

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

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.
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staunch
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.

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bpm140
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 :)

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onwardly
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".

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maxdemarzi
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.

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alexhanh
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.

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thaumaturgy
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.

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travism
"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).

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lukifer
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
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.

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iworkforthem
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

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mrpixel
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.

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gosuri
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.

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oldpond
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.

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revorad
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.

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sirwitti
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

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MiltBaron
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.

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

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ww520
You might just need to discuss it with someone. What is the technical problem?

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

