Ask HN: I'm in a rut. How did you get out of yours?

1. Leave your apartment/house. Don't think about work, programming, anything. Just leave your house, go outside, go for a walk, maybe a restaurant, meet people, do things.

2. Stop smoking weed. At least stop smoming regularly and during the day.

3. Think about taking a vacation.

You need to shake things up. You need to just live life. Some outside stimulus will help invigorate you, might even help with creativity. At least you know you're in a rut, the way to get out is to sharply steer away from it.

As for ADHD, in my experience, people who are diagnosed as such do well doing many different tasks and having lots of stimuli. They get bored doing one thing. So do many things.

Anyhow, the way to get out of a rut is to do completely different things.

Edit - I also missed some of the question, how did I get out of my rut?

I'm old enough to have been in a few so have been there. And the advice above is more or less what I did.

- I took a long vacation in Europe (I'm Canadian) where nothing was planned so everyday was an adventure.

- I left a toxic relationship and didn't date while trying to work on my own problems

- I eventually moved to a mountain town.

- I make sure to make time for being outdoors, physical exercise plus coding side projects and work. It sounds like a lot but it's easier to do many things when you're motivated than to even just get out of bed when you're stuck in a rut. The more things I plan in a day the more things I accomplish.

Not going to say everything in my life is 100% but I'm accomplishing personal goals and am happy, if nothing else. Have a (non-toxic) partner and we're expecting a baby any day now, making good money, there's progress on a side business I've been thinking about doing and even though I'm busy I'm not stressed or burnt out.

The first step of getting out of a rut is knowing that you are in a rut, so you're already half way there.

When this happens to me I delete Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Podcasts etc. from my phone and spend more time talking to real people, reading books or just doing jobs around the home.

That may give you the mind space to slow down and consider your next actions and find something meaningful for your life.

Did you consider quitting your job and working on personal projects/startups for some time?

It really helped me.

Something to consider which no one has mentioned yet is the remote aspect of your work. Remote work is not going to provide the socialization you may be in dire need of if your hobbies are weed, tv and video games. Office life has many cons but it does have a built in social scene and especially in your late 20s it's a great time to meet people.

Also like many other people are saying, drop the weed, it's just burying the real issues. Keep a clear head, and find a therapist.