Ask HN: What do you do when you lose motivation?

So, the short of it is, you'll have to figure this one out on your own, by figuring yourself out.

Here are some of the things that cause me to get lazy, and how I handle them:

1. Probably closest to what's going on for you, I will occasionally be working on a project and then hit a problem that I wasn't anticipating. It seems like my motivation goes through the basement, but what's actually going on is that I'm just chewing on the problem, turning it over and over in my head. Eventually -- days, weeks, or months, depending on the problem -- I will find the extra insight or information I needed and the whole thing will fall together. I try not to stress out over this any more; if the project doesn't have a deadline, then I let it stall more-or-less indefinitely. If it does have a deadline, I try to adjust the deadline accordingly. If I can't adjust the deadline, or it just really needs to get done, then I try to work around the roadblock by implementing a "good enough" solution. I have trouble working on project steps out-of-order, so even if I don't have to solve a particular problem in some project before proceeding, the project will still usually stall.

2. I've lost interest. In this case, the best thing is just to come to terms with giving up on the project, and I do this by realizing that there are many projects that I would actually be interested in working on, and there's no reason to beat myself up over something I don't care about.

3. I'm exhausted. The best thing to do here is go out and eat a good meal (I don't tend to cook very well), go for a walk, read a book, re-connect with some friends, and take a nap or get a full night's sleep.

I would say personal expectations matters a lot. I tend to play out big visions in my mental theater in a very conceptual sense, then get hyped up with excitement and finally get disappointed every time I hit a brick because it feels like taking several steps back.

But again this is about personal expectations/attitude towards these discoveries. Objectively, it is a good thing you have found a flaw/difficulty/problem. They are a natural thing in the development process.

I have learned, through experience, to take it calmer and understand that even simple concepts might hide complicated implementation details and take time to get done properly.

2. Step away from the keyboard and do something else entirely, even goofing off. Sooner or later, you'll be consumed by a burning desire to move your project forward, and you'll probably benefit from a fresh perspective. (If this lasts more a day or two, see #1).

Above all, remember that guilt, stress, and burnout seldom help you get from A to B. Keep calm and carry on.

So the fix is simple: make it more painful to give up than to keep going. Your inborn human psychology will take care of the rest.

You can try to treat the symptoms, but I think that's the real root of the problem. It's definitely one I've faced myself and know a few people well enough to know it was a problem for them.

And two days later, you'll be doing the same for your co-founder :)

- Relish the small victories. Write down detailed-ish milestones that represent real progress. Checking them off can be a huge motivating force.

- Don't give yourself a way to back out. You can do this by quitting your full-time job (!), or more practically by telling people you know what you're doing. This has two positive effects: a) you'll get valuable feedback, and b) it won't be as easy to give up because others are expecting you to do what you said you'd do.

- I've got a list of Youtube videos that I like and find motivating. Here's a link to my list, but you've probably got your own as well: http://www.onwardly.com/category/get-pumped-up . Relatedly, I also get a lot of inspiration from others who have done amazing things in different fields.

- I'm not an engineer, so this may not apply, but it helps me to have multiple parts of a project I can work on at once. Its nice to switch modes sometimes between future-planning, marketing, working on the financials, etc.

These are just a few suggestions, hope they help.

As a last thought, getting through this period is what often separates the wheat from the chaff. Also, I recommend Seth Godin's "The Dip".

At the beginning, if the problem is vague, I open a text editor and start writing all of my thoughts about it. I try to keep the file as free-form as possible (I assume no one else will ever read it) and get down concerns about the problem, design decisions, observations, and anything else that comes to mind. I also write down exactly what the first step(s) will be. I think this technique works for a number of reasons, but especially because putting the project in front of my eyes on the computer screen -- even if it's just in the form of a quick brain-dump in a text editor -- gives me a massive motivation boost and a feeling of momentum.

Staying motivated after a concrete task list has precipitated is a different problem, which I also try to solve with record-keeping. I obsessively maintain a hierarchy of the tasks I plan to complete, and then check them off as I go. When I can become a machine that just walks the hierarchy and performs the tasks, I find that it sidesteps the emotional mechanism that otherwise makes me procrastinate. I used to store the hierarchy as a text file, but this year I've been writing a tool that provides a) native support for this type of data, and b) a keyboard-driven interface that doesn't make me switch away from the program where I'm actually working. In case anyone would like to try it out, it's at http://projecthedgehog.com (runs on mac and windows).

Get into something new. Learn how to cook or play an instrument. Whatever makes you meet people. Get laid. If your project is really what you want to do, it'll get back to you on its own. And then it's quality time as well.

I had a long run and cleared my mind up and figured I have to stand up to it and move on, I have to go for it or else I can never be successful in any thing I do. Guess that is the difference that'll break or make a successfully entrepreneur.

If I am online, I will be there, leave a message, I will reply. Hopefully it will keep you going. It's good to bounce ideas off each other. :P