> Being stuck and being moving are dependent on each other.
Yeah, but in times of being stuck, it's much easier to get distracted and procrastinate.
Yeah, but in times of being stuck, it's much easier to get distracted and procrastinate.
A bit, but I tend to do directed procrastination. Go the gym, do some research on a different problem, write some emails, etc... As soon as I stop actively thinking about the problem a solution will come.
Another solution (and this works well with coding and writing) is just to start coding/writing. I'm writing an article now for a newsletter, and the top of my document is a bunch of stand alone sentences that eventually lead to a full article.
In programming, I'll often do the same thing and just start solving the problem even if I know it's not the right solution yet. Usually this leads me to a better understanding, and eventually the solution.
But when I hit the inertia part of the productivity cycle, this saves me. It's always better to do something than just being stuck. And while I mechanically do those tasks, my head also gets in order, I start dreaming and slowly, I'm on the roll again.
When the right time comes, I slide back into the 'real' work. I can't quite regret for 'wasting' that time, because usually the reward is a new perspective, and the ideas that come with it.
Shrugs, we're not machines.
The book 'Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind' has a good explanation of how that works, what it's good at and what it's not.
I get a lot of side chores done with directed procrastination. But, what works for me to get the main task done is to just open the IDE even without a goal. Instead of "Ugg... I need to make X work today...". Just open the editor and do anything. Refactor a function. Comment something. Whatever. Once you get started, it much easier to continue.