I've been without much motivation for programming... Do you guys know anyway to combat this? Like some mental-exercise?
2025-08-31 · 8 months ago · 😮 1
11 Comments ↓
🚀 AGourd · 2025-08-31 at 02:56:
Something i do when i loose motivation is that i take a break, at least 15/20 minutes and i stretch my body, go for a short walk and or get a snack. A lot of times i find that the thing that’s holding me back when i’m programming/ doing a task is that I neglected my physical needs. Hope this helps
lose motivation - in general or just during the day?
if you can afford it - take a longer break (week, month, whatever feels right for you). Limit not only coding-related acitivities, but computer/phone activities in general. Not sure what's your usage of social media looks like, but limiting them is also (very) helpful.
Try to take care of your physicals (be it >walking<, bike, running, lifting or any team games, whatever it is that suits you). If possible try to make it daily routine, if not, try at least once, twice a week.
I generally agree with what @AGourd has written, we tend to underestimate how much physical activities are affecting our well-being.
Outside of purely physical activities, taking a walk is also a good idea.
Apart from that, if you have any hobby outside of computers, try to spend more time on this, or any non-computer-related activity: book-reading, playing instruments, sewing, painting, drawing, knitting, making jewelery, CLEANING (not joking here, this can put your mind in a completely different mode).
edit: P.S. if I could give any advice to my 15yo-younger-self, it'd be: invest more time in physical activities.
🚀 stack · 2025-08-31 at 15:01:
To me times like these are devastating. People around me do not get that writing code for me is more like meditation or a religious practice, necessary for my mental wellness.
I am currently in such a dry spell, party due to external factors, partly because after bouts of COVID and vaccinations, I have trouble losing myself in code. I no longer enjoy listening to music while coding, a huge loss. I am also noticeably stupider.
Usually time cures such spells, and I hope in time I'll get lit about some idea and enjoy immersing myself in some code. Usually winters are good for hunkering over a project.
🚀 devoid · 2025-08-31 at 17:04:
@stack:
Same here.
I've been there myself for a while. Hang in there brother.
Some broad ideas/things I get lit about: [civics/direct involvement, code art/code as art, digital infrastructure, privacy, netfiltering].
Hope you'll find something again that sparks but if you're burnt out then take a break. Do something else for a while. (Would advise against picking up looking for jobs/talking to recruiters as a hobby personally but YMMV, and it did give me some nice new [web]filtering/scripting skills.)
👻 darkghost · 2025-08-31 at 17:19:
My burn out protocol is to find isolation in nature and exist there for a few hours. COVID took my focus and calm. I am just beginning to reclaim it, current events not withstanding. Some days are better than others. 5 years is a long time to be away from your hobbies and just be focused on getting through the day.
🚀 stack · 2025-08-31 at 20:29:
@abilu definitely not looking for a job!
Seems like I am really good at pissing people off here, in the meantime.
🚀 LucasMW · 2025-09-01 at 16:33:
I recommend taking a break for good. And removing news feeds or any kind of attention seeking thing.
Go to walk. Go observe nature. Go read a book. Go to the movies. Go rest. Do these until you have a spark of new ideas to code or an urge to program again.
🚀 MisterImpossible · 2025-09-03 at 17:29:
I don't really believe in the notion of motivation, only Do or Don't. If you want to program, just sit at your desk and write some code - it doesn't matter what or even if it's any good, just go with it. You'll soon enough get back into it if it's really something you want to do.
🌧️ candycanearter [✍️] · 2025-09-04 at 12:27:
theres always stuff like Advent of Code, if you want to try that?
🚀 stack · 2025-09-04 at 13:24:
Advent of code always seemed like the most boring thing on the planet. If I had to do it in Python I think I'd kill myself.
🚀 stack · 2025-09-13 at 16:01:
So I did get remotivated by a flurry of activity when the tilde running my game failed to fix their Gemini server, forcing me to scramble to rehost and get my own VPS and try to get an existing Gemini server working...
I also wrote a Gemini server:
— bbs.geminispace.org/s/Fornax
At least it was a good week.