I have this problem and I got one of those light therapy lights on my desk and it helps me wake my brain up. Maybe try one of those.
Ask HN: How do you deal with your brain not being “on?”
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Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with your brain not being “on?”
#12I turned my college career around by studying when I was alert instead of trying to force a "normal" study schedule. The 3 hours from 2:30 AM to 5:30 AM were the golden hours. When the music started playing in my head it was time to go back to sleep.
Can you flex your work hours so that they align with the times that you are able to focus on technical tasks? 30 years later I still get productive things done in the wee small hours of the morning. I save the afternoon for more brute force activities.
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with your brain not being “on?”
#13[dead]
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with your brain not being “on?”
#14Lumberjacks in the national forest actually make good money. Especially after a fire tears through and stuff needs to be removed. So don't necessarily count that career out.
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with your brain not being “on?”
#15I recommend "The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal" by Loehr and Schwartz.
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with your brain not being “on?”
#16I turned my college career around by studying when I was alert instead of trying to force a "normal" study schedule. The 3 hours from 2:30 AM to 5:30 AM were the golden hours. When the music started playing in my head it was time to go back to sleep. Can you flex your work hours so that they align with the times that you are able to focus on technical tasks? 30 years later I still get productive things done in the we…
You have ADD. Source: I have ADD.
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with your brain not being “on?”
#17I turned my college career around by studying when I was alert instead of trying to force a "normal" study schedule. The 3 hours from 2:30 AM to 5:30 AM were the golden hours. When the music started playing in my head it was time to go back to sleep. Can you flex your work hours so that they align with the times that you are able to focus on technical tasks? 30 years later I still get productive things done in the we…
You have ADD. Source: I have ADD.
I agree a lot of this sounds like ad(h)d. It’s odd how undiagnosed it can be. There was another ask HN thread with the OP having major ad(h)d symptoms, to me (I’m lso adhd) it’s almost painfully obvious there’s executive function issues.
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with your brain not being “on?”
#18When my mind wanders and I just don't care, then I just don't work, why pretend? I watch some stream on Twitch, then I'm back at it. I hate pairing because people have so much more energy, and I can't defocus.
The first step is: that's ok. I am also a great teacher, job I do is valuable, and I have great vision on my job.
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But please go and take a seat with a professional psychologist. This might as well be depression!
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with your brain not being “on?”
#19Obviously too little information to tell, but I was experiencing the same thing consistently as a cloud engineer before finding out I had ADHD. Diagnosed at 28 & eventually found a good medication fit. Now there's still a lot of the drudgery, but attention regulation has substantially improved. That feeling of having no energy to do anything regardless of how easy it might be, and the resulting brain drain was a huge…
This sounds like me, only I'm 10 years past 28. How did you get diagnosed?
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with your brain not being “on?”
#20I recently had a period of intense stress, stomach aches and all of that. I'm normally pretty stress tolerant so feeling these feelings was very uncomfortable for me. Being this stressed obviously impacts your mental clarity.
This led me to discover Andrew Huberman, a renowned neruo-scientist at Stanford that talks publicly alot about well being.
Learning some things from him I came to realize that "feeling bad in any way" is pretty much just your body being out of whack. I implemented some of his tips into my daily routines and the feeling of stress went away, despite my external circumstances being roughly the same.
Not saying there is anything magical about him, but you could look into him to see if he's got anything that could help bring back your mental clarity.