Ask HN: Turning off the programming mind during non-work hours

Billing for thinking - in my experience this is how some of the best people work. But you have to be careful in management conversations around it. :)

Outside of that, I engage with flow arts (specifically poi spinning) to get out of my head. The reason it works for me is because the moves require an absurd amount of bodily concentration which forces my brain to disengage. Later, as a trick becomes rote and requires less physical concentration, I find that the hours I spent practicing resulted in habituation wherein I drop out of my "thinking mind" whenever I pick up my props - even if the tricks I'm doing are easy enough.

As others have mentioned, meditation may help too. It'll help you learn how to let thoughts go without obsessing. So, everytime you catch yourself following down the programming thought path you need tell yourself "HEY, it's time to turn my attention elsewhere". Just like physical exercise you'll build the brain pathways to do this more easily the more you practice.

Lastly, maybe you just need to take some time off. I find if I'm gone from work for a few days all that stuff fades away while I'm doing other things.

I got into a habit of writing down things that required continued work next day, at the end of my workday. Initially I started doing this because it would take too long to get back into the depth needed to be productive especially after a long weekend or context switching for a day or two due to something time critical. The most effective form of "state dump" being specifically what is the next thing I need to immediately work on given next opportunity.

Overtime I realized, this "checkpoint" allowed me naturally to evaluate how much time and energy I spent on something and be specific about the next thing that would move me towards the outcome I wanted. This focus would:

1/ put my mind at ease, because I know what's important was written down and I don't need to spend mental energy keeping the state alive in my mind.

2/ It would direct my thinking towards what is important to do next time around rather than thinking of interesting but nuanced thing that are actually low value in grand scheme of things.

3/ Often, narrowing down what's the next thing I need to do meant I had a solution next morning and would often experience high productivity in first few hours of the day.

ymmv.