really. Even gaming.
- glhaynes 16y agoSmoke weed. Or, if you've been smoking weed, don't smoke weed.
- csomar 16y agoI have the same problem (exactly) with another problem: If I start coding (or working on some projects of mine) I just don't stop work until something stops me (like dinner, extremely exhausted->sleep, a friend calling for coffee...) I think the real problem is "How to get into that mode". It's simple: - Be ready: Sleep well. Eat, Water or Coffee should be near your desk. - Close all distractions. If you do web development, use another browser to navigate or block websites with rescuetime ;) - Start with something simple. Much more simpler than coding. A to do list. Don't start with coding it's hard. Start with your to do list and get into the thinking mode that you used to get it when off-computer - You start thinking, opening folders, testing, write a line of code.... and woups already 5 hours spent and you didn't notice it :) Hope it's not Dementia, but a check is cheap (whatever it costs)
- cheald 16y agoThis happens to me when I hit burnout. I've solved it lately by using Toggl (http://toggl.com http://toggl.com) to track what time I'm spending where. It's a lot easier to NOT tab over to reddit/HN if I look over and see myself "on the clock" for a given project. I keep time tracking for time spent on distractions, as well, and after a few days of that number being bigger than I'd like, I started paring it down pretty dramatically. Hope that helps!
- mannicken 16y agoWell, then not do anything. Lay in your bed, watch shitty sitcoms, eat food, just don't do anything. It will feel unusual if you've been working for a long uninterrupted time but you need time to rest. You remind me of a runner who just ran 10mi and is asking: "Hey, I feel tired, why is that? It seems like my legs don't really feel like moving. What should I do? Drugs? Doctors? Am I addicted to something?" Go and rest for brain's sake. In fact, I've been doing this all Sunday -- I'm laying in my bed with a laptop, looking at the cars outside, and watching crappy sitcoms. I am forcing this lazy behavior so I can recover and have fun working tomorrow.
- bramcohen 16y agoWhen I find myself doing stupid distraction stuff, I generally go take a nap.
- commanda 16y agoMaybe you want yourself to be interested in this particular project, but you might really not be interested in it. Sometimes you can't force interest, and it's often tough to focus when you aren't interested. I've felt what you're feeling before. I realized that my problem was that I just was not into the project - I just could not bring myself to focus on coding because I didn't really want to. This is fine though. As an adult, hey, sometimes you don't have to do things you don't want to do. You can have ice cream and beer for dinner; you can pick some other side project, or nothing, to spend your time on.
- olliesaunders 16y agoToo much time surfing the web? http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/05/ff_nicholas_carr/all/1 http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/05/ff_nicholas_carr/all/1 http://tkcollier.wordpress.com/2009/07/19/acquired-attention-deficit-disorder/ http://tkcollier.wordpress.com/2009/07/19/acquired-attention... Also relevant: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=956493 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=956493
- sp332 16y agoI see what you did there!
- starkfist 16y agoThis exact thing started happening to me more and more frequently when I hit age 30. I tried all the standard remedies: psychological tricks, pomodoro techniques, vacations, exercise, reducing stimulants, increasing stimulants, blocking the internet, and so forth. However, in late 2008 I faced up to the fact that I simply do not care as much about programming as I once did. I also did some soul searching and realized that perhaps I never really "liked" programming. My relationship to programming has been more like an obsession or compulsion than someone pursuing a passion. My solution is that I set a hard deadline of my 35th birthday to leave the field. I took a much higher paying programming job in the financial sector at the beginning of 2009, and moved in with roommates for the first time in 15 years, to save as much money as possible. I am lucky in that I have other talents to explore, and friends and relatives with unrelated businesses where I can always get a job in a pinch. This might not be the right way for anyone else. However, I thought that since your symptoms are exactly the same as mine, I should share. I wish I would have figured this out for myself years sooner, as I could have saved myself a lot of frustration and unhappiness. Good luck.
- rphlx 16y agoI went through this for a few weeks before I realized the cause. For me it was social media and news sites -- especially FB, twitter, mashable, reddit, and to some extent HN. These sites are carefully designed to make you ADD, so that you keep coming back for more, like a drug addiction. Call me cynical but basically, they are machines designed to numb and enslave the masses (possibly excluding HN). If you are spending more than 5-10 mins/day on these sites, IMO it's a problem -- that is time you could be using to create something, rather than consuming meaningless social media updates from people you probably don't really care about. It's sad to see that even very talented developers, scientists, and otherwise-rational people are geting sucked into this bullshit. Join a gym, hang out with friends IRL, travel -- basically, go offline for a while until you find your center again. I realize the irony of posting this as an HN comment. But at least I'm on my way to the gym.
- karlzt 16y agogo to a place where there are many trees, what you need is a break of what distracts you.
- jasonkeene 16y agoIf you use a mac check out http://macfreedom.com/ http://macfreedom.com/ or http://anti-social.cc/ http://anti-social.cc/ I use freedom every time I have work in front of me that I want solid time to complete and I can't trust myself not to get distracted down some rabbit hole. It sounds stupid at first but two things it does for you over just unplugging from the network is that 1) you can still communicate with your local network/VPN and 2) you can't get back online without restarting your machine.
- CO-OP 16y agoThe same thing is happening to me. It is the Reddit disease and I have it big time. Read 'Is Google Making us Stupid' (http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/6868/ http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-googl...) for some good perspective. Essentially, the human brain will adapt to the environmental situations it finds itself in. They find cab drivers (obviously) have more highly developed spatial recognition than the rest of us, for instance. In my case, for about 2 years I have been doing most of my reading on Reddit. Most articles were small - 30 seconds to a minute of reading at most. Then I would swing to another. As such, my brain structure has adapted to this situation, but it is terribly ineffective at tackling tasks which require constant attention (my essay marks have been steadily going down). So I've decided to go into rehab. Taking a holiday in mid-August for about 3 months, and I have bought/downloaded a huge amount of very very heady reading material (including the crem-da-la-crem of heady mind fuck material - Heidegger's Being and Time) which I intend to use to rewire my brain.
- mahipal 16y agoI really want to know... what else is on this reading list?
- CO-OP 16y agoThe same thing is happening to me. It is the Reddit disease and I have it big time. Read 'Is Google Making us Stupid' (http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/6868/ http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-googl...) for some good perspective. Essentially, the human brain will adapt to the environmental situations it finds itself in. They find cab drivers (obviously) have more highly developed spatial recognition than the rest of us, for instance. In my case, for about 2 years I have been doing most of my reading on Reddit. Most articles were small - 30 seconds to a minute of reading at most. Then I would swing to another. As such, my brain structure has adapted to this situation, but it is terribly ineffective at tackling tasks which require constant attention (my essay marks have been steadily going down). So I've decided to go into rehab. Taking a holiday in mid-August for about 3 months, and I have bought/downloaded a huge amount of very very heady reading material (including the crem-da-la-crem of heady mind fuck material - Heidegger's Being and Time) which I intend to use to rewire my brain.
- CO-OP 16y agoThe same thing is happening to me. It is the Reddit disease and I have it big time. Read 'Is Google Making us Stupid' (http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/6868/ http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-googl...) for some good perspective. Essentially, the human brain will adapt to the environmental situations it finds itself in. They find cab drivers (obviously) have more highly developed spatial recognition than the rest of us, for instance. In my case, for about 2 years I have been doing most of my reading on Reddit. Most articles were small - 30 seconds to a minute of reading at most. Then I would swing to another. As such, my brain structure has adapted to this situation, but it is terribly ineffective at tackling tasks which require constant attention (my essay marks have been steadily going down). So I've decided to go into rehab. Taking a holiday in mid-August for about 3 months, and I have bought/downloaded a huge amount of very very heady reading material (including the crem-da-la-crem of heady mind fuck material - Heidegger's Being and Time) which I intend to use to rewire my brain.
- igrekel 16y agoFrom my experience, it means you need a break or a vacation. Get in a totally different environment for a few weeks days and do not bring anything related to work. If it is not possible at this time, you may buy time using a trick I have used in the past. Dedicate a part of your day to working (ex: afternoon) and dedicate another part of the days to something else entirely and in a different environment (spend the morning playing sport, walking, exploring the neighborhood, anything out of your work environment and off the computer).
- MartinCron 16y agoJust wanted to add one more voice to the "how's your sleep?" chorus. Sleep is so important to being able to focus. One thing to check if you think you're putting in enough sleep time but are still groggy and have focus issues, is that you may potentially have obstructive sleep apnea. Have you been told you snore? Do you have a thick neck (17'' or larger dress shirt size)? From personal experience, getting a real you full night's sleep makes a huge difference in ability to focus and get work done.
- jpdbaugh 16y agoI feel like this almost everyday and my girl friend tells me snore terribly. I also fit the thick neck description. Where do you get something checked out like this cheaply?
- MartinCron 16y agoCheaply? It all depends on your medical insurance situation. A full-on sleep study is a big deal, a full night in a (cozy) hospital room, hooked up to wires monitoring brain activity, oxygen saturation, etc. What I did was describe my symptoms to my family doc, and he referred me to a sleep medicine specialist. That's what I would suggest you do. If you happen to be in the Seattle area, the sleep medicine folks at Swedish are great.
- runjake 16y agoObligatory Time Management For System Administrators (and programmers) reference: http://www.tomontime.com http://www.tomontime.com I've read through the comments and think this book would apply well to many of your situations.
- computerslol 16y agoShort advice: Sounds like burn out. Take a vacation, get a hobby, find a girl to make out with. If that doesn't work, get checked for adult onset attention deficit disorder.
- wglb 16y agoI recommend reading the book http://www.amazon.com/Courage-Create-Rollo-May/dp/0393311066 http://www.amazon.com/Courage-Create-Rollo-May/dp/0393311066 He offers the thesis that creating something new is likely to be fraught with anxiety. Understanding that this is the case may in fact decrease this anxiety. One of the symptoms of this anxiety is an avoidance. So perhaps think of it this way: as you sit down to do something new, and feel the distraction, this can mean you are getting into the creative mode.
- n2dasun 16y agoI'm on Reddit all the time, but never on HN. I just visit occasionally (just now created an account to post this). I'm so happy I found this post (until it gets lost in my sea of bookmarks and I don't get to try any of the solutions).