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Ask HN: Is it 'normal' to struggle so hard with work?

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Re: Ask HN: Is it 'normal' to struggle so hard with work?

#71

Post by f_allwein »

xwvvvvwx wrote: post #66

Firstly if you think you may have ADHD go and see a doctor for a diagnosis. It's a very common condition and there are a set of well understood and effective treatments. Second, if you struggle to motivate yourself, maybe reassess what you are working towards. Perhaps the problem is not with you, but rather with what you're trying to make yourself do. There is an almost infinite range of activites available to you, t…

Here's an interesting resource for helping you find out what you are passionate about. Starts by thinking about what is the biggest problem in the world you want to address, then find a career where you can contribute to it (which can also be "earn a lot of money, then donate to charities addressing problem X").

https://80000hours.org

Re: Ask HN: Is it 'normal' to struggle so hard with work?

#72

Post by nukeop »

montrose wrote: post #2

It's normal to struggle this way with work you don't love sufficiently, which (unless you're lucky) tends to include the work you do for money. Companies have techniques to motivate employees. E.g. your boss or peers will be upset if you don't do something, and happy with you if you do. As a freelancer you don't have that, so the struggle is more visible to you. Some people can sometimes find types of work that they…

If you are over 18 years old and your motivation to do a job well is the threat of being yelled at, then you have some growing up to do. Equally so if keeping some guy happy is positively motivating for you.

Re: Ask HN: Is it 'normal' to struggle so hard with work?

#73

Post by marenkay »

tlrobinson wrote: post #62
zinckiwi wrote: post #5

I'm familiar with this. There's no magic solution, sadly, but I'll share one thing that has helped me and may apply at least to some of your situations. I realised a while ago that my main issue was with nebulous tasks -- that is, the more concrete, defined, and _meetable_ a task was, the less trouble I had with it. So I started to break down large tasks, which never got started much less finished, into smaller ones,…

I've been wondering, is there a todo / task tracking app that can somehow aggregate tasks across multiple applications? Currently my tasks are spread across emails and email drafts, Github issues, iOS reminders, Slack, my head, etc. It's a lot of work to keep track of them all. Maybe I should just carry around a paper notebook and make that the authoritative source of tasks.

Paper notebooks are great since writing down tasks turns them into something real because of the haptic feedback from touching paper.

Note apps, task apps, etc. all can not handle to that considering the brain simply considers things with haptic feedback more memorable and actionable.

Re: Ask HN: Is it 'normal' to struggle so hard with work?

#74

Post by scotty79 »

Get hired in some software corporation. You'll be amazed how easy the work is and how well it pays. The only motivation you'll need is to get up in the morning and haul you ass to the office.

After few months of what will feel like vacation to you, in the company of fresh smart people, you'll start to get bored, even despite doing more hobby programming in your free time then you done in a long time. But at this point your freelancing clients will direly need you. So you'll take some jobs for weekends and evenings, at way higher hourly rate then you used to have.

After a while of that let one of your freelancing clients hire you but not as freelancer but a full time remote employee paid not for hours of coding but rather for 8 hours each day, same way you were paid at corporation.

After working for two or 3 years like that your problems with motivating yourself will come back but till then hopefully you'll get enough money to take a long break and then get hired somewhere else or do something else entirely.

As a side note don't ever play MOBA games. You'll get hooked so bad you'll have very little time to do any personal development and will have trouble enjoying any other games you enjoyed previously.

Re: Ask HN: Is it 'normal' to struggle so hard with work?

#75

Post by tigerwash »

zinckiwi wrote: post #5

I'm familiar with this. There's no magic solution, sadly, but I'll share one thing that has helped me and may apply at least to some of your situations. I realised a while ago that my main issue was with nebulous tasks -- that is, the more concrete, defined, and _meetable_ a task was, the less trouble I had with it. So I started to break down large tasks, which never got started much less finished, into smaller ones,…

Problem Slicing is the key; Kent Beck wrote an article about "Master Programming" and I'd like to take his advice whenever I encounter a problem in programming, but also in real life (e.g. coordinating tasks in work or private life): https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/4n3s7c/kent_be...

> Slicing. Take a big project, cut it into thin slices, and rearrange the slices to suit your context. I can always slice projects finer and I can always find new permutations of the slices that meet different needs.

Re: Ask HN: Is it 'normal' to struggle so hard with work?

#76

Post by ideonexus »

You are normal. Over the years I have learned that the internet makes us all distracted and that it's a problem many of my peers are wrestling with today. I was in a meeting just this week where our new product line manager started joking about how easy it was in a moment of distraction to open a news site with the intention of just spending a minute there and end up losing half an hour of productivity. I told him I had to watch myself or a moment of distraction to check twitter while an app compiled would lose me half an hour in the endless scroll. Everyone else in the meeting was nodding their heads, and we all had a good laugh about it.

The important thing is that you are aware of it and you are fighting it. The best thing you can do is simply keep fighting it. I had seen many people on HN recommend the Pomodoro Technique, where you work in 20 minute sprints with five minute breaks. I got an app to keep a timer on my phone and it makes focusing much easier, especially when I know I only need to focus for 20 minutes. At the end of the day I can see how many sprints I accomplished and feel better about myself.

Other things I find help me is to have points in the day where I unplug completely. When I get home from work, I leave my cellphone on a stand by the door and only check it once or twice for support calls so I can focus on my kids. Complimenting this is mindfulness meditation, where I practice thinking about nothing while I jog in the morning. Having dedicated time where I just focus on focusing without all the other noise really helps me focus in the busier points of my day.

Like I said, the most important thing is that you are aware of it and fighting it. There are slow weeks at work where I lapse back into the endless scroll, but I see it happening and can make a conscious effort to course-correct. Remember that you are normal, keep trying things to find what works, and share what you find with all the other distracted people who also don't know how normal they are.

Re: Ask HN: Is it 'normal' to struggle so hard with work?

#77

Post by tigerwash »

ashtube wrote: post #33
zinckiwi wrote: post #5

I'm familiar with this. There's no magic solution, sadly, but I'll share one thing that has helped me and may apply at least to some of your situations. I realised a while ago that my main issue was with nebulous tasks -- that is, the more concrete, defined, and _meetable_ a task was, the less trouble I had with it. So I started to break down large tasks, which never got started much less finished, into smaller ones,…

100% this. Break down the tasks into smaller and smaller chunks, use an app like Todoist to track it. So create a project for each major task, and have all the todo's inside that project. You'll feel achievement as you complete each small task, and within no time you'll find you have completed the project, AKA, one big task.

+1 for Todoist.

It's awesome to structure tasks into more and more subtasks.

Re: Ask HN: Is it 'normal' to struggle so hard with work?

#78

Post by PetoU »

In my view, you are very lucky you can ask this question. It means you don't have external stimulation big enough to not have time to think about these matters. I don't want to be silly, but if you'd be hungry, jobless or having a lot of stake at risk, your brain would imidiately switch to "get shit done". So much for external motivation. Internal motivation, thats another story, which everyone need to figure out themselves. Still struggling myself.

Re: Ask HN: Is it 'normal' to struggle so hard with work?

#80

Post by josephjrobison »

tlrobinson wrote: post #62
zinckiwi wrote: post #5

I'm familiar with this. There's no magic solution, sadly, but I'll share one thing that has helped me and may apply at least to some of your situations. I realised a while ago that my main issue was with nebulous tasks -- that is, the more concrete, defined, and _meetable_ a task was, the less trouble I had with it. So I started to break down large tasks, which never got started much less finished, into smaller ones,…

I've been wondering, is there a todo / task tracking app that can somehow aggregate tasks across multiple applications? Currently my tasks are spread across emails and email drafts, Github issues, iOS reminders, Slack, my head, etc. It's a lot of work to keep track of them all. Maybe I should just carry around a paper notebook and make that the authoritative source of tasks.

Hubstaff takes screenshots while you work and you can jot down notes when you feel like it.

I also find myself reviewing my Chrome history sometimes if I have no idea all the things I had been working on all day.

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