Negative mind set!

_damN_

Hey all!

I am sure we have all suffered from some coders block a few times in our lives! Maybe you just cant seem to get onto the screen what you have in your head and you are running out of patience. Or find that you cannot really think of any good ideas for your next project.
What do you guys do to relieve the stress of that negative mind set?

Typically i wait till the very last minute, when i hardly have any hair left and my Fiance says "You look sick? Are you ok?" before i tell her "Lets watch some series" or play some Counter-Strike or Starcraft. Almost always, an hour or 2 later i immediately can fix my coding problems that i had. Its actually incredible to me what the mind can do and think of when its not under pressure.

_damN_
@DarkFactionZA

WelshPixie

Yeah, distraction is a wonderful tool. I'm not a coder so can't comment on that front, but as far as writing's concerned, occupying your mind with something menial - showering, ironing (plah!) gardening - gives it time to figure stuff out. Brainstorming too, and voicing things out loud - it helps @rustybroomhandle when he's stuck to walk me through what he's got so far; even if I don't always understand him sometimes in hearing himself explain it out loud, he figures something out.

mushu

I think what you're talking about here is so important yet underrated/practiced. I've had problems (mostly coding) before that took me half a day to solve which after a good night's rest I realise could have been solved a lot quicker with a different approach. And as you say even just taking breaks can be very helpful. I find that those breaks are most helpful if you can get totally absorbed into another activity so you aren't able to even wonder about a solution to your problem while taking the break. The same way we have "stamina" for self-control I'm pretty sure theres something like that when it comes to thinking which makes trying to beat a solution out of a tired brain kinda pointless.

What works for me is sleep. Getting enough sleep ( 7 hours min, 8 is my magic number ) helps a lot.

It's not so easy to take 2 hour breaks to go watch series (oh how awesome that would be) in an office environment so I tend to go make tea if I get coders block and stare at the clouds for a few minutes before getting back to my desk.


I found this: http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/features/mental-stamina which besides looking quite useful, also mentions how important it is to get enough sleep.

mushu

Oh yes, what @WelshPixie mentioned @rustybroomhandle does is really useful and has even been termed "rubber ducky debugging" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging

Do yourself a favour and get a rubber ducky that's a good listener and preferably has a technical mind.

TheFuntastic

I think there are two elements here, one - problem solving an the second motivation. The techniques above work well for problem solving, but when it comes to motivation you have to look at what else is going on with your life, as it usually means there is something lacking either physically mentally or spiritually.

The last couple of posts on my blog go more in depth http://www.thefuntastic.com/

EvanGreenwood

My internet is sad... So I can't look at @TheFuntastic's blog. So this might be a bit of repetition.

Regarding getting writing/coding block. Here are some ideas that might be useful!

- Make some uninterrupted thinking time on the problem. Set aside an hour and a half to just think about it, and make sure you have no disturbances. What I would do is leave my computer and sit with a pen an paper drawing diagrams. This lets the rest of your mind calm down and stop thinking about other things and you can enter a creative mindset. It takes about half and hour before this is effective.

- Break it down into smaller problems. Writing a list is great because it is a relatively menial task (like @WelshPixie suggested which gives your brain time to get to grips with the problem) and it sets easier milestones (which I'm certain TheFuntastic has more information on in his blog).

- Talk the problem through with someone. It can help solve the problem, explaining the problem can produce insights or maybe the other person's perspective offers an insight... but also getting someone else interested in the success of the problem can help motivation (but be careful... solving a problem out loud can reduce motivation to actually do the work).

- Even if you are stuck, start on the problem anyway. It doesn't need to be perfect first time, and having your mind actually ON the problem can solve it much quicker than if you distract yourself (because both your conscious mind and your intuition is giving the problem its full focus).

Though, if you choose to distract yourself (which can give your intuition time to work through the problem and put you into a less stressed state as @WelshPixie suggested). Keep on coming back to the problem. I mean, watching a full season of Dexter isn't going to be much better than watching a single episode. Your subconscious will wander and start to procrastinate just the way you do if you distract it too hard.

- Stress is bad for cognitive abilities. Anger or irritation is even worse. Getting plenty of sleep, and sorting out the extraneous factors in life will make anyone much smarter.

And I totally agree with the other posts (I'm not trying to replace their advice).

AlphaSheep

BlackShipsFilltheSky said:

- Leave your computer and sit with a pen an paper drawing diagrams.
- Break it down into smaller problems.
- Even if you are stuck, start on the problem anyway.

I teach programming, and these are the three exact points I try to emphasise to my students, and in almost the exact same words too.

_damN_

All of the comments make a lot of sense and all have valid points. The best we can do as artists(and i say this including programmers) is to find the "rituals" that work for you. :-)