Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: How do you get out of a rut?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 178 posts

Re: Ask HN: How do you get out of a rut?

#61

Post by maininformer »

jd115 wrote: post #41

Oh, I love this question! And I love when I find myself in situations like this - although it happens more and more rarely as I age. The answer, of course, is: perspective. And there are all sorts of ways to shift your perspective, but the general heuristic is to step back, zoom out, and talk to yourself in broader, more generic terms. Details are your enemy when you're in a rut (although they turn into your best fri…

This is sound advice.

To trigger a change in perspective in me, I start cleaning and organizing. Finishing or closing projects. This brings me back where I started and I can rethink from afar.

Organize.

Re: Ask HN: How do you get out of a rut?

#62

Post by vijucat »

Hi, this trick works well for me : tell yourself you're only going to start on the task and work for 5 minutes, and after that, you'll be free to give up and walk away. You'll find yourself working on it an hour later (hopefully) :-) Because often, it's starting the task that's the big issue.

Re: Ask HN: How do you get out of a rut?

#63

Post by ActorNightly »

knaik94 wrote: post #33
ActorNightly wrote: post #26

Gonna be unpopular answer, but drugs, specifically psychedelics. Shrooms has been a game changer for me, I do one medium trip pretty much every year as a "reset" - during the trip, the current life that I live becomes a superficial layer of patterns that I can clearly see, and I can go through thought journeys on doing things different and see how I feel about them. I don't know if they will help you, but generally i…

The positive effects of psychedelics are exaggerated and is similar to using a blowtorch to remove weeds from your front lawn. Additionally set and setting are important, you'll get the most out of them when you're in a position to not need them and are just exploring life. Having expectations about what they may do will make it easier to fall into a negative spiral. The studied therapeutic use of psychedelics always…

Just out of curiosity, have you tried psychedelics? Don't mean to imply that you are fully wrong in what you said, I just want to further know your perspective on it so I can reply based on that.

Re: Ask HN: How do you get out of a rut?

#64

Post by protontorpedo »

If you're anything like me, or anything like 90% of humanity, you can't rely on motivation to progress in life (whatever your idea of progression is). None of the platitudes or self-help-shaped advice you read here or on Reddit will help you with that. You can't trick yourself.

What works for me is, as much as I don't like the word, discipline. I take an hour every week to review my routine and plans, when I'm inspired and motivated. The rest of the time, when I'm not motivated, I spend executing what I wrote down. In the beginning you will feel miserable, angry, and sad. But after a couple weeks you get used to being your own boss. No matter what you feel (unless you're physically ill), just do what's written down and defer the decision making process (is this what I should be doing) to that planning hour.

Re: Ask HN: How do you get out of a rut?

#65

Post by anon9001 »

Prescription stimulants. That's not good advice though.

Better advice is to look within yourself, figure out what you really know you should be doing, and go do that instead of whatever it is you're not motivated to do. Figure out what matters to you, find like-minded people, and the motivation will reverberate between you and your chosen community.

At least, that's what the successful people I know do.

Re: Ask HN: How do you get out of a rut?

#66

Post by mysticmode »

jd115 wrote: post #41

Oh, I love this question! And I love when I find myself in situations like this - although it happens more and more rarely as I age. The answer, of course, is: perspective. And there are all sorts of ways to shift your perspective, but the general heuristic is to step back, zoom out, and talk to yourself in broader, more generic terms. Details are your enemy when you're in a rut (although they turn into your best fri…

This is a good thought and idea. I agree.

We need to step back and feel the bliss of small things that happens around that we miss to notice every day in life.

As it says above, don't put yourself under pressure on doing something. Just try to be aware about the things that you do every day. Taking a bath, having a meal -> Take a deep breathe do it slowly and enjoy it.

Then slowly slowly and eventually, you will come up with new perspective on how to approach life the way you want it to be. You will notice internally when this phase happens. All the very best!

Re: Ask HN: How do you get out of a rut?

#68

Post by bjoernbu »

For me there is one thing that works so much better than anything else: new goals. To the end of my PhD, that meant to just suckt it up and finish the work despite low motivation and frankly also workweeks far below 40h.

Later in life, motivation came naturally, I worked more and I am really happy with the outcomes. Sorry, that this is no advice that is immediately helpful, but I hope that it can be reassuring that streaks of low motivation as a student are kind of "normal" and not necessarily something that needs complex solutions.

Re: Ask HN: How do you get out of a rut?

#69

Post by BasilPH »

I always thought that motivation leads to action. But it's actually the other way round: Action leads to motivation which then leads to more action. So just do anything to get started, and then the motivation from doing something will hopefully kick in.

A rut is a vicious cycle, and the only way out it is to actively break it by doing something that goes against it.

Re: Ask HN: How do you get out of a rut?

#70

Post by nielsole »

BasilPH wrote: post #69

I always thought that motivation leads to action. But it's actually the other way round: Action leads to motivation which then leads to more action. So just do anything to get started, and then the motivation from doing something will hopefully kick in. A rut is a vicious cycle, and the only way out it is to actively break it by doing something that goes against it.

Agree. Choose an action with a predictable achievable outcome. The example I read on HN a while back was going in to the backyard and shoveling a big whole and then closing it again. Totally pointless but rewarding. I don't have a backyard, so I do the dishes. Find out what works for you :)
Post reply on HN