Unless you have to, as in work or an exam, focus in something else for a while. Or better, just don´t focus in anything at all. Do whatever you please at the moment. Take a mental holiday. Recharge your batteries. What´s the worst that can happen?
Ask HN: How do you get out of a rut?
161–170 of 178 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you get out of a rut?
#162For 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 s…
I agree with this! Honestly, I felt a lot of the same emotions op felt the week or two after exams finished or when large projects wrapped up. To me, the sudden drop of going from 100% on and focused on accomplishing a goal to having it all finished was huge impact on my motivation. Finding a new goal helped to bring me back out of that low.
Re: Ask HN: How do you get out of a rut?
#163I get into ruts like this several times a year. Luckily with age I learned that before i start questioning myself too deeply I try these things first.
- Try going to bed early every night for a week. Going to bed early simply means early enough so you can wake up at 7.30 in the morning without the need of an alarm. - Find a form of exercise you like and do the absolute minimal amount of it needed to get some noticeable positive benefit. I have done 20k runs at a decent pace at various occasions, but I find that I can get 90% of the health benefit by doing a light 20m jog. The trick is making it so untaxing, and so easy to simply do that you can manage to do it repeatedly without relying on too much motivation or inner drive. - Try and give some extra attention to what you ingest into your body. Make some time to cook a meal for yourself (and some friends) and enjoy it. - Spend some time thinking about the things you take pleasure in and engage in those things. Have a glass of wine, smoke a cigarette and find someone interesting to talk to, put some music on, whatever it is just don't overthink it al so much.
With some time you might find you forgot all about this rut, and if it persists, maybe it's true you are not pursuing the right things, but hey that's also just part of the journey of life and you are a student so you should be examining these things right now.
Re: Ask HN: How do you get out of a rut?
#164Working out is something that has helped me tremendously whenever I have fallen into periods where I have had little motivation.
Also, building a strong consistent routine with periodic habits (working out, cooking, gardening, others mentioned elsewhere or whatever suits your fancy) will go a long way.
Re: Ask HN: How do you get out of a rut?
#165You have to consistently want to get out of the rut long enough to climb out. This length of time is (at least) proportional to the extent of the rut itself.
Re: Ask HN: How do you get out of a rut?
#166Write things down.
Any time you think of something that you wish to do or something you'd want to explore, write it down somewhere so you can come back to it. This might be a notepad, back of your hand, or your phone; it does not matter.
The next time you feel lethargic, look at that list and see if there is anything you'd like to do off of it.
Re: Ask HN: How do you get out of a rut?
#167> I've found myself sitting at my desk each evening Wait, isn't that what daytime is for? Get out. Play games. Read. Write. Ride a bike. Build something with your hands, with code, whatever. Hit the gym. Cook complicated dishes. Go to restaurants. Join a club and make some friends. Even sleep more. You need to find what you like to do with your time, and truth is it's probably not what you want it to be. Picking up h…
I agree with the above advice but it’s not immediately actionable for someone in OPs situation. You have given a how but it’s hard to do without a why. Burnout and lethargy are due to both physical and mental health factors that feed into each other. A two track strategy is needed. First for your physical health - Increase the amount fresh fruit and veg in your diet. Reduce sugars and carbs. - Go for a run in the mor…
Fruit have tons of carb don’t they?
Re: Ask HN: How do you get out of a rut?
#168Maximize sunlight exposure
Re: Ask HN: How do you get out of a rut?
#169> with no motivation to do anything
Do you have some sort of goal in mind? I guess if you're asking this question, probably not? Then set some, just for the heck of it. Last year, I was in a similar situation, and somehow I began setting goals for each week: these goals are not result-oriented but process-oriented (I call it a success as long as I spend x amount of time on it); I'd also have a single goal that I'll target to achieve at any reasonable cost. I think the artificial feedback loop (simple goal, goal that I force myself to achieve at any cost, journaling down) made me feel good about myself, probably trained my goal-setting/motivation muscle that has long atrophied.
Another thing I want to mention is that in the book Mindset, the author mentioned that what separates the academic outcomes of students with mild depression is whether they continued with their daily routine or not. I've found this to be profoundly influential for me personally: I'd force myself to complete the actions that I normally did when I'm at better states, and when I feel happy and accomplished, I'd write down what I did, which has served as a tremendously useful source of energy (mostly for self-affirmation) and benchmark when I'm sad.
Finally, it's best that one never enters into such a rut state and it's worse if one stays in it for a long time (since I recall there are many studies showing that long-term stress causes physiological damages that are hard to repair). Therefore, I'd try to self-monitor for the behavioral changes that might signal I'm about to enter into rut, and kick off the prevention strategies.
Re: Ask HN: How do you get out of a rut?
#170Ah, there's a secret, you stop trying. You need to do something difficult, new and unrelated. Cycle to Canada and buy a hot dog. Live off-grid for a week. Take your nephew to Disneyland. Something clearly defined, and a bit nuts. When you return, you'll feel much better.
How does any of that stuff relate to "stop trying"? It seems like doing something completely random out of the blue is the definition of "trying".