What You Do When You are Burnt Out

What do you guys do when you are either rather burnt out on programming or need to figure out something?
I personally play my guitar and play Minecraft (Classic teenager here :wink: ).

I usually either forget about coding all together for a few days to a few weeks and then one day I’ll think up some easy solution to whatever problem had me burnt out and I’ll go back. Some of the main things that I do during my ā€˜burnt-out’ time would be to play the odd game, read up on programming.reddit, java.reddit, coding.reddit, etc… learn some more math, watch shows or watch a movie.

Embrace the flames! MUAHAHAHAHAHAH!

I try to just re-focus more than go do something else. I know if I play a game, I won’t stop playing it.

If I do play a game however, I want to play something similar to what i’m creating, but unfortunately, there isn’t anything similar to what i’m creating, and the games that are close, I will want to invest hours and hours in, and become a little addicted :stuck_out_tongue:

I just sit back for a couple seconds and think about the problem. Weirdly enough, that usually solves it. When I was taking high school computer science I would get stuck on a problem, the class would end and I would figure out the problem to my answer almost 5 minutes after! Mad me so mad.

Yeah I’m taking my high school java class for an easy A this year (Hopefully). I bet that’ll happen with me ;). Freshman year’s gonna be interesting…

Sometimes I’ll be stuck on some code design problem or algorithm design problem and I’ll sit there in front of my computer for hours getting head-aches, growing frustrated and (sometimes) cursing at the IDE for doing stupid annoying things that waste my time (like loseing sync with resource files etc…)

Then I figured out that that really just makes the entire process a lot more painful - and doing something relaxing with the problem in mind, you will usually muster up a solution in a few hours.

So I would just get something to eat, watch TV etc when I’m burnt out. I’m typically not burnt our for longer than two or three hours though. Except - err merr gerrd - I take Electrical Engineering courses at university and over the summer I have virtually 0 time to do any Java programming, they put you in C on microcontrollers and VHDL\Verilog with PLDs and you really get nothing much relevant to Java… So recently I haven’t done much programming during my days at university (going back in a month now…)

You guys wait until you get some sort of development job (if you ever plan to). I love Java, but after doing PHP for 8 hours a day, it’s hard to come home and open eclipse.

I actually really want to be a pilot, and develop programs on the side as just a hobby! I’ve found that giving me deadlines for my coding projects really stresses me out to the point where I write bad code, delete entire projects and end up screaming at my computer at some points. I don’t handle stress well apparently :stuck_out_tongue: However, giving me a deadline also motivates me a lot to learn more and strive for harder goals, so maybe I’m stressed out because I end up having to research for the first half of the deadline and then actually cram coding into the second half. As a hobby, its really nice to come home after a long day and just relax and code something that doesn’t require me to research hours upon hours of stuff. But that’s just me!

When I’m too burnt out to program, I help those that aren’t.

This. I feel like I’m just starting to get to the point where I can offer useful advice to others and it really makes me happy. I also learn a lot along the way, so it’s a win-win.

Spend too much time on this forum as of late :V

I go to work and program anyway. :point:

I don’t every really get burnt out on programming, what usually happens is a get burnt out on a project. So I just switch to working on a different project ;D granted jumping from project to project isn’t very productive for any one project but it keeps me interested and having fun. However on the rare occasion that I do get burnt out on programming or just don’t feel like programming I usually go play a game that someone else made. Playing other games also helps me come up with ideas for the games I’m working on.

I usually go play other game, maybe record a video for youtube, and complain that nobody watches is or comment on it and hm, well, i suggest you to get a girlfriend if you dont have one.

Or go to troll at some game, i suggest a f2p game.

Reddit and Battlefield 3. That’s what I’ve been doing for the past few months… :persecutioncomplex:

Reddit, TF2, or maybe even do something I’m actually supposed to be doing…

Movies, 3DS, NDS, PSP, Cable TV, or just Fixing something on the house. The problem when I do gaming and I play a long game, I forget about coding for months. ;*(

If I’m burnt, at first I’ll say ā€œHelp! Doctor!ā€ (joke)

If I’m burnt in programming, I’ll first shuts off my computer and switch on my TV and go to ā€œComedyā€ channel. Or, I’ll sleep for a time.

  • Light level: change project
  • Medium level: change to project with different language
  • Hard level: procras for about 2-3h and come back later
  • Fatal level: waste the day

Can i change that a bit to adequate to my life??

  • Light level: Music, probably metallica or some youtube Video
  • Medium level: Play Battlefield or Some other PC game
  • Hard level: Call my future gf
  • Fatal level: Go to Sleep and hopefully god will bring the answer in my sleep.

Well.
Idk