I would recommend trying the pomodoro method: 25 minutes of work, 5 minute break away from screens, repeat. 30 minute break after a few cycles.

I’ve discovered I’m much more in touch with my mental and emotional state and even a five minute break will really relieve some of the pressure you put on your mind and body. Also because it’s just for 25 minutes anyway, it’s much easier to get started again, even with unfun work.

Edit: In case you’re worried this will make things worse, because of the regular interruption, I’ve found it to not be so bad with the exception of some types of debugging. The mind is pretty good at mulling over the problem while you’re taking a break and often I’m more effective afterwards. But the 25/5 isn’t a hard requirement and should be changed depending on preference and type of work.

Seconded. Pomodoro is wonderful for engineers: it rapidly teaches us to build up a "focus muscle". We start focusing at the beginning of a 25 min cycle, and consciously relax the focus at the end. If I walk around for 5 minutes and do low-impact things like dishes/laundry it helps.

My channel has a short talk recommending Pomodoro for engineers, including using it with Agile. The methods are extremely similar. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0PGaH-sVPGIdFUC88FgMmw

I used to use an app that had both a timer and a notepad. It was helpful for sketching out pointers to where I’d reached. A quick scan before restarting the next 25min, especially after a meeting or lunch, was very helpful. Being in the same app helped connect it to each session.

Do you recall the name of it?

Starting a new job and that may finally be enough of a change to trigger me actually trying this after all these years of hearing about it.

Vitamin-R. It was Mac only, I think.

Thanks for the reply!

Thanks

Yeah good point. I think it's also different since the interruption is on your own terms - you've deliberately given yourself 5 minutes break from some task so that you be more focused over the lifetime of that task. You're (hopefully) not getting other tasks thrown at you which can take up precious mental resources or destroy context you've been slowly building up in your head.

I use pomodoros religiously, and you touched on one of the few gotchas of the technique; Never use your break to attend to other work, unless it's thoughtless. Can't say how many times I've lost the thread and been kicking myself because of mixed contexts.

Are you saying getting into that "in the zone" state affected your mental health. Interesting. Any examples of the side effects? Is it hard to put into words?

I find that I have to put myself in a state of deep dissatisfaction in order to develop the motivation to dive in. If I get interrupted before accomplishing anything then I'll remain in a bad mood. And if I think I am going to be interrupted then I won't even start the first dissatisfaction step because I don't want to be stopped halfway. One workaround for that is to define the work in smaller pieces so that interruptions are less likely, but that also takes work.

I'm reminded of a scene from the movie 'Never Cry Wolf' where the bush pilot, while flying the plane, puts himself into a state of rage before stepping outside to fix the problem.

https://youtu.be/9i90_-HpVz0?t=120

Looks like you discovered where your motivation knob is, and come to think of it, being dis-satisfied with something is a very common, and rational way to be motivated.

My guess would be he felt depleted emotionally and psychologically after spending too much time working.

Like when you need to spend some time in a dark silent room before filling like having fun or do house chores or do the cooking.

> Like when you need to spend some time in a dark silent room

That resonated, and it's the best example for me to come to grips with this.

Yeah this happens for me as well. I can feel the high of being productive but now as I gained expirience I also feel the dread of next day being almost like hungover

No it was from being in the zone, which eventually caused me anxiety about doing it. I would spend 10-12 hours getting a major project done, barely taking a break. Wrist issues, back issues, and a kind of agoraphobia afterwards if I was in too long that accumulated with lack of sleep as well.

> gained insane last minute skills

Nice way to put it.