I'm retired now but when I was working I'd just take it slow. Surf the web a bit. Do TODOs that didn't require much mental acuity. Drink a lot of coffee. Mondays were always bad because I often went away for weekend rock climbing and wouldn't return until late Sunday.
Ask HN: How do you deal with an off-day?
41–50 of 59 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with an off-day?
#42I think the first thing I do, which has taken me a full 32 years to learn is to never judge yourself on your worst day. It can be so easy to send yourself into a long-term depressive episode just because your one day sucked because you didn't get enough sleep / are sick / had a rough day / etc. I remind myself that today is just one day, and there are many more ahead. I accept the fact that my day is not going well, and just look forward to tomorrow, when it will be better. Under no circumstances should you dwell on how bad today is and how that means your life sucks. That is the path to perdition.
Instead, accept it, treat yourself, and exercise self-care. It's okay to skip things or put things off (if there are no deadlines to meet of course). Just enjoy and pamper yourself.
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with an off-day?
#43In the past, I had all sorts of advice I could give you to feel/be more productive. Now, having experienced severe burnout that lasted several years—that still affects me, and may do for the rest of my life—
My advice is to listen to your body. It is telling you there are more important things than productivity, at least right now. Take a break! Whether that’s a nap, a day off, a long weekend, whatever you need. You’ll be glad you did. You may very well be more productive in the long run if you do.
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with an off-day?
#44Off days are simply not a thing. You can either be like physically sick and in that case you take the day off but there are no off days. If you are good at something and you can do things in a single threaded manner with focus and you have one to two things which are major items that you want to check off, every single day will be a good day. Now you might not make as much progress or some days you might make a lot o…
I genuinely mean this with the greatest of respect when I say that’s terrible advice.
We are not machines. Some days we are going to be better at the same task than other days.
You see this with professional sports players and you see this with professionals in IT too.
Except in our jobs we often have the luxury of being able to focus on other activities on the off day. To use a sports analogy, it’s like playing the defensive game when your attacking game isn’t there that day.
But the most important thing one can do on an “off day” is to not push yourself too hard otherwise you’ll burn out and be “off” the following day too. That applies emotionally as well as physically. Don’t get upset that you’re struggling one day because tomorrow is a new day.
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with an off-day?
#45On those days, I like to switch from work on the computer to work with my hands, like wrenching on a project in the garage. It won't get me any progress on my computer-based work, but it will give me a sense of progress on my garage-based projects, and it will leave me recharged for the next day.
That, and more coffee.
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with an off-day?
#46Basically power through but with care and empathy for myself. Do the work, but only the important stuff, eat well, not too much and get some light movement and early sleep later.
I only call in sick if I have a fever, am contagious or am really unable to sit at a desk for more than 10 minutes due to the illness.
Otherwise I am not sick, I maybe take some pain killers, acknowledge that a) I am human b) I can always concentrate for at least 1 or 2 hours, even if I am not at my best and c) those two hours are enough for the day.
And who knows, sometimes being not at your top leads to new perspective into your work.
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with an off-day?
#47[dead]
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with an off-day?
#48If I can, I'll go for a drive and then find a place for a walk/hike. Usually opens new dimensions for me, if even just my attitude/spirit/free-thinking.
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with an off-day?
#49I go with the flow. Usually I can't take the full workday off (meetings that I should be at, etc.), so I try to focus on doing a task that I don't feel friction towards. If I feel like I can't get started on something or that it's just not going well, I try to do something else until I find something that I can make progress on. Maybe that means going through my email backlog or making a nice todo list. Maybe it means exploring a low priority side project that sounds fun. Often I find that making progress on a low priority task can reframe my mood and bring me back towards working on the important goals for the day.
Some days, though, it's just a lost cause, and it's best to then focus on using the day to recover. You'll feel a lot better the next day if you recover than if you spend 8 hours struggling and failing to be productive.
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with an off-day?
#50Mostly I check for newly registered handles with "dang" in them and shadowban the IPs that created them.