It's Monday, you feel unmotivated to write any single line of code, it's hard to give a good review to your teammate.
How do you handle those days when you feel like your productivity and motivation are very low?
How you boost motivation and productivity at work?
Top comments (87)
I deal with this more than often, especially while freelancing. The first obvious choice is to be proactive (ex: sleep, eat right, etc...)
But to actually deal with it WHILE you're in the middle of feeling that way (as in you feel this way at this very second while reading this) is different.
I have 2 tips to deal with this:
First is start with an insanly small task. Fix a typo. Make a single test case. Make an issue for a bug. Something small to get a small win. Then repeat again. And again... Before you know it, you're moving along and working. Those little wins trigger dopemine and doing it repeatedly gives you more enough to crave it, thus working more.
Second tip is just don't work. Seriously. Do more exploring around in the space. Look at some random repos. Browse this site, reddit or Twitter. Just get yourself doing something. Usually what happens to me, I end up relating things back to work and end up working.
Bonus tip: chill. Seriously... Mental health is real, if your mental is too fatigued to work, then just sit on the bench. No use in straining yourself. You brain is a muscle like everything else.
Hope the methods to my madness helps!
The mental health tip is good to. Having a good therapist/psych is a good solution if you CAN'T do the above. It's possible that there's something splash'n in the ole' noggin that either needs medication or CBT.
Yes, I will try to use them...
I like the second tip, stop working and read random stuff at dev.to for example.
Back in time, I was doing the first tip by answering a random question on StackOverflow and helped me a lot.
Will try it soon.
I love all this advice. Great stuff!
As someone who has far better energy levels when not addicted to caffeine, I have to caution against the abuse of what is our most commonly used stimulant drug.
Too much caffeine consumption (and then not maintaining or upping your levels) can also cause feelings of fatigue and burnout.
Yeah, coffee’s okay for me but it’s a seriously addictive drug and its benefits wear off over time.
Coffee cleanse can go a long way.
I quit smoking a few years ago. That was difficult, but definitely not impossible as I had lots of practice having quit multiple times over the years.
Waking up and not putting on the kettle and loading up the press.... is... what kind of morning is that? What is the point? YOU'LL NEVER TAKE IT AWAY FROM ME BEN*.
*Apologies for using your first name like we know each other, but I think it was necessary to drive the point home.
We have a policy that if you’re not feeling productive and it’s looking pretty hopeless that you’ll be productive in your last few hours of work, you should just say you’re not feeling productive and call it a day. No shame.
If you can bring up the idea to your team, I bet management could be okay with it if you present it the right way: An environment where it’s okay to not try and grind through the day, and instead save up energy for tomorrow.
Before I get to the point of calling it a day, I find switching up my music routine to be a good way to switch gears and become productive. 🙂
Flex time is the answer.
You feel tired or not productive, go home after lunch.
You feel that you are "in the zone" and you don't want to leave? Continue working until late, and those extra hours will allow you to take afternoons off.
Thanks, @ben !
It's actually something all teams should consider.
it helps to work smarter and harder.
it reminds me of the 80-20% rule.
But how to present it in the right way to the management team?
They may be more comfortable with this kind of thing if they start allowing trusted employees to do some of their work remotely. The reason is that, rather than take that time off completely, you can just make up the hours at a time when you are feeling better at home. You could even offer to track your time in a way they can see it. That could also help if the reason you are burning out is because you already put in extra hours somewhere, then you should be able to take off early at some point without having to make it up.
Thanks, @stilldreaming1 ,
The remote option is a fine especially when you have already built trust with your team and the management.
Trust leads to freedom, freedom leads to flaw exposure, flaw exposure leads to improvement or degression, improvement leads to trust, trust leads to freedom..
I love that idea but sadly more management groups than you think won't buy it. Would love ideas to present this to management.
I sadly work where they would say back "this is work, sometimes you have to do things you don't like." They will even say during crunch times if we step away from our computer: "back at it Can't be productive not on your computer"
I wish I could just tell management that I'm not feeling productive and call it a day. Here it's hard to get away from work without having a valid excuse like you're sick or you have an emergency at home.
One day I'll either work for a company like yours or be the boss of a company like yours. Hopefully the latter.
That sounds like a healthy and realistic policy. 👏
If this is hapenning more often that you can count. You need some rest. Take one or two weeks off (or more if you can).
Some day to day tips.
1 - Try to use productive procastination (work on things not related to your current task).
2 - Take a walk.
3 - Take a small nap.
4 - Talk to someone.
5 - Eat fruits and drink water.
Those are nice advice, but what can someone use if he is not a coffee fan?
It's sugar free.
I'm a fan!
I find Spiced Chi to be absolutely amazing.
You could also drink Yerba Mate. :) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yerba_mate
Mate ftw! :D
Yerba Mate is very high in caffeine. Very good alternative to coffee
Some people like neutropics. I have not tried them yet, and I used to feel like this was just a way of self medicating, and not in a good way, but I recently heard a podcast that changed my mind about it, and I followed that up with research that even more convinced me it can be good. One good one is Aplpha Brain. They have a free trial. The podcast said it is either a hit or miss and this is why it only has about a 3 star rating, it either does wonders for you or basically does nothing. So you have to try it to find out since everyone's body is different. There are others you can try if that one doesn't work for you. The research I did suggested they are more natural and good for you and less of an experimental drug then drinking coffee. Although you should always be careful who you buy stuff like this from and I can't guarantee it is not somehow bad for you personally. Both of the people on this podcast now drink/need a lot less coffee now that they take these regularly.
I go with green tea. Very lightly flavored and easily available (not to mention affordable) in most parts of the world AFAIK. The caffeine on green tea is also easier on your body ─ unlike coffee, it takes a while to kick in.
I only drink water, almost all day.
+1 to everything that's been said about getting enough sleep. I'm also not a coffee guy, I get into work early and the first thing I drink is cold water. I intentionally keep a small mug at my desk, so whenever I feel the need I drain my mug and walk to the water cooler on the other side of the office. I also run the stairs to the bathrooms on the top floor, two at a time. Besides having a standing desk this is the most activity I get during the day. When I get back I refocus by alternating through different music genres/playlists.
Thanks, @austinstanding for the cold water tips, I was doing back during my productive days.
Especially the idea of sitting far from the water cooler.
I should try the stair thing because I working on the 5th floor of a building without an elevator.
This is something that keeps me productive too, but never clearly noticed if it turns on my productivity when I'm not in my productive mode.
I would leave desk, to drink water, run to the bathrooms, far from my seat, and I would feel most productive in the time when I had just returned to my seat. So, I try to sort of maximize/optimize the benefit by doing every hour.
Unproductive days come and go, if your rate of productive days is > day productive days, better to sit down and really check why and how that is.
With that said, everyone defines "productivity" slightly different. Sometimes "being productive" doesn't necessarily mean doing tons of things and finishing everything in one go, but rather doing one thing and see in it through the end.
*Scenario: * "I will implement this feature today..."
*Reality: * your 1st implementation failed, your 2nd one did too and your 3rd is not looking any better. Now it's the end of the day, and the time to go home. 😢 😔
Personally, I would say if you managed to learn something by the end of the day and try different ideas, then no. But always take an honest look at the end of the day to see what work, what didn't, and what you learnt, both in work as in life.
If in a company and you find yourself not being productive:
Change of mood. I have found my motivation, willingness, and ability to problem solve are all directly related to my mood.
Take a nap, walk around outside, have some food. Watch a funny / uplifting show.
For me; music always puts me in a better mood.
Plus one for the nap idea.
It's something I should try out.
I've had some success in talking myself into writing just a few lines of code, something simple. It usually happens that I think of something I missed in those few lines and I write a few more lines. Then the cycle keeps repeating until the code has grown into a full implementation.
That's so trueeeeee
Why are you unmotivated at work? Are you in the middle of taking one for the team, i.e. doing programming chores? Do you need to do mindless side processes to support the release of your code? Are you writing tests, documentation?
Some side work is always not pleasant. However, if you have a constant work set which is boring and uninspiring then a change needs to be made.
Either way, you need to discuss things with your manager as this is a problem. If your manager is any good, they will listen and try to identify the RC of your boredom and appropriate steps will be taken.
@nickhristov , I end up finding that those feeling always happens on Monday when you didn't rest enough over the weekend.
Sometimes it also happens when I'm doing some boring work or unpleasant stuff.
Any tips on how to discuss it with the manager if it happens again?
What do you do at the weekend? I know a bunch of people who program as a hobby and burn themselves out. If this sounds like you the I would suggest finding some other interests, preferably something outside. It will help reset yourself at the weekend and come back to work motivated.
I will go for a weekend without an electronic device and try to evaluate the results on next Monday.
In the moment I find a couple things help me get my focus back.
Take some time to do a quick meditation, 5-10 minutes. 90% of the time this gets me out of whatever rut I was in. I'm a big fan of the Headspace app for guided meditations, but other apps will work just as well.
Go on a walk. If time is scarce I'll just do a couple laps around the office. If it's around lunch time I'll try and hop over to a greenway or park and walk around for most of my lunch break.
Chat with a coworker/friend about what they're working on. Being in the presence of someone who is focused tends to make me feel a bit more attentive myself.
As someone who always experience this way too much before (seldom now).... here's my advice:
Don't sleep too much. Just sleep enough.
Exercise/warm up every morning. In order for us to function well, our brain needs our body to be in good condition.
Don't take too much sweets! It boosts you yeah. But it drains you a lot when it wears off.
Eat enough and healthy - if you eat a lot. Most of your energy are focused in digesting that food. Making you feel tired/restless. Hence the unproductive attitude.
Just start. You can't do things if you don't try to start. Be flexible in case of changes on your plans.
Every once and a while: do simple small tasks, take a bunch of breaks, focus on chatting with co workers/team bonding type stuff and don't stress - sometimes it's OK to have an off day
Happening multiple times a week: Evaluate my daily routine and state of mental health. Cut out daily routine stuff that is not healthy, prioritize sleep, food that makes my body feel good, exercise that doesn't stress me out (walking, yoga, swimming, biking). Checking in on my mental health can be asking myself what items I may be dealing with in and out of work and making a real place to deal with those (for example doing life chores I have been putting off, having that awkward convo you have been avoiding, finding a counselor/therapist, reducing time spent on anything that drains vs. fills you up). Say no, and REST.
Personally, if my brain is struggling with something, nothing I do can change its “mind”. I usually allow for this kind of thing to happen, some days will be better than others.
Some things that help me:
We're really only wired for 4-5 hours of deep, productive work each day. A lot of people try to push that to 7-8 hours and add more hours on top of that for other work-related tasks, not realizing the toll it takes on your energy and creativity in the long term. A crash is inevitable, and can appear in subtle ways (burnout is not always an explosive event).
Recognize those times when you're just not going to get it done, and either stop completely so you can go and rest and refresh. Or, if you are required to still be "on the clock" for some more hours, do low effort, reactive work as much as possible.
Example - Part of my work is producing video training courses. My workflow fits into the limitations I've identified in myself. If I need 10-12 hours to write the script (what I'm going to say) for a module and create the slide deck (diagrams etc you'll see on screen), I'll break that up over 2-3 days. When my creative energy to write the material is drained each day, I switch to another task like recording audio for previously written modules (physically draining), then switch again to a low energy task like editing (boring but not mentally or physically taxing).
You are right @Cunningham, people fail to realize that we only do deep work for 4-5 hours.
If this happens after your deep work time, it's better to call it a day or to do low effort work as you said.
Kudos!