Is anyone in a rut?

Howdy, y’all!

I recently discovered this groovy forum through https://ichi.city/

I joined that site because I want to get into some light web development…but then I also kinda want to learn some rust…and make music…and read…and learn more about AI.

All sorts of fun options, but I can’t seem to get into a groove.

Do any of you feel that way? How do you get yourself unstuck?

You know, I have felt like that occasionally. And like I was interested in too many things at the same time to actually start or finish anything. What's worked was —

Start with making something, something small, don't worry if you don't finish it. Three lines of a poem, a drawing the size of two square centimetres, half a second of a melody you like, anything.

If you're in the middle of reading half a dozen books but can't seem to sit down and open any of them, forget your progress and start over from the first page with one of them. Generally, any kind of reset can help. I once accidentally deleted half the files in my home folder and made rather a lot of things I liked in the next few months.

Remind yourself that you don't have to do things in exactly the proportions in which you're interested in them. You can focus on only one or two things at a time. This doesn't mean you don't 'actually like' the rest.

For longer projects — try and make them together with someone who is just as interested as you. It's a bit like when people ask a friend to sit with them when they're doing a task, to motivate them to not get distracted and shift them into a doing-things mood. Different, too, though, and you have to trust this person — because if you start to force yourself to keep making the thing only because they'd disapprove, that wouldn't be good either... Complicated. But I've been writing more and more often this way than I had in years, and I like what I end up with.

Try to find and solve some problems that make it harder to do some individual thing — maybe, find music to put on while reading of exactly the information density that doesn't distract you but does make the book not feel like too little. Or some other problem you in particular have. Then remember to use the solutions more than one time. Probably up until they stop working.

Notice when you're running away from doing something because you feel it would be — not too energy-intensive, but too intense and unfamiliar and potentially wonderful in a way you aren't sure you can handle. Then, run towards that instead.

So, yeah, this, I think. :) And good morning to you too

Last edited on 2023-12-29 22:17:36

I often seem to go trough periods where i either screw up intentionally or end up doing little because of the circumstances around me like helping ut/socialising. It can get pretty draining and frustrating when this happens, because i always want to be noticing progress and change.

Its also that for me too; i have so much to do and thing about i kinda end up not really doing it.

My website, for example- i have been wanting to fresh it up and continually put things on it and update it but i find myself being unsure what to put there.

just like what Jsmith says i agree that you have to start somewhere and do something to keep the snowball rolling. Heavily i tend to have too much to do and i do little of each thing- summarizing as nothing in the end. I think ill have to have times where i simply focus ON THAT THING instead of changing tasks so often and not remembering what i did.

and morning fellas, i woke up before my family on a saturday yay

I'm definitely feeling like this at the moment. I've been gaming in my spare time for years but lately nothing's giving me that same draw as it used to. I want to upskill a bit and explore some new programming languages, frameworks, concepts etc, but work's been pretty busy and stressful lately so the last thing I want to do after building software for 8 hours every day is do more programming. I've largely quit large social media networks (save for lurking on Reddit a bit) so I'm not getting that easy dopamine, so now I'm left with watching YouTube and playing solitaire and maybe some Cities Skylines to pass the time.

I saw this post a few days ago and tried to take on jsmith's advice, started playing around with a personal project that I'd kinda let fade away. I'm glad to say it's working so far, I'm trying to work on it a little bit at least every couple days, and I'm enjoying it quite a bit.

Here's hoping it keeps up. Thanks mate.