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This is one of the least talked about topic. Believe it or not but programming is hard and creating a mind-blowing software (or even going about changing/fixing an existing one) is a creative task about as difficult as creating a best selling novel or story.
Irrespective of whether or not you believe software development is creative (yeah, some folks like to think of it as a purely logical "hard science" which is full of rules and no creativity), you can't deny that there are times when you feel low motivation.
Even the most experienced of coders face this sometimes. A problem here is that you can't ask this on any forum because the most usual reply you get is, "Programming isn't for you dude, just choose any other field"! This, I think is both uncalled for and inhumane. If you have nothing positive to offer, at least don't demoralize further an already troubled soul.
Well, coming back to the title, what do you do to motivate yourself when there is a project ahead but you just don't feel like working or you sit on the desk and start typing but nothing gets typed there, almost like a "Writer's Block"!
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If it's just a temporary thing - like writer's block is - then it's called "coder's block" and it happens to all of us, I think.
Have a look here: how to handle coders block - Google Search[^] There are quite a few suggestions.
Me? I go do something else (there is always something I've been putting off to do) and my subconscious gets an idea when I'm quiet and not keeping it awake ...
If it's long term ... then development is the wrong career for you! 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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OriginalGriff wrote: there is always something I've been putting off to do
This is why I can't work from home. 
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Same here. I only "worked" from home about two weeks during the pandemic and went back to the office months before it was officially allowed. Even after almost three years, I am still the only one in our local team (of a large corporation) that goes to the office every day.
I cannot work at home because my "office" is forced to be a corner of my bedroom, and MY BED IS RIGHT THERE! I realized quickly that it was not going to work. But, I guess I am the only one on my team that has this struggle because everyone else seems to be OK with it.
Cheers,
Russ
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Watch Avatar.
I mean, take a break for a couple of days.
Or, try this[^].
modified 19-Dec-22 4:43am.
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I do not code...
* Write (not code, but can be code related)
* Cook
* Read
* Play
"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." ― Albert Einstein
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I keep a list of fun, side projects for those times, say, a small app or helper library.
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Franc Morales wrote: I keep a list of fun, side projects for those times, say, a small app or helper library.
Catch-22: The "fun", small apps or helper libraries (the stuff I used to do on my own time, evenings and weekends) is what caused me to burn out. On workdays, as soon as I finished dinner, I worked on my little pet projects until late at night, and I'd dedicate my entire weekends to said projects. As much as I loved it, at one point I just hit a wall and it stopped being "fun"; to this day there are periods where I've literally gone for months without writing a single line of code for myself.
I go through my work stuff, sometimes begrudgingly, as it is the way I make a living, but how I use my free time is up to me, and these days I use a very tiny portion of my free time coding. It's not like I don't like coding anymore - right now I'm on holidays, and I've spent quite a bit of time going back to those little side-projects, and I'm loving it - I wished I could do this full-time. But I can't bring myself to code on a "regular" weekend, it seems, knowing I only have 2 days to wind down before going back to work on Monday...
I've come to the conclusion that I'll use my free time to code if I feel like it, and if I don't, well, those will be my retirement projects. Translation: What started as a hobby in my teenage years lead me to working in this field (and I wouldn't trade it for the world), but from my perspective work is, still after all these years, getting in the way of my hobby.
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When I lose motivation to code, I switch to something else that needs doing. At home this might be some chores, or a walk, or anything else that takes my mind off the code. At work, there are always administrivia that need attending to (replying to emails, filling out time sheets, editing documents, etc.)
As OriginalGriff said, if this carries on long term, perhaps coding isn't (or is no longer) for you. It is then time to find another way of avoiding "honest work". *
(*) for the non-anglophones, "honest work" here refers to the kind of work that makes one sweat, as opposed to office work.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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Daniel Pfeffer wrote: It is then time to find another way of avoiding "honest work". *
Yep. One of the reasons I decided on development as a career was "it's indoor work with no heavy lifting" 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Sounds to me like you are burned out.
I have been burned out many times over the years. If you can afford to take 2-3 weeks vacation, then do that. Collect your thoughts and revist the issue AFTER your vacation.
Ultimately, if your production is affected by your burn out, then you will either be fired or you will quit.
I usually jump back into a good rhythm after some PTO.
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All these wonderful ideas to take a break from coding - it is WORK, you probably do not have the luxury to up and take a break, you are probably dodging a deadline and have a manager in your ear to get the work done. And the wife is going "we can't afford for you not to work".
Grind it out till you can get away from the desk! Eventually you can retire, look forward to that.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity -
RAH
I'm old. I know stuff - JSOP
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Mycroft Holmes wrote: Grind it out till you can get away from the desk
If you're working somewhere that this is the expectation, it's time to work somewhere else.
Software Zen: delete this;
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My innate desire to NOT to look for work made the job search one of my most disliked activities. It also helped that they paid well above the odds so there was fairly strong incentive to stay with the pressure.
Retirement was the goal and it is wonderful, I haven't coded in 3 years now and don't regret it.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity -
RAH
I'm old. I know stuff - JSOP
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Too bad you can't retire from the wife. 
Jeremy Falcon
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After 45 years of marriage I have grown comfortable with the lifestyle!
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity -
RAH
I'm old. I know stuff - JSOP
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Whenever I've felt this way, it's been the environment rather than coding.
The first time, I was sick of Sydney traffic and so I left and worked in Canberra. There were a number of factors (the type of work, some people, etc) for leaving Canberra after 17 years and ended with a sea change (or quite close to one) living on the northern Gold Coast (south of Brisbane).
I'm not suggesting upending and moving cities, but have a look around you. Does the project interest you? Do you get on with your work mates? If not, a change of job might be a start.
// TODO: Insert something here Top ten reasons why I'm lazy
1.
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Don't know, but I wish I did!
I started a side project (non-commercial, to support people with a particular pastime) about 15 months ago. It was initially stop-start due to (real) work getting in the way. It reached a point where I released it as beta, but with minimal advertising and virtually no-one has used it yet - partly because it's missing some central functionality. I just can't build up the enthusiasm to complete testing of the part I coded in October. There's a lot of use-cases for a particular screen, and it will involve setting up quite a lot of test accounts etc, and I just can't get enthused by it. Until it's done, though, I can't move on to the next feature - after which it will be in a state where I can begin promoting it properly.
Partly I think it's fear - it has the potential to have a LOT of users and that could mean a LOT of support issues, at a time when I'm trying to wind down my coding activities.
I've found an amazing ability to procrastinate over the past few weeks; now I'm thinking I need to wait till after Christmas, then after New Year is "out of the way". Just to test a single web page. And it's just the two of us at home for Christmas, not like we're busy!
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Would this be the telgraph marker posts project Derek ?
Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!" - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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No - that's all complete. (Always tweaks and stuff to add, but it's live and well!)
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DerekT-P wrote: it has the potential to have a LOT of users and that could mean a LOT of support issues, at a time when I'm trying to wind down my coding activities.
If you don't want to support it, you can always open source it and offer it for free. Let the community support it.
Jeremy Falcon
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For sure, once it has some momentum I'm hoping we will have volunteers come forward to support (initially as admins but later as developers too), with the long term plan that it's supported from within the community.
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Jeremy Falcon wrote: If you don't want to support it, you can always open source it and offer it for free. Let the community support it.
I find it interesting you'd suggest this and word it this way. This is no criticism...but hear me out.
When "open source" started making waves, I viewed is as kind of a "bad" thing - someone writes something, releases it to the world, and if there's problems, the wonderful thing is that you can go fix it yourself. At least that's how it had been (poorly) presented to me, and my stance against open source had often been, there's no accountability. Who in his right mind would want to commit himself to using a library when there's no-one to shout at when it's broken? Fix it myself? As a developer, I need to spend my own time writing my own software, not fixing other people's bugs.
I've come a long way, but (for example) when I look at the amount of NuGet packages out there, and how often things need to be updated...it sometimes makes me wonder if this approach is really the best.
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Yeah, that's a fair point. For the enterprise, I'll never use a package/software without a larger community support for that very reason. In this instance though, the alternative would be for the project to be abandoned it would seem. At least if it's open sources, perhaps someone else can take it and run with it. Never a one perfect solution to anything in tech though.
Jeremy Falcon
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