HN Explorer

Ask HN: Need Advice Losing Focus and Motivation

13 points by throwsflet ↗ HN
Hey guys,

I thought I should post here and seek advice. I'm a 25 year old dev and I really lack motivation. On some days when things are going good, everything is great and I love what I'm doing but otherwise, and this is the norm, I'm disengaged, lacking focus and generally uninterested. What I would want to do on such days is seek novelty with respect to what I want to work on, for example today I wanted to go off on a tangent and try to learn more about type inference in compilers. Clearly something is going wrong here and I can't really identify the problem or a possible solution. I would really love to hear from someone who's gone through this or more experienced devs who can give me a different perspective on this.

7 comments

[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 30.6 ms ] thread
thatusertwo
Life is a series of cycles, there are ups and downs. Its normal to feel down and uninterested in your work at times, just as it's normal to be excited at other times.

If you find that you are disengaging more than anything else, then maybe you need to find a new job where you could have more passion, being excited about what you do could certainly help.

emurillo510
The war of art is a good book on resistance. It is a very motivating book. The hardest part about tackling something you want to do is starting. Once you start, it's easy to get locked in get into the rhythm. Have fun, enjoy the moment, get a friend to help you; set small goals and make progress. You just got to man up and fight it.
Zezima
I've gone through this. The only difference is that I could point to what was distracting me and taking my motivation: gaming.

Playing highly competitive games was an addiction for me (though I denied it for a long time). I wanted to improve my skill, knowledge, and win rate in the games I played, which consumed my attention, and drew me away from work.

As you've said, there isn't an identifiable internal or external stimulus which is causing your distraction, so I'll have to be general and subjective with what I am about to say.

Perhaps take a look at the actions you take when you are distracted. Do you flock to a specific place or action when you lose interest? This can be the internet, eating, running, driving, etc. If you find a pattern in your distraction, analyzing the issue becomes easier.

There's always the possibility that you're doing something you don't like and haven't realized it yet; perhaps a career change or dev change is in order.

Changing my environment helps significantly when I want to maintain focus. Getting out of the house increases my productivity and inspires new ideas.

So reflect on yourself, your work, you happiness, and your interests and make sure everything is in check. If it is, and you're still losing focus then an Attention Deficit Disorder test could be an option (however many people are over diagnosed for this disorder)

I hope some of this helped.

toothbrush
I feel you. It's not quite the same thing of course, but I'm supposed to be starting to write my thesis manuscript now. The good news is I'll be able to do something new and exciting afterwards, but for the 6 months or so it's going to take, it's really an exercise in despondency. I feel as if the interesting, innovative bit has already been done, and now I have to type up the literature review, the proofs, etc. etc. I can hardly get up in the mornings, but anyway, it's for the Greater Good...? Probably mild burn-out.

Anyway, this isn't very motivating, but if you're not tied down to your job and you have a small amount of cash lying around, I would say: go and travel! You should be able to get by, and at your (our!) age this should be easily justifiable afterwards (i.e. "the hole in my CV was time off to travel and figure out my priorities" -- older users who are in a position to hire people, is this realistic?).