Inspiration from Sam Altman
After almost 3 years of nonstop hacking and coding, the toughest part of the job is not burning out. There are many a times when the thing that kept you interested (programming) just doesn't cut it anymore. The spark isn't there. When you don't want to go any further - when you'd rather eat ice cream for the rest of your life..
The burnout is real. Any programmer would be able to tell you this. Every big, massive undertaking has an equally large and massive undertaking for bug squashing, testing, and endless hours of debugging. No one writes perfect code, but in order to survive the gruesome, computer stare-down (maybe breakdown too) - you must know a few tricks:
- Coffee coffee coffee - I can't stress this one enough. Nothing gets you going like a cup (or 5) of joe. Nothing.
- Working out - Specifically, cardio. Even a twenty minute bike ride will light your brain on fire. Challenging your body is paramount to challenging your mind.
- Spoil yourself - Every techie is obsessed with something, whether it be a side-project, more electronics, energy drinks, video games, etc. Find that thing which keeps the hamster wheel spinning.
- Downtime - This is the part where you kick back, relax, and enjoy the show, or meal, or company, or music, or your bed.. Whatever it is, make sure you don't touch your computer during this time.
- Multitask - This could be unique to certain individuals, but being able to work on multiple projects with varying levels of difficulty, ensures that you are able to constantly stay busy while being productive. For example, in office, I will tackle the hardest challenges while I have all of the motivation, but when I lose focus, I will then revert to cleaning up the lower hanging fruit, such as icon updates.
- Operate on your best hours - Not everyone is productive at 5AM, but if you are, you know better to twiddle your thumbs during those times. Do what you got to do.
- Work on something you love - This is the best part about coding. You get to build something which has never been built before. Use a new framework with your favorite language or contribute to projects which you strongly believe in. The world is your oyster.
That's it for now. I revamped my website with a few more CSS goodies. I plan on adding a portfolio page soon to give you a snapshot of all the projects I'm working on!