I have been sitting here staring at my codes for minutes. But I just don't have the strength anymore. I know, when I finished it I CAN archieved alot. does any one got one of these moments when doing work.
Oh yeah, I know where you're coming from. I had one of these moments the other night when working on my CGM column. It was 3am. It needed to be finished by morning. And I had to wake up for my day job at 8am. A unique mix of apathy and anxiety.
Pretty much every day :/ I find the only thing to do is get away from the screen for a while and let my brain rest. I don't want to appear like some weird health nut, but exercise seems to work pretty well for me, I think it must be the endorphins or something.
Sure, that's part of the business... Exercise is a good cure for me, or just relaxing for some time (but not in front of the comuputer!)
In that case walk away and leave it and come back when you have slept on it perhaps. You will turn yer brain to jelly in no time do that and not write much good code even. Level fatigue is actually one of the worst killers of a lot of games design... i.e. you create a great game start coding and by about month 2 or 3 you wonder how the hell you oare going to sit thru mapping say another 60 levels... it's a bitch and often show in many games as you progress thru them... even some AAA titles, you can just tell they GOT bored sometimes. I've done it myself many times Cheers, Adrian.
Sometime I wishes I had a boss or a some kind of a leader telling me what to do,better then to figure out my self what to do.
It happens to me every now and then. Really, when that happens, there are only two things you can do: 1) Force yourself to work harder, but compromise the efficiency 2) Take a break, relax and get back to work after a couple of hours with 100% efficiency. Personally, I usually take option 2.
I'm entering the 8th month of developing of our current game. Believe me, I feel your pain. Don't waste your time staring at the monitor. Go out. See a movie. Do some exercise. Read a book. Even if it's for 15 or 30 minutes, these always help me.
You havent experienced true burn out, untill you've coded for straights 48 hours, smoking a fatty every 4 hours or so. At that point you have no idea what you're looking at, or even what your name is, lol.
Here is a simple and working tip. Set a timer to go off in 90 minutes. Decide to work just that amount of time. Start with some refactoring if there isn't anything else you feel like doing. You can always edit some dialogs or something. When the clock rings stop for a few minutes, stand up from your desk and walk around a bit. Rinse and repeat. Be surprised when game is ready!
I wrestle with burn out/motivation stuff all the time. My WoW desktop icon calls to me. I have Netflix movies in the front room that I *know* will make me laugh or appreciate. There's a beautiful sunny Seattle sky out there (not really the oxymoron you'd believe), and a walk on the beach sounds amazing. My girlfriend has the day off. And yet, here I am in my bedroom/office, needing to chug along for yet another couple of months. As it is, most of my excitement dissipates quickly with nobody to echo it, but my apathy tends to stick around just fine... The thing that keeps me going is baby steps. I know that there are 'n' more hours/days/months I need to work before good things happen, and if I just keep putting one metaphorical foot in front of the other, I *will* whittle that number down to eventual success. But it requires that I keep stepping, stepping, stepping... Not exactly motivational, I know. But for me it's all about just taking another step sooner rather than later... -Hiro_Antagonist
It all boils down "having your mind fresh". Sometimes the more you think about a problem, the harder it is to find a solution. The more you force your brain to think, the more it can't think (the more it "chokes"). I've found that if I take a break for a while, then the answer comes later. Sometimes I just need a "micro break", other times I need a longer break or even sleep. Just like other organs in your body, like muscles, your brain needs to rest too.
Tell me about it. So many times I've stayed up for hours on end until 5am trying to solve a particular problem. My stubbornness won't allow me to sleep with a problem unresolved. But 9 times out of 10, if I actually get some decent rest, when I wake up in the morning I'm able to solve the problem within the first 30-45 minutes. Also sometimes now when I get burnt out from coding, I take a day or two off to work on some game designs in my notebook. Working a different part of your brain can help break up the monotony.
When I feel burnt out and I try to push myself, it just makes for a second rate code job that I invariably redo the next day. My advise is always to tear yourself away, get a drink of water, watch something on TV perhaps or play a game then go to bed Steve
I usually go to some website like stevepavlina.com and read some of the articles. Usually that motivates me to get them done by reminding me why I am doing it in the first place. just my 2 cents...
Force yourself to work until you've done a significant amount. I live by the statement, "Do it now, enjoy later".
Besides Pavlina's articles on Personal Productivity and Motivation http://www.dexterity.com/articles/ I'd suggest doing meta-work, which is a good name for some of the things you do for Getting Things Done (good book to get if you don't already have it). You may not be progressing on a project, but you are working out the details about what you do need to do for that project. David Allen defines a project as anything that requires more than one simple action to complete. Getting your car fixed is a project because it probably involves you calling around for prices, determining the best option, and actually scheduling for an appointment with one. So when I get stuck, I am finding that it is because I haven't defined what the Next Action is. I have to setup a new account for someone at work. First step is to send an email to the manager asking for approval. Just having that first step, even if the rest aren't written down, makes me progress. That's something I can do easily, so I'll just do it. I'll figure out what's next after I am done. You want to increase the quality of your game graphics? Well if you just try to tackle it knowing that is your goal, you'll feel lost and waste a lot of time and energy trying to get things going. If, on the other hand, you have decided that your next action involves sending emails to some of your customers to ask them how it can be improved, now you know what to do and can just do it. I call it meta-work because it is work you do to make the work you actually do clear, less risky, and quick. But in your case specifically, coding requires high levels of energy and concentration. If you don't have those, take a break, doing something else that requires less of you. Make a call. Send an email out. Ask someone you know for advice. But having a next action list will help you decide what it is you want to do.