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

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1754101

by gosuri • 16 years ago

27 19 16 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I'm not sure if you've been in this situation before but I'm going through it right. I'm building a product in my spare time while working on a full-time job, it's been very exciting when we started and things were great until I hit a tech problem few weeks ago, Its not all that difficult but some how I seem to have lost motivation, every time I want to work on it, I hit the wall and loose motivation. I want to know if any of you have been in this situation before and what you've done to break out of it.

thaumaturgy• 16 years ago

Yeah, this happens to me all the time. I've managed to suss out a number of the factors for me, but based on everything else I've read on it, I've also learned that the factors, reasons, and responses are different for different people.

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.

maxdemarzi• 16 years ago

Remind yourself of why you started this project in the first place. You're trying to change the world, disrupt an industry, destroy an enemy. Remember why you're in this fight and why you're going to win.

alexhanh• 16 years ago

Oh man, it's a constant struggle. The implementation is always more complex and seems to take longer than first anticipated.

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.

lukifer• 16 years ago

1. Find something small, even unimportant, to work on. It feels rewarding just to keep moving forward, and that makes it easier to go back to tackling something big.

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.

jhen095• 16 years ago

To further your first point, since this is what I often do. When planning out the project and its timeline and fitting in what needs to be done, I will manage the tasks so that big and small tasks are alternated.

For example, I will schedule time to tackle a hard back-end problem, the results of which aren't easily visible (except perhaps for better performance, scalability, or correctness), knowing that this will suck the motivation out of me. After that I can look forward to some easy tasks like refactoring or adding some new features to the GUI or something trivially easy and which provides immediate feedback (GUI stuff usually does this).

With time management like this you can work through the hard stuff with cool stuff to look forward to, and during the cool stuff, regain motivation to work on the next hard task.

staunch• 16 years ago

This is why part-time doesn't work for most of us. When you hit these walls you know (unconsciously at least) that you don't really have to keep going. Giving up is always an option.

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.

bpm140• 16 years ago

This is the A-Number-1 reason for having a cofounder. Inevitably, you're going to get burnt out, you're going to lose faith. It's at those moments that you talk to your co-founder and he tells you why you're out of you're fucking mind, that this thing you're building together is going to be amazing. And you get re-energized.

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

ww520• 16 years ago

You might just need to discuss it with someone. What is the technical problem?

onwardly• 16 years ago

I feel like almost anyone can empathize with this problem. A few points, which echo some of the other comments:

- 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".

zuggywugg• 16 years ago

I agree with one of the comments, you just have to have a partner to bounce ideas and energy.

travism• 16 years ago

"The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into small, manageable tasks, and then starting on that first one." -- Mark Twain (according to wikiquote)

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).

mrpixel• 16 years ago

That's the reason why I don't want a full-time job while I'm working on my thing. Sooner or later it blows up your job, your project, your mind, your liver...

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.

gosuri• 16 years ago

It's not so much about technicality in the problem that cannot be solved, but the motivation to solve it. Greatly appreciate the comments.

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.

revorad• 16 years ago

I've found that thinking about the positive outcomes of solving current difficult problems is a great motivator. Don't dwell on how hard this is or how you are never going to make it. Imagine how awesome it will be once you've solved this problem you're facing now and can march forward to your goals.

MiltBaron• 16 years ago

Totally appreciate where you are coming from. I have been in that place many times before. There is some excellent ips already been posted here. It is usually a case of gritting your teeth and just getting on with it.

eatsleepdev• 16 years ago

You just need to find things that inspire you. Personally, when I lose motivation I just watch a few episodes of Naruto.

oldpond• 16 years ago

I've been stuck for 3 weeks, and I couldn't figure out why. My daughter started talking to me about motivation at University, and I just started talking about my being stuck. Next thing I knew I had figured out why. Maybe you haven't lost motivation. Maybe you are just stuck and don't know why. Talk it out.

sirwitti• 16 years ago

what helps me very often is the vision: where do i wanna get with the product and myself? what do i have to do to get there? write a list and work an it every day. marking accomplishments creates a quite good feeling for me too :) hope that helps a bit, martin

iworkforthem• 16 years ago

Seems like quite a few hackers either burnt out or lost motivation to keep on going. It is not a lot, but need someone to chat over things, I created a public chatroom: https://consult.campfirenow.com/91654

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

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

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