Ask HN: How do you all deal with lack of motivation?

I don't think being a coder has anything to do with your problem. It is common across all lifestyles.

Personally I had several episodes in my life when even getting out of bed was far too much bother. Two things worked for me.

1. Getting out of the house and going for long walks. Sometimes ended up sitting on some park bench and sobbing for a while. But then a bird would chirp, a toddler would stumble by or even an insect would buzz. When you hit rock bottom, there is only one way ... UP!

2. Writing long rants in a spiral bound notebook. Pages and pages. I called it my "Bitch Journal". I would go through it from time to time and write over, scribble, etc. Amazingly it eventually gave me clarity on what was hurting the most and what I could choose to do about it. Many months later I burnt the damn book and it was a most cathartic experience.

When I feel down and unmotivated, I remind myself that it is darkest before dawn.

What helps me most is to focus on the steps. This invisible force you describe is nothing that prevents you from doing anything (based on my experience, I can't know how you perceive it), but a step you want to skip, but are not able to.

You mentioned you have a strong urge to get up since everything is settled. Maybe this could be the invisible force?

You think (based on general believe how things should be done) that you need to get up since everything is fine, because that's what people do, right? Things are settled and you want to chase your dreams, thus this is what you need to do now, right? What else should you do?

You may stress yourself subconsciously which puts you in a vicious circle. If that could be the case, do something you enjoy, instead of chasing something.

But again, this is based on my experience, so I share my view, not telling you what the right thing is. I can't know.

I had struggled with such problem as well. These are how I got out:

1. Coming up with internal dreams. This is something internal that when I thought about, I'm convinced I'd like to accomplish it. Ideally this is something whose cause you truly believe in, instead of just short-term impulses. To distinguish the two is pretty easy. Impulses have short lives while dreams last long. Even when you try to forget it, at times you'd still think about your dreams.

2. Make plans. When I got motivations from step 1 above, I don't code or execute right away. Instead, I create plan and list out what's needed to accomplish it. I know this isn't the most fun thing to do, especially when you're very excited about something, but I can't thank enough the plans I made.

3. Create schedule. I force myself to spend 4 hours of productive coding every day. No matter how I feel, I have to spend at least 4 hours. Whenever I feel very unmotivated, I simply work like a robot following to the plans created earlier, regardless of my feelings. I always reminded myself that back when I was working in a company, I would do things I didn't like due to the sense of responsibility anyway, so why would I make excuses now? Interestingly, often I ended up spending more than the obligatory 4 hours because I ended up being very motivated after I forced myself to just do it.

4. Exercise, stay healthy, and keep a balanced life. This is often overlooked, but this is very important. One can't just work tirelessly like a robot. It's much more sustainable when everything is balanced. It's like once you take enough vacation, you feel like going back to work and when you actually do, you're much more productive

I’ve often found that lack of motivation is a symptom of some other problem. Often the direction you think you need to motivate yourself toward isn’t the right direction, or sometimes there is a lot of FUD that’s blocking natural motivation from shining through. We’re inherently curious and excited creatures, so if you can find a way or area where that curiosity and excitement shines and unleash it without stress/worry, it flows naturally.

Byron Katie’s work has been really helpful here for me to weed through + dismantle whatever is causing FUD that blocks motivation. http://thework.com/en

Visionary, Discipline, Reflection, Release

VISIONARY

I don't care what random people think of me, I know what my dreams and aspirations are. I intend on getting there regardless if people support me or not. I've been told I couldn't do it many times in my life and that motivates me even further.

DISCIPLINE

Working out almost everyday forces me to be productive. Motivation is weak and short-sighted, you need discipline. Discipline in building a passion that you actually care about. This also means getting something done everyday. I keep a daily log and sum of my weekly snapshots of things I achieved that week.

I have two military-like disciplinary habits I never ever let go - this is daily journalling (mental) and workout out (physical). These two disciplines alone drive every other discipline I've reinforced, including time management, staying on track, keeping up with friends, etc. The moment I let these 2 habits go is the moment I start losing sight of what matters.

REFLECTION

You need to reflect on things you've achieved, it builds a sense of reward for the work you put in. This means sharing knowledge, sharing projects, sharing things you've done only after the fact with others. Whenever I get lost, I look back in my life and realize I've done way harder things that pushes me to move forward.

RELEASE

Write down what's holding you back. I'm impatient & stubborn, sometimes I get really annoyed at incompetent vendors and time-draining clients. I just let it all out in my daily journalling and sometimes I'll just write things on a piece of paper over and over again and then shred it to pieces.

Also, when I daily journal, I write exactly what technical challenges I face everyday. Then I write what 1-3 things I hope to achieve that day, usually its intuitive, I usually come up with it the same day.

When I get stuck I just write my thoughts down in journal form so I can analyze the situation a bit better.

Getting a deposit notification from my bank every other Friday works for me.

This is what depression is like.

These are tough days bro but hold on to any thread that keeps some spark going. A few things that helped me

* do only things that truly made you feel good even if you don’t find joy in it now.

* take up work that is relatively easy for you so you keep seeing some progress.

* don’t carry others burden

* lower expectations from others and yourself for sometime

* let your yes be yes and no be no

* if you are finding it hard to focus see a doc and convince him to give you some modafinil. Please promise yourself that you wont become an addict. (I pretended to have adhd and the doc prescribed me retalin, i am alergic to modafinil). This may not be good advice but it helped me not to loose my job back then. Now I have found my way to the otherside and I am grateful to that doc and that drug.

* find joy in simple things. Make sure to notice the trees around you.

* believe that you will find your inspiration again and you will.

Hope you find help.

Zinc supplements. It turned out I was seratonin and dopamine deficient due to multiple (6) genetic defects in my liver’s zinc uptake genes, so whenever I was under duress, I’d run out of neurotransmitters and be unable to produce more.

Even though you think you're ready, you may still need some down time. Find some way to disconnect completely from your daily responsibilities for a weekend or even a whole week to sleep, eat, and reflect.

If down time isn't working for you, you may need to start permanently removing or changing unpleasant things in your life. This can take a lot of creativity and out-of-the-box thinking and therapy can help here.

Get into therapy my friend, it will help in all aspects of life. It's not just for people who have mental illness or severe trauma. It's for all of us who have life experience that is unprocessed. I think it would be valuable for you if you went in to explore the roots of what interests you and what your underlying motivations are.

I take care of sleep, exercise, and diet. Then weekly sessions in therapy. I honestly don't believe you can be well adjusted without sleeping 8 hours, exercising 3-5 times per week, and trying your best to eat right.

If you think you're going to have a perspective shift without taking care of the basics...I doubt it. Take care of these fundamentals first. Then circle back in a month if you're still having issues.

I recommend (and already mentioned) journaling. In the journal, I visualize attaining the goal or write about ways to keep going.

Watch, listen or read stuff that motivates and uplifts you. And keep on doing it every day.

Try to motivate yourself every day and find what works. This quote sums up what motivation is, it is not something that is only done once:

"People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing - that's why we recommend it daily." - Zig Ziglar

Something I started a month ago and works better than thougt:

Planning the week ahead.

Often I get home and don't wanna do anything suddenly. When I plan it, I come home with something specific.

Also I proactively think about people/friends I haven't seen for a while and ask them out to do stuff.

Strange thing proactively planning a week ahead, checking out events, movies, etc.

I have the freedom to kill myself anytime I want, so if I am not doing that, I might as well do something "useful."

Also, it's not like being bored isn't boring, so might as well do something, even if it's equally boring.

PS: All the mundane stuff everyone else mentioned is a bare minimum for sure - do exercise, do plan things to do, do eat correctly and get enough sleep, etc.

I find that the harder I try to force myself to code, the worse it gets. I like to try some other creative task that can get the juices going and then come back to coding when I have a really great idea. Obviously in a working environment this doesn't always work.

What _else_ do you find really motivating? Could be writing or painting or making youtube videos. It doesn't really matter as long as you're starting to engage creative muscles that you haven't flexed in a while.

I would highly recommend the 5 minute journal used in combination with the Pomodoro technique. The former will help you with the vision and the latter will help you with any procrastination.

that seems to be a recurrent problem in the software industry, my suggestion here is to check "discipline beats motivation" ( http://iheartintelligence.com/2016/11/17/discipline-beats-mo... ).

You don't need motivation, just discipline to build habits... everywhere will be a challenge if you lean on motivation.

( i also struggle a lot forcing myself to build discipline... )

Change your setting either with people or places. You're likely sitting at home or always on your computer doing the same thing. That's not helping anyone. If you change your setting it'll also change you personally. I echo everything else related to sleep, exercise, and diet, but besides that just go meet people or work out of different places. It'll work odd wonders because biologically you're predisposed that way.

Work with others.

Find likeminded individuals who can help you get to where you want to go. It's really difficult to generate significant traction on your own.

Doesn't have to be massive, I train once a week with a coach and some other folks and this motivates me to go to the gym for the six other days of the week.

My wife motivates me to do the best for my family. In my hobby I have others who rely on me.

Noopept + caffeine at the beginning of every day, but this isn't golden bullet. So when I am totally unmotivated, this means I have to entertain myself. To do so I read popscience book like Randall Munroe's "What if" or watch sci fi movie. Also meeting with people who you can exchange coding experience and ideas is also great motivator.

I changed my goal to something more immediate - getting out of the funk and focused all my attention on that. The obstacle is the way.

You got used to being unmotivated. As others mentioned before, you need a bit of discipline. But discipline alone is not the point. I would recommend using productivity techniques. Checklists might be to easy but getting things done or eat that frog are great methods. At the beginning it´s hard, but as you constantly use them, it will become a habit. And, for me, it´s a great feeling and boosts my motivation when I see what I have already finished or when I´m able to set one task to "done". I personally use getting things done and it really helps to stay focused, you can also use "time blocking" to concentrate on your tasks or to make sure you got time to do nothing at all.

If you need more info about all the methods, have a look at our blog, there are articles about many possibilities to boost productivity and enhance your motivation: https://zenkit.com/en/blog

Exercise.

You don't have to run marathons. Start with 30 min walks every morning. (Outside helps). Work your way up to moderate exercise that gets your heart rate up.

It's amazing the difference it will make.

inertia. Easier to keep movement going than to start it.