Re:Ask HN: How do I stay "on" all the time?
by robertjwebb on Saturday November 30, 2013 @05:09AM
(#6822772)
In a way Hacker News more insidious than Reddit, because a lot of the articles are about people being productive and successful it tricks you into thinking it's more "wholesome" than Reddit/Buzzfeed/etc. It is, but that doesn't warrant the hours and hours of idle browsing that you can potentially spend on it.
- exercise regularly (once a week to start with, ideally every day). A lot of software people are obsessed with the gym, which I personally hate. Find something that fits you. It could be rock climbing, swimming, playing basketball, etc- just do something. It has clear effects on your brain.
- eat well. Software companies like to feed their employee redbull and Doritos; don't touch that crap. Making a salad at home is cheap, quick and healthy.
- as another commenter suggested, maybe seek out something more intellectually demanding than software engineering if you're bored. Pick up a number theory or quantum physics textbook, or get into chess- whatever works for you. Making CRUD web apps is not all that it's made out to be.
- try to cutdown the weed. Force yourself to never smoke before a certain hour. Ie if you get home at 7 and go to bed at 11, no weed before 10.
- cut the crappy websites like reddit. Modify your /etc/hosts, block the IPs in your router and then change the password to garbage, etc. those sites are a giant black hole and are designed to make people do exactly what you're doing.
- go out in nature. It may be just me, but living in the city kills my brain cells. Drive out once or twice a month for hikes, etc.
- other things that have worked for me, but ymmv: getting rid of most of my gadgets that waste time (iPad, super fancy phone with a million useless apps, etc). Installing Linux on a cheap netbook so that i can't get distracted by video games (heck even YouTube videos are rendered choppily, which is great). Meditation. Reading more paper books and less blog posts (a kindle+tpb is great for that). Making a list of leisure activities that I find acceptable and making sure that I do at least one of them a day (reading, drawing, playing an instrument, chess, etc)
- finally, you may be depressed or burned out. It happens. Think about going somewhere exotic for a week or two, isolated from your daily environment & work. Think about seeing a psychiatrist. They're trained to deal with this.
It gets better, friend. Hang in there.