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Ask HN: How do you deal with your brain not being “on?”

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Ask HN: How do you deal with your brain not being “on?”

#1

Post by c1yd3i »

My brain isn't "on" 24/7. Depending on motivation, there may only be a few hours a week where I have enough brain power/creative energy to think critically about technical problems.

I feel like if my job were just to cut wood in the forest all day, then I'd be golden. I have the physical energy to do any monotonous task.

So how do you guys deal with it? I'm a "Senior DevOps Engineer." I'm getting to the point where my job makes me feel numb. I've already tried switching jobs twice. And I'd love to leave forever, but I don't want to lose my paycheck.

Right now, I'm a paid professional and just want to deal with getting _something_ done.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with your brain not being “on?”

#3

Post by danielovichdk »

That's a good thing. Don't stress about it.

Listen to yourself in terms of why you believe you're not functioning like you think you should.

I have about 3 to 4 hours a day, twice a week, of top-level cognitive bandwidth.

That's it. The rest is idle to a degree where I can do shit for brains work and help others.

But really heavy load work takes its toll and also takes a lot of mental capacity if the domain i work on is complex, relatively to what just accomplished. Hence context switching is hard.

One practical thing is to write a journal with the things you speculate about. Just sentences. Write it down and continue. Write. Continue.

It's a good way to have that kind of valve.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with your brain not being “on?”

#4

Post by exfatloss »

I think it's pretty normal not to be "on" 24/7. We run on a circadian rhythm that is diurnal, i.e. has two cycles per day. Most people peak once some time in the late morning and then once again in the late afternoon.

Depending on your chronotype, this might be shifted - a super night owl would probably experience both of them later. E.g. I usually peak late at night, maybe between 8pm and midnight.

These cycles are measurable in things like nervous system, core body temperature, and so on. So it's no surprise that your brain isn't "always on." Nobody's brain is.

You could try finding your peak times and structuring your day around them so you can make maximal use of them.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with your brain not being “on?”

#6

Post by giantg2 »

hdlothia wrote: post #2

My plan is to save money aggressively and then get one of those monotonous task jobs. Like cashier or stock boy.

I worked at Lowes as an associate as a second job. It's a nice balance of helping customers, stocking shelves, filling in on the register, or loading.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with your brain not being “on?”

#8

Post by cuttlefisch »

Obviously 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 weight. In the case of ADHD you don't have control over when your brain "Turns On", and unless there's some urgency or interest, getting started on any task at all becomes virtually impossible.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with your brain not being “on?”

#9

Post by nathants »

it’s easy to change jobs into exactly the same job. if so, nothing actually changed.

try to find a way to work on things you’re actually interested in and excited to work on. you should wake up excited to play in the problem space.

if you are able to, be open to moving and taking a paycut if it makes it easier to access interesting problems.

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