Midnight Thunder writes "I have spent the past six months working on a software project, and while I can come up with ideas, I just can't seem to sit down in front of the computer to code. I sit there and I just can't concentrate. I don't know whether this is akin to writer's block, but it feels like it. Have any other Slashdotters run into this and if so how did you get out of it? It is bothering me since the project has ground to a halt and I really want to get started again. I am the sole developer on the project, if that makes a difference."
Shut down your web browser (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Shut down your web browser (Score:5, Informative)
Wikipedia says:
"Weorc or Work (Anglo-Saxon leader). Gave name to Workington or 'Weorc-inga-tun' which means the 'tun' (settlement) of the 'Weorcingas' (the people of Weorc or Work)"
Merriam-Webster says:
Etymology:
Middle English werk, work, from Old English werc, weorc; akin to Old High German werc work, Greek ergon, Avestan varÉ(TM)zem activity
Date:
before 12th century
If you know anything further, please inform.
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Re:Shut down your web browser (Score:4, Funny)
Work, n: that stuff you did in school, and have avoided ever since.
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Test Driven Development (Score:5, Insightful)
I find test-driven development a great way to break out of the developers block. Just write a small test, the tiniest most trivial test that you can imagine. Now make it pass. And pretty soon you are back in the game.
--
Hate your boss? [adaptiveapp.com]
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More to it than that. (Score:5, Insightful)
Your motivation to work on something has to come from within. That being said, if you are in a depressed mood (understandable in these times), then you are less likely to be productive. I suggest going out for a run, getting your blood pumping, etc. Sometimes caffeine helps. Music helps. Minimizing distractions helps - web browser, cell phone, etc.
One thing you can do if you want motivation is to reward completing the boring or hard tasks with easier, more fun tasks. Mix up the hard problems you have to solve with minor annoyances. That way, if you can't concentrate on a hard problem, you can at least make some progress. Making progress is the way to get through the doldrums.
Go to bed early, next to a window facing East. Wake up in sunlight.
You might also take the approach that video games do - track the work you do. Reward yourself for making milestones.
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Re:More to it than that. (Score:5, Insightful)
Many years ago I had a conversation with an author friend who mentioned that by the time she gets to writing chapter 11 in a book she begins to lose interest in completing it. Something along the lines of being far enough into the book to have put a good piece of work in and are bored with the prospect of what lies ahead and not far enough into it that the end is in sight. She mentioned that she just needs to power through those spots. Eventually you'll move through it and the work will become self fulfilling again.
I think that book-writing metaphor applies here too.
If this is essentially your first project (or your first solo project) you may not believe there's an joyful end to where you currently are, but if you really believed in what you were doing when you started you'll get that old feeling again when you start to get closer to the end. So ... yea... get back to work.
BTW, my author friend didn't refer to this as 'writers block' because that term applies to a loss of ideas and inability to figure out what to write next. Her "chapter-11" concern and what appears to be your concern too, is an easier one of lacking motivation; you know what to do you just don't want to do it. Now... if you got a thorny problem and don't know how to get started working on it then ... that's closer to the classical writers block problem.
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Re:More to it than that. (Score:4, Funny)
Chapter 11? That's kind of like a bankruptcy in motivation.
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Re:More to it than that. (Score:4, Funny)
You might also take the approach that video games do - track the work you do. Reward yourself for making milestones.
* Midnight Thunder has earned the achievement [Installing Windows]!
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WAY more. (Score:5, Informative)
There's, indeed, a LOT more to it than that. There are any number of things that may be blocking your creativity, but from the description I suspect burnout and/or depression. If you've been working a lot or are under a lot of stress (kids, too many hours, responsible position, people complaining to you a lot) your mind may simply be locked up. This is a panic reaction, a last defense mechanism for a mind running with hormonal imbalances. It will mean your cortisol is too high early on, then drops off at the time you need it most. Your body's stress response is worn out and depleted and needs time to regenerate. That's why burn-out victims are usually told to go home and do nothing for a year. It takes a LOT of time.
Ask yourself the following questions:
- Do I drink more than two cups of coffee every day? Too much caffeine will elevate cortisol and make you more sensitive to stress. Cut down on coffee and take Ginseng supplements - this will help your body restore its decreased cortisol capacity. I personally like green tea with ginseng. It takes a bit of time to switch, just do it gradually and you won't run into problems. Try to cut smoking and alcohol as well as much as you can.
- Can I work for a few hours only, and then feel like my mind "locks up"? This is definitely a stress sign. If that's the case, take a 10 minute break for a walk OUTSIDE, EVERY HOUR. (I mean it! I had the same problem, and an external management bureau with lots of hands-on experience gave us these tips, and they worked.) This will help you de-stress and over longer time will help reset your body's hormone system. Also: cut away any other stress factors. Are you busy two days a week helping your kids' soccer teams do their paperwork? Let it go. This will be difficult if you are indeed tottering near burnout - it makes you more emotional since your "logical" brain is less active - but it is vital. Also, do you jump out of your skin every time your mobile phone rings? Also a very strong indicator of stress. Be wary and get to know your own fear signs. If it is all too much, consider if you can let it all go and rest for at least half a year. The project will still be there then, or if you are overtaken by competition, there will be other projects. Rule one of life: we all want to feel good. Only then can we help others and be productive. If you're living only for others and don't feel good doing it, something is wrong. Some people - especially those with a large sense of responsibility - are extremely sensitive to stress, and you don't know for certain until you have crashed through and are well beyond your limits. That's what it took for me to realise something was wrong: I could barely do the dishes without being told how to do it. Don't let it get to that.
- Do I feel miserable? If so, that might indicate not only burnout, but also dysthemia/depression. GET PROFESSIONAL HELP. And I mean a real shrink, not just a psychologist. He can temporarily set you up on medication which will help you recuperate; after some time you can then build down and get rid of the meds once you're standing on your own feet again. But for the time being, medication is probably essential as a crutch. Note: it is of VITAL importance that you find one you're comfortable with; if you don't feel OK with the shrink after a few sessions, thank him/her and just tell them that you don't feel allright and try another one. It can take a few tries to find the right person.
- Do I sleep enough? If you're not getting at least 6 hours of clean sleep, you're probably stressed or burned out. I remember a "burning" feeling from that period and only sleepint 2-3 hours a night.
- Do I have a real work place, and are there distractions? I ran my own company for seven years, and in the beginning I worked from home. In doing so I could never really "get away" from it. Once I had an office outside the door it made a real difference: I went to the office to work, and psychologically that also did a trick - it set me into "work mode". I left the browse
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Re:Shut down your web browser (Score:5, Insightful)
"Shut down your web browser", especially that part that involves reading or...posting/submitting articles to Slashdot.
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Re:Shut down your web browser (Score:5, Informative)
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promise yourself you'll get up in a half hour (Score:5, Funny)
Sit yourself down for a half hour, promising yourself that at the end of the half hour, you'll get up and take a break.
Repeat.
Expand to 45 minutes. Repeat.
Etc...
Oh, and stop whining.
LSD and Weed (Score:5, Funny)
LSD and Weed, just stock up on Doritos and Grateful dead CDs beforehand.
Re:LSD and Weed (Score:5, Funny)
I give myself a little pep talk. I tell myself that if Michael Jackson can keep going so can I.
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Re:LSD and Weed (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:LSD and Weed (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:LSD and Weed (Score:5, Insightful)
*** Whoosh! ***
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Re:LSD and Weed (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:LSD and Weed (Score:4, Funny)
Apparently, that's just as insightful!
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Coder's block (Score:5, Insightful)
I take a walk if it's one of those small bugs that holds you up for days and then turns out to be a semi colon in the wrong place.
If I can't motivate myself to work on a particular project, I work on something similar for personal projects at home, because that's always more interesting than doing something because you have to. Once I get into it, I get little moments of inspiration like "Ah, that'd be a really useful feature to use at work." That makes the work more interesting and there are times at work when I get little moments of inspiration like "Ah, that'd be really useful to use on my home project."
Re:Coder's block (Score:5, Interesting)
You are a far better person than I. Ever since I took my hobby of programmer to work, I haven't been able to do it as a hobby. I get home and the last thing I was to do is look at code. I blame Scrum Logs, and crappy deadlines. I blame Scrum because it's a daily reminder of how little you did the day before and how much more crap you have to do over the next 2 weeks. In one ear you have your manager asking you what you did and what you're doing every freaking day, and in the other you have yourself pointing out that you desperately need a vacation. If I had no time-lines and could go back to pre-Scrum days, I think I'd be in a far better mood. ;)
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Re:Coder's block (Score:5, Interesting)
I never really did Scrum, but on several XP teams we had daily standups in the morning. However, I *never* invited the manager. In fact, I explicitly told the manager he wasn't welcome. A standup is about communicating small important issues to the rest of the team so that they don't have to discover it themselves. For instance, "I've changed the interface to this class, so if you're going to use it, please come and talk to me." It should never, ever be about tracking progress!!!!!! In XP there is an iteration plan, in Scrum there's a backlog. Either way that document tracks progress. A manager should never, ever ask "How far are you in your task", or "Do you think you'll finish in time" or "What have you done". He can look at the plan to see what is crossed off the list (and if you're really on the ball you've got people independently verifying that the acceptance tests are acceptable). It's up to *you* to warn people if you think your task won't fit in the time remaining. Everything else can be determined by looking at the plan/backlog.
Agile should be *easy* on you from this perspective. It's one of the reasons it's called agile. If you're not finding it this way you're doing it wrong (IMHO -- of course flame wars have been started on less). Ideally you should never talk to your manager. All information up and down the chain should be transparent. This leaves your manager free to act solely as a shit shield. Unfortunately most managers are too micro-managing to do agile properly.
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Re:Coder's block (Score:4, Funny)
Letting a semi colon hold you up for days shows that your approach to programming is half-arsed.
Thank you, thank you. I'll be here all weak.
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Break your project into manageable steps (Score:5, Insightful)
Break your project into manageable steps. It's the only way to tackle large, complicated tasks when you lack motivation.
If you do enough small steps, you'll regain your enthusiasm for the project. Then you'll be back on the rails in no time.
Too many possible factors (Score:5, Insightful)
Sole developer is hard. There's no easy answer as people react differently.
I'd say:
1) Get away from the computer for a bit.
2) Do that other project that keeps interrupting your thoughts.
3) Sit down and work out a hard plan with deadlines. Not long term deadlines, but in the near future. If you can't do this, then maybe the project is too fuzzily defined.
4) Do a lot more work with pencil and paper. Only use the computer for programming and post-pencil-paper documentation.
5) Is there anything outside life that's affecting you? Afraid of zombies in red jackets dancing if you fail to finish the project? Is it actually going well, or are you unhappy with it? Ask yourself the hard questions to see if it's that. I.e., you feel it's not worth finishing the project, so you can't.
6) It could just be your work conditions - chair, computer position, desk cleanliness. Or the people around you - interruptions, etc. Make notes of when you get interrupted, and then see what they're like at the end of the week. Like a food diary, you might be surprised.
Re:Too many possible factors (Score:5, Insightful)
I've had this problem where I've sunk into a funk, there's a few things I did to cure it:
- Quit coffee for a while and get your sleep patterns back to normal
- Exercise more. Sitting at a desk I can get my breathing down to almost nothing and my pulse down to 40. Do this for a year and your body becomes inefficient at getting oxygen into your system. Exercise and stretch your lungs. I do 50 pushups a day, and jogging on the weekend and it's changed my life.
- Once an hour move around a bit, again increasing your breathing and heart rate.
- Try to get more sunlight in your life.
- Stop reading slashdot for a while - it sucks the life force out of you. In fact try to cut down on tv and internet browsing and do stuff requires more active involvement.
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Re:Too many possible factors (Score:5, Interesting)
Sole developer is hard.
So don't be a sole developer. Stop worrying about code, and focus on packaging your idea to 'sell' to others. Find a partner, a team, an investor, or just a friend who will be pleased to see you succeed in making your vision a reality.
The first thing I do on most projects is find the one stakeholder who I would be most pleased to make happy. I then share all of my ideas, sketches, prototypes, etc. to this person. Usually they are just a non-techie user who gets anxious to see the final result... which in turn makes me excited to finish so I can finally show it to them.
I guess what I am saying, is make the project bigger than you... don't be a sole developer, be a hero, be a teammate, be a friend, make someone proud... then the project isn't a chore!
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Idea (Score:5, Funny)
echo '0.0.0.0 slashdot.org' >> /etc/hosts
Drink beer (Score:5, Funny)
Drink enough beer and you will wake up with the project completely finished.
You won't remember how, plus there might be some residual traffic cones and hookers in your office.
Re:Drink beer (Score:4, Informative)
Kids nowadays.
Traffic cones appear on your front lawn.
Hookers stay in the trunk of your managers rental car.
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Look for unmatched parentheses (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Look for unmatched parentheses (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Look for unmatched parentheses (Score:4, Informative)
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Don't Code, Design (Score:5, Insightful)
PIck a different module or direction (Score:4, Insightful)
That has happened to me on lone-gunman projects. It is particularly troublesome when you are determining your own deadline as the writer's block feeds procrastination.
Because this is a lone gunman project you may have an ordered list of development steps or modules to develop in your head. One thing to try would be to mix up the order of development a little in order to jump-start your brain and motivation with something different while at the same time being productive on the project.
Or set up a development schedule with firm delivery milestones and hand it to your boss, and working against a deadline may get the brain moving.
Start fun and build momentum (Score:5, Insightful)
Start fun and small. Do the fun stuff first, get your mind obsessing over it (sketching up your mockups, database schemas, etc), so that that's all you're thinking about, then starting the coding isn't so much of a hassle. Don't think too big off the bat, or the project will seem too daunting. Focus on getting a small prototype up and running, then once you've got that momentum, you can start adding features.
They say to start but not finish the easy stuff at night so that when you wake up the next morning, you have the easy part to finish, which gets you started. Then, once you've got momentum, continuing on the harder stuff is easier.
Write what yoyu want to do in the editor (Score:5, Funny)
as bullet points.
The expand o each bullet point until you have psuedo code.
Then call some guy in India to finish it.
Blocked? You're not interested in the code... (Score:4, Insightful)
3 Things (Score:4, Insightful)
1. Find something really easy, quick, simple to do. Builds momentum. (At the end of the day, I like to leave myself something easy for the next day to get started on).
2. Find somebody to discuss the project with. That alone will often get me going.
3. Get more sleep. This is more of a personal thing, but I find I'm able to concentrate less effectively when not getting enough sleep.
--D
Do some truth (Score:5, Insightful)
Sounds a lot like, deep down, you don't really want to be there, or at least you don't want to be working on that project. Are you happy working as a coder? Do you like your particular technical area? Do you truly like your colleagues? Your employer?
Conditions such as depression not withstanding, it sounds like something deeper within you is trying to tell you something.
Sole development is hard (Score:5, Insightful)
Doing it by yourself is, indeed, hard.
I have done too much of this. Far too much. I need to get back to a group ... over a year away from a company, some years away from a team. My sanity is fading a bit.
You get the following problems:
You get lonely
You have nobody to talk over a problem or a design with - and that's bad. You can get stuck on a stupid problem, and if you talked to someone else they'd have said "You idiot, you just need to use this widget" .. and they'd be right. This is probably the worst one
You get very jaded. There's no competition, nor does anyone say "Well done Fred. Nice work"
If you are working at home - the fridge is far, far too close. Nasty
Your designs get corrupt because there's nobody charged with keeping the design and structure in shape. It's far too easy to cheat - you wrote the code, after all, why do I need encapsulation?
What to do?
The fridge problem takes self control, the corrupt design problem is tough, and the loneliness problem is very difficult. Take some external sport, maybe - perhaps some sort of team sport (I skate - in a team. Embarrassing for a geek perhaps, but nice to talk to people completely outside your field).
But you do need some interaction with your peers - Slashdot is not a good way. Too introspective.
You need a friend network, for the occasional geek chat, kick in the head, and the odd war story. Oh, and beer.
Personally I am trying to leap back into the arm of an organisation, with teams. A difficult change, especially in the current climate, but essential for my sanity.
So I wish you luck.
You might try studying a completely new environment - Ruby or something, in an attempt to reinspire the child-like wonder that got you into this area. It's still there. Go for it!
Prioritized Procrastination (Score:5, Insightful)
Right now, if your apartment is messy, work on your current project. Of course, instead of working the project, you'll procrastinate it by cleaning your apartment. When your apartment is clean, get yourself an urgent, unappealing project. Soon you'll be using your original project as a means of procrastinating the new one!
Drawings! (A Cautionary Tale) (Score:5, Interesting)
This has multiple benefits... it gets all your ideas written down, it gets the project organized (and helps identify potential problems before they're in code), it makes for nicely visible pieces of a larger puzzle, and, perhaps most importantly, it gets you away from the computer where you have coder's block.
The one best piece of code I've ever written, which had all sorts of interprocess communication and synchronization problems to overcome, etc., I started with a big drawing, which lent itself very nicely to a fully pseudocoded skeleton of the program (fully doxygened and line-by-line commented before any code went in), followed by the actual code, which practically wrote itself at that point. Not only did this keep the process going, but it also helped me eliminate and compensate for a whole bunch of technical and design issues, before I had even written the code that I would have had to fix. After addressing a few rogue syntax errors, the program ran correctly the first time.
Unfortunately, while effective, this process left me completely spent. Having written what was, by my standards, a perfect piece of code, I saw little further for me to accomplish in my career, and I was especially devastated when I saw that it was fairly likely that my contribution would not make it into the final product. A mere shell of a programmer remained, and I have steadily lost interest in programming since. I'm enrolling in graduate school for music in the fall.
It is a managerial problem. You aren't motivated. (Score:5, Interesting)
As a director of a software development organization, I won't be popular for saying this. But... it is your boss' fault. Not yours.
You simply aren't motivated. I want to slap the person somewhere in another post who said... "motivation comes from within". It *rarely* comes from within.
When one of my managers or peers comes to me and complains about "unfocused" or "unmotivated" employees, I tell them to get off their collective ass and motivate their team or their employee. Psychologically, as an employee, you should feel driven by your surroundings to achieve a goal. That feeling should be driven by your team, your boss, your organization.
Being "self-motivated" is the single, biggest path to burnout in existence. Don't even begin to blame yourself.
Here is what I would recommend. Go to your manager. Tell your manager that you simply aren't feeling very motivated about the work you are doing. Have an open and honest conversation about it. You might be surprised. Your boss might actually bring some out some of the motivational mojo that you need. If your boss doesn't come through for you, then think about going to another organization.
But don't quit programming. You probably love it and you probably are pretty decent at it. You just need to be motivated, that's all.
Same problem with my Thesis (Score:4, Funny)
I'm currently having a similar problem writing my thesis. Luckily, the bit I'm onto at the moment is the "big thing" that I've been working on, but it's still hard to get cracking on writing. Here's a little snippet:
A multi-marker approach for quantifying genetic variation has been
demonstrated, using an ideal model population for this task. The
benefit of using multiple markers has been previously shown by
\citet{marchini05}, who found that a multi-marker approach will
generate more informative results, even after considering the
multiple-testing cost. The approach here has used a bootstrapping
method, which may help in the removal of false positive signal that is
common in GWAS \citep[][see]{wellcome07,healy06}.
I've had a go at trying to think through reasons for my writing block, and have narrowed it down to the following:
I suppose I could keep going for another hour or so, but I have a thesis to write.
Holiday, vacation, take some time off (Score:5, Insightful)
Depending on other factors you could also be suffering from burnout [helpguide.org]
Step by step process (Score:5, Insightful)
1) Examine your motives. Do you really want to do this? No? Think about the effect on you if you don't. Spend no more than 2 minutes on this stage. Decide.
2) Describe the problem to yourself, written, in a single short paragraph. Display this where you can see it as you work.
3) Determine the absolutely smallest possible component of this job that you need to do. Maybe a 5 minute job. If you can't break down a big job into smaller jobs, you're in the wrong business. Pick that smallest little job and do it. Write it down on a physical list and tick it off. Actually do this step.
4) Determine the next little job. Work a bit to find the next smallest task. Rinse and repeat.
5) By this time you might have momentum. But if all else fails, acquire a McDonald's or Wendy's job application. Have it framed and on your wall in front of you. Nothing will motivate you better than that.
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Re:Step by step process (Score:5, Insightful)
3) Determine the absolutely smallest possible component of this job that you need to do. Maybe a 5 minute job. If you can't break down a big job into smaller jobs, you're in the wrong business. Pick that smallest little job and do it. Write it down on a physical list and tick it off. Actually do this step.
4) Determine the next little job. Work a bit to find the next smallest task. Rinse and repeat.
I hear ya. Whatever you do with that code, keep fiddling with it. Keep your attention on it even if it's just some comment formatting. After a while, your brain starts to get into gear and next time you look up from your screen, the janitor will be telling you to go home already.
For most of us, there is a certain period of time we have to sit and look stupid, before we can be productive. Just stick with it.
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Re:Step by step process (Score:5, Funny)
Get yourself an ANCIENT, HORRIBLE laptop for browsing and other non-work computing -- something you'll stop as soon as possible
I like to use a Lenovo system loaded with all their latest software for that job
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Re:No it is not a writers block (Score:5, Interesting)
Next day, either refactor what you did the day before, or just keep moving crazily forward. Eventually you will refactor it into something reasonable, and you will have achieved forward movement.
Don't worry, nobody's watching. Like the man said:
Plan to throw one away. You will anyway. [fogcreek.com]
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