Hot answers tagged work
19
As a matter of fact we all at some moment of time struggled with code. some one will share it and some one will not. You will find a lot of fakers in our field. at least i have found a lot. so don't worry at all.
1) As far as your problem is concerned i truly understand what you are facing because i was in your shoes not so long ago. the solution to your ...
19
I like to go for a short stroll outside. There's no one to bother you and you don't get distracted by work related stuff. It works even better if you avoid busy streets and walk to a nearby park.
Alternatively, you can:
walk up and down the stairs in your office building
sit on the toilet for a few minutes
close the door to your office and turn on some ...
11
Reading articles about programming is boring for me too, because reading hard technical text is not ivolving you into process. It's difficult understand many new things fast. Since you lose understanding, you lose attention and interest. But I found decision. I download example source code and than repeat it. Dont copy paste. Just type on keyboard. I enjoy ...
9
Why am I doing this
Well, that is a hard question to answer. Maybe you have ADHD. Okay, maybe not. That is a bit extreme. Maybe you get distracted easily(sounds the same as ADHD, but a psychologist told me it's not the same thing). Or it could be that you find the content boring/cumbersome, and don't want to read it(Being excited about learning ...
9
A quick research (1, 2) showed me that the concentration of caffeine seems to peak about 30-60mins after ingestion. However, in my personal experience I have a feeling of alertness already when I drink my cup of coffee: This is most likely just a placebo effect, but I don't care as long as it works.
On different styles: A latte is usually a shot of espresso ...
9
According to the World Health Organization, depression is one of the
leading causes of disability worldwide among men and women aged 15 to
44.
So, if you have to decide whether you have to keep working or not. If you have to keep working try the following points (From ...
6
try to pair with someone; it always makes things much easier; it's a lot of fun to work in a good team
when you're done, make sure your code is as good as you can make it to be (if the product works but the code is a mess, it's not what your employer needs) - imagine if you hire a plumber who will be cutting corners, doing a poor job etc - would you like to ...
6
Key for me is to get up and move about for a few minutes.
I use the Pomodoro technique (though I have doubled my times to 50min work / 10 min break). In my 10 min break I'll usually do something like making a round of tea, walking over to the window and looking out at something (a tree, the cathedral or just the sky).
Sometimes I'll be able to go for a ...
5
have a problem you need to solve that a form will help with
thoroughly understand the problem
draft a form that solves at least part of the problem
apply good human factors design principles to the form
optionally, apply good graphic design principles to the form
test the form in practice. If it doesn't work, repeat from #3
This is a somewhat ...
5
Perhaps the best is physical activity of some kind. That doesn't necessarily mean pumping iron or riding a stationary bike to nowhere...simply walking and getting out of the work environment might be enough.
I'm in no way a visual artist, so I find it helpful to challenge myself with something visual: Zendoodles, origami, whatever. It just has to be ...
5
Trying to save some "rote" tasks for this time period can be a good strategy: you'd have to do them anyways at some point during the day, so might as well do them when you're not at your peak productivity.
What you have for lunch might be a factor as well; abstain from sugary drinks and high-carb food that might spike your blood sugar level and cause a ...
5
I have taken to going to the gym in my lunch break every second day - this really clears my mind as I just focus on the workout, and I come back feeling renewed for the afternoon (which is good as mid afternoon is usually my low energy spot)
Aside from that, regular breaks (by Pomodoro or other method) away from your desk - a walk to the coffee machine via ...
5
Daniel Pink provides some very good advice along these lines in his book "Drive". In it he describes the science of motivation that suggests that motivation is dependent upon autonomy, mastery, and purpose.
Autonomy deals with how much one controls the process and performance outcomes. Increasing this at the lowest levels, tends to increase the motivation ...
5
This is an interesting question and something I've noticed myself as well. It's difficult to say whether it's the company you work for which is sapping your drive, or your own ability to adapt to a new type of situation.
I personally have struggled with a very similar situation to yourself. And while I don't program all the time at the moment, I find that ...
5
If you are clinincally depressed, the procrastination is one of the symptoms. Depression medicine usually takes about a month to kick in and it may take several tries to get the right medicine for you.
If it helps you, I have been clinically depressed for more than 40 years and I am one of our highest performers and most productive database developers where ...
5
Take a look at Best Health article which shares some helpful tips on how to cope at work while depressed. It says accommodations for employees dealing with depression can be easy to access and are often very low in cost for the employer.
Also useful, a Forbes magazine article presents a checklist with things you need to do when dealing with depression at ...
5
I think this is a facinating question, and for me, it's quite linked to the classic 'how come I can play a computer game for 14 hours in a day and not be able to deal with my email for half that'
I'm going to try and challenge the assumptions in the question a little bit. I remain to be convinced that eight hours of coding is better than six hours of ...
4
I can think of two approaches - both involve "delegating" some of the work.
Self correction
Write the type of mistake and ask students to resubmit with THEM listing the corrections. This is likely to work better for some types of errors such as spelling. But it does same time in the long run. It also lets the students learn more by looking them up. In ...
4
The issue is that it never becomes useful in its true meaning. Yes, it stimulates you for a period of time, then you body needs to pay for it. Clearly, if you do it too much, you over stress yourself more and more. Then you get issue that you cannot relax and you start taking something to relax. Vicious cycle. You damage your biological cycles at the end of ...
4
Nearly every form on davidseah.com was designed with a general-purpose vector illustration program called Adobe Illustrator. This program allows you to draw shapes and place text. You can also perform operations like grouping, scaling, aligning, spacing and duplicating to a high degree of precision. While Illustrator costs several hundred dollars, there is a ...
4
You match my cycle - I am most productive with analytic work early in the morning and late in the evening, but mid afternoon that part of my brain is at a low ebb. For me this isn't about motivation or willpower, just that I have discovered over time what I am good at at different times of day.
I discovered that that does seem to be a good time for me to ...
4
We would all prefer to stop working. However unless you are independently wealthy, you have to work.
What I have to say is going to sound harsh to you. But you really need to think about it.
As someone who has battled depression for almost 40 years, I say to you, stop using it as an excuse. In over 30 years in the workforce, I have missed a total of a ...
4
I dropped out last winter. I deliberately took a year break to learn, understand and practice the art of coding.
Though my daily cognitive productivity/activity may vary a lot from you, I study/build things for twelve hours, six days a week. Yes, it takes a lot of discipline and motivation to strive for consistency. I too fail a lot. But during the process ...
3
Why am I doing this,
The foremost reason is that you are actually thinking that it is not
really important or useful for yourself or in other words "You dont
really want it". There may be various reasons your mind will tell you
for that. Imagine if you want to do things which you like, You will always do it with enthusiam and happiness. or If your boss told ...
3
If you're reading books on programming, of course you'll get bored! Programming is meant to be done. Like writing or art, it can only be improved by practice.
It sounds like you've developed a bad habit of slacking off whenever you reach something difficult. At this point it doesn't matter what you block, you're going to end up slacking off somewhere else. ...
3
http://productivity.stackexchange.com/a/5349/504
Why am I doing this,
The foremost reason is that you are actually thinking that it is not really important or useful for yourself or in other words "You don't really want it".
After spending some time in deep analysis, I figured out the following points:
Case 0: I hadn't had proper breakfast for ...
3
I'm a little surprised that nobody had anything positive to say about it. I've been using Pomodoro for a month, but I'm switching to 30/30. (I'm a freelance developer so I have the freedom to not worry about what my boss thinks about my break time routines.)
A couple thoughts:
Pomodoro is strictly rigid. If you get "interrupted" 20 minutes into a task, ...
3
This is incredibly variable from one person to the next. Your best bet is to identify what you are best at at different times of day and under different circumstances.
As an example:
I work at my best on technical, detailed or strategic tasks early in the morning or late at night
I am most creative late morning or early evening so tend to write ...
3
It looks like you are driven by the fear of failure. This can be paralising for.your creativity.
The small steps way, f.e. modifying existing demo is in fact very good to deal with complex problem. This is the decomposition. You learn how to achieve your goal by applying small changes. The full understanding will come with time, but when it won't happen, ...
3
Find articles that do something similar (it doesn't have to be the same) to what you are trying to achieve. The more you will read and educate yourself about the problem, the easier it will appear.
The fact that you find something difficult and resist working on it is common. The workaround is to make the problem easier by educating yourself. If the problem ...
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