Hacker News Reader

Comment by koyote | Hacker News Reader

I have the same issue. If a personal project is fun, I might end up trying to 'just fix this one issue; just polish up this one feature' all the way up to bedtime.

This will invariably affect my sleep with either no sleep at all for 1-2 hours or dreams of fixing an issue over and over again resulting in me being less rested the next day.

I'd love for there to be a quick way to 'snap' out of programming mode but after over a decade of programming I haven't really found one (except for having a couple of pints...).

View on HN

The dreaming of fixing an issue is funny. You can take advantage of that by stopping when you are stuck. A lot of times your brain will cook up a fix during the night and it will be waiting for you in the morning! I haven't noticed that this makes the sleep less restful either.

You’re right that often times works, but I’ve backtracked on that - to the extent I’ll actively try and dream about something else - an island perhaps.

I’ve come to terms that, for me, hacking into the night, dreaming about solutions, then waking up and implementing them... is manic and deeply unhealthy.

Getting on the bicycle and cruise around does the same thing for me. Without thinking about the problem directly, ideas pop into my mind.

I find the surface level of my programming dreams are exceptionally dull (`var a = b + c` for what feels like hours) but yes sometimes a solution to a problem occurs to me early the next day.

That’s my number one problem solving strategy.

  1. Batter my brain
  2. Do something else
  3. Sleep on it
  4. Aha moment

I do it so often, I just say to colleagues that “It’s stewing in the back of my head for a bit” or “Need to sleep on it”.

Before I was fully aware of it, I’d get super disheartened, sleep on it, then come in the next day and nail it by 10.

That’s another thing: if something becomes comical, there’s usually a pattern. If it’s the positive kind of comical, repeat the pattern. If negative, consciously avoid (but that appears comically harder).

If you haven't tried it yet give note-taking/keeping a (work) diary a shot. Works well to get stuff out of your head and separates work from the sleep.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com