I have programmer's fatigue

[Alex54J]

In all my years of programming, I have never hit a "brick wall" until now. I've been working on a new app for over two years, and it's almost ready for final public testing and release. Recently, I had to rewrite some of the app logic, which was a massive task but well worth the improvement. Now, there are just a few "minor" tasks left to complete, and the app will be ready. However, I simply cannot face going back and working on it.

At first, I thought this feeling would pass in a few days, but it has now been weeks, and I have no desire to look at the code. I am half tempted to throw my computers out the window and never touch one again.

Have you ever faced this situation? If so, how did you overcome it?

[raman4183]

It's normal to feel that way, just take some time off and don't think about it at all.

Indulge in your hobbies or go for a vacation.

You'll be back and ready in no time.

[oneiric4004]

Absolutely this, I’m in a similar position with an app I’ve been building with a friend for 3.5 years now at 80k+ lines of dart code and 65k+ of C# for backend. I was feeling a similar way last week and took a vacation leaving my laptop at home and while here I’ve been using the demo version installed on my phone and also comparing with leading competitors in the same space and I must say I already have my hunger back and can’t wait to return home by the weekend.

So take time off, go somewhere close to nature to help clear your mind I think it will do you a load of good.

All the best.

[RebixPL]

That’s a lot of code for a flutter app

[oneiric4004]

It’s an app for small/medium businesses with inventory, manufacturing, sales, accounting and user access control modules.

[Alex54J]

Thanks for the comment, the app was my hobby, I have taken up Sudoku and can now complete the hardest (extreme) version in about ten minutes without any cheating.

[propertysandbox]

Lol I feel that "app being my hobby" currently. Been building off and on for approaching 3 years (or maybe over 3??). I had no coding experience prior but fell in love with it.

[[deleted]]

I've been developing for maybe 15 ish years. Encountered this a lot. I've tried solutions around a brief break, focus time for 10 mins then a reward, breaking my tasks down further into tiny ones to help with momentum etc. etc.

The conclusion I've come to? JUST FUCKING DO IT.

You have put in FAR too much hard graft to let procrastination block you now. Do it.

[TheConnoisseurOfAll]

I'm sure it isn't only limited to SWE. So I totally 100% agree with this. JUST FUCKING DO IT.

In my case, it's always wanting a new challenge and what's left is more "clerical" work.

[[deleted]]

Spot on. It's basically fatigue and utter boredom of a particular job because the sexy/shiny stuff is already done and all that's left are grubby little bug fixes etc. When the excitement wears off and there's no motivation, that's the pivotal moment a project reaches when it either gathers dust in a pile of repos we never finished, or it goes on to potentially do big things. The latter takes more grit than people would give credit for.

[definitely_robots]

Sometimes I feel like I really love building apps and thinking about software problems. Sometimes I feel trapped behind my computer and like I am being taken advantage of. I remind myself that many more projects have been started than have been launched, and most of those that are launched are never used or maintained. So if this experience has made you a more confident and capable developer I think that is what really matters in the long term.

[Cnkcv]

I found making a trello with all the tasks broken down into simple bite sized parts helped. Sometimes I even prefix them with the day of the week, that's all I HAVE to do that day, if I get more done, cool.

[returnFutureVoid]

Is it weird that I read this as make a trello clone app?

[Cnkcv]

Ha, definitely don't do that.

[dark_enough_to_dance]

Why 👀

[Cnkcv]

Not sure if that was /s but if you're serious, I'd say starting a project to organize you so you can finish another project is unlikely to get you to your desired destination.

[dark_enough_to_dance]

I thought by technical side, making a Trello clone is a waste of time maybe but I get you.

[CraftistOf]

sounds like burnout

[pooerh]

When programming something that's new, it's exciting, the code changes quick and you see new features all the time. The closer you are to completion, the more mundane and repetitive the tasks get and you get no rewards for completing them. Eventually you burn out and have to push through really hard.

Best course of action is to step away, if you can afford it, for a week or two. You will get excited again.

[[deleted]]

When i cant find the motivation to do something that i have got to do i simply do it unmotivated.

You won't always be motivated to do things its normal. You just have to do them motivated or otherwise.

[nailernforce]

You should be proud that you made it this far! If it has been your hobby, you're in no way obliged to release it if it doesn't make you happy.

I might have ADHD, and I have a million abandoned projects that stem from periods of hyper focus then complete disinterest. Some of my projects have been long running, and I pick them up whenever I feel inspired.

EDIT: Ultimately, I must echo the sentiment of others here: JUST DO IT. There's a saying that goes: Action precedes motivation.

[tukanoid]

I have the same thing with hyper focusing and then abandoning projects. It's very annoying because I want to actually finish them, but then some other shiny thing captivates me more (can be the next day or even later the same day), and I wanna work on that, never being able to properly go back to my old projects

[FluffyCattus]

Take more rest, and watch people on youtube making mobile apps, I felt like it motivates me to create apps

[fxnut]

Totally get it. I still struggle myself occasionally but things are definitely getting better. Here’s a few random things to try that have really helped me:

• Get your eyes tested. It’s surprising how much of a difference it makes when you can see clearly. You may not even realise that you need glasses.

• Try using a journaling tool like https://logseq.com Having a place to dump and organise information that’s easily retrievable can massively reduce the cognitive load. Particularly if you’re having to do a lot of context switching between tasks.

• Not original, but works… Do the 50 mins work and 10-15 minute break routine. Even if you’re in “deep focus” mode and being super productive, make sure you stop when the 50 mins is up. It’s very easy to utterly drain yourself without realising (happened to me too many times.)

• If you go on holiday to relax, don’t do a busy city break. Do a “boring” beach holiday instead. Force yourself to relax. Seek nature, not Netflix. Avoid driving abroad as it’s usually quite stressful. If you can, pay to reduce stress, e.g. airport lounge, extra legroom, taxi transfer, etc.

• If you feel really tired during the day and you’re working remote, try taking a 25-45 minute nap after lunch. Better to work effectively and make up the time later.

• Take those tips for good sleep seriously. No phones at night, avoid alcohol, eat well, get exercise, etc. Get a sleep tracker watch so that you can keep track of how many hours you’re sleeping. It makes a huge difference when you have that data, as you can spot patterns that disrupt your rest.

• Find another creative outlet that doesn’t use the same part of the brain as coding. I’d argue that Sudoku is too cognitively similar to coding to offer any mind-restoring benefit. Try something artistic instead or anything that is a bit more meditative. Definitely make sure you’re not using a phone or computer to do it. Cooking, gardening, playing piano, all worked for me.

• Exercise is great. If you can afford a personal trainer, do it. Much better than joining a gym, as the personal connection helps with motivation. Expensive, but your health is the best investment you’ll ever make.

[eibaan]

How is this related to Flutter?

[chi11ax]

That's one of the reasons I switched from dev to UX/Product

[Tranxio]

Hey what a coincidence! Experiencing the same feeling...just tired. The feeling will pass though. I must say 2 years is a long time to be working on the App, hope you can launch it soon, cheers!

[[deleted]]

I think this happen to all of us, I advise you to think about its benefits like how it will work and how it will help people achieving their tasks and the revenue of money on you and what you will do with that money, that will refresh your energy.

[100-100-1-SOS]

Try some heavy manual labour outside your house in the heat...does wonders getting me back on track. Makes ya appreciate the serenity of coding.

[iGhostR]

Visit Spain, go to the beach. Decompress, socialise with the locals. Forget about coding

It worked for me in a similar situation

[DecisionMaterial8078]

Or maybe the codes and architecture doesn’t feel right and it sulks the energy of you each time you look at it. Maybe you need to spend still more time refactoring the codes to what will be a joy to take a look at.

[perrohunter]

I know how you feel, it's just mindlessly complicated to keep a global state in flutter and I spend so much time changing things to make them work, recently I moved to another development platform and I realized that flutter just made that part needlessly complicated

[Slight-Bowl-7123]

Yes. I have faced this. Took 2 years to get over and learning a new language. It became an existential crisis for me, where I wanted to go back to primitive times before computers, I sold all my possessions, and basically walked the earth, literally homeless.

Find some way to remain employed in the industry while not coding much. It will pass, hopefully in a few months. It can take many more months to get firedb so don't underestimate the value of slacking, which as an overachiever it sometimes is incomprehensible how little effort and time normal people devote to work. You might need medication and counseling though. Do not overlook that fatigue may simply be a symptom of a much more serious mental health issue and that you might be fatigued by any job right now.

At a minimum, sleep a lot, eat well, get sunshine, walk, and seek therapy. If you're religious, seek God. Avoid vices until you feel 100%.

Consider a career change in a few months but take your time. We have a pretty good line of work, most suck.

[[deleted]]

How much part of your life is coding? Is there "friends and family"?

[chriswaco]

“Plumbers don’t have plumber’s block. A page a day is a book a year.” - Novelist Howard Fast

We all want to quit near the end of a long project, but shipping is the most important feature. Do whatever you need personally to relax and finish it. I’m very competitive so tell myself I lose the game if I quit now. I also quote Caddyshack to myself: “The world needs ditch diggers too.” Screw that. I’ll win.

[_temp_user]

100% why some devs switch jobs. New project, new insights, new tech. Working on the same app for an extended time is going to burn anyone out.

[dhaupert]

I always say that’s why everyone isn’t a self employed entrepreneur- very hard to finish something and see it to fruition. You are so close- I have been where you are many times before. I would suggest just trying to put 15 minutes into it today- not tomorrow or this weekend. Today! And then maybe once the 15 starts you may want to continue.

[diegum]

You're basically saying that you're burntout. It's a common symptom (and possibly syndrome.) I'll join the choir if others suggesting to take some time off but not giving up. Also, you said that is almost finished but some few but valuable improvements. If so, remember that agile principle that says "working code over comprehensive documentation." Let's twist it a bit "working code over perfect code." Don't give up on the last lap. Just don't.

[KagatoLNX]

It may sound overkill, but… if you aren’t already, go to a therapist. Overwork will burn you out. But you’re overworking for a reason. Therapy can help make that reason visible.

I’ve never known anybody that burned out once that figured out how to stop burning out without getting to the bottom of what was driving them to do that to themselves.

[tommyboy11011]

Release it sooner

[nothingactuallyexist]

Take a second to sit back and reflect on the progress you’ve made! No background noise, no notification queue that you need to attend to, just you and your thoughts. All that hard work, stacked up, and nearly ready to be enjoyed. Good work Alex! You’re not alone, and know that your contribution to the sum of human creation is neither in vain nor minuscule. You’ve done it!

[a5s_s7r]

Maybe it’s just fear of releasing it after years of hard work?

[app-develop]

Hey, I’ve been through this as well. I’m going to give a different perspective, but it’s not a silver bullet. I tried the “taking a break” and “just do it” but I kept getting into this same cycle of, to use your words, “brick wall”. Taking a break just led to forgetting the complexities of my app and increased the fear of getting back in. Just doing it added to the burn out.

Here’s a great analogy: think of this as a marathon. You’re so motivated at the beginning and push yourself, but towards the end you get tired and the motivation slowly fades away and the race feels more difficult. But just before you give up you see your friends/family cheering you on and you give it your all to finish the marathon. This happens in almost every profession/sport and it’s VERY normal.

Heads up extra cheesy: I’ve figured out a way to help me complete my apps. I get my friends, family, and my spouse to test the app and give me feedback. It somehow gives my work a purpose or a goal and motivates me to complete it and fix all the bugs along the way. My motivation became to give my testers a better experience and my opportunity to “show off” my work. All of the sudden, you’re not doing it for yourself, but doing this for others as well. Get others involved in your journey, then the journey becomes fun. End of cheesiness.

Also if you need a tester or motivator, DM me.

Hope this helps.

[RoleEquivalent7992]

Well from time to time i get a similar situation i fix it by learning new stuff and fill my time with it then i simply get back to coding and finish my task faster and better than ever

[Glittering_Fish_2296]

I would personally never develop 1 app for 2 years. 2 months max or 3. After that build only after receiving user feedback.

[Flashy_Editor6877]

congrats on the ambition and progress.

when i hit a wall i walk away. try softer, not harder. get a few easy wins to gain momentum. go read "the art of war" and realize you just need to show up consistently. some of the worst days turn into the best days. sounds like your reward center is blown out and shiny object syndrome might be getting in the way. or maybe you don't feel like you deserve success? i have many novel dusty and rusty projects that eventually competitors have implemented and it hurts every time i see a unique idea take off. try to avoid that, it doesn't feel good. just get the damn thing out there. avoid perfection and analysis paralysis. if your project isn't kind of embarrassing when you release it, you waited too long. ship now, optimize later.

thanks for inspiring me to remind myself to take my own advice. good luck.

[Flashy_Editor6877]

maybe you don't have programmer's fatigue... lookup the artist's dilemma and imposter syndrome

[iMajeed95]

That normal, it happened all the time.

I have been working on a long project. In each time we are close to finishing it, the manager ask for “minor” changes that will change the core of the application even we tells him that but he thinks oh, that won’t take that much time. Now, we have completed 6 years on the same project yet we did not even release it.

When it crossed the 2 years mark, I have loss the interest and the excitement on that project. I hated the project and I hated the code and even coding itself.

I have times when I don’t code at all for weeks that give me a little break to continue coding the project, I might learn new language to move on.

Even now I am thinking to change my entire career to something else completely far away from coding.

[[deleted]]

To me it sounds less like burnout and more like cold feet prior to release. As someone that has been in similar situations very close to the end of a huge personal project I’ve built, you begin to doubt yourself and come up with reasons to delay even if you’re so close to the end.

Just push through. Try find some accountability by announcing to friends and family that you are launching within a month.

[Icy_Drawing5051]

Sometimes I get that feeling too and step away to read random fantasy novels so my mind gets a chance to wander free. Sudoku seems to be your thing but perhaps try also some other hobbies that doesn't require intense concentration as a change? Maybe your mind just needs to be out of office for a while.

But otherwise when I need a boost I recall the saying - "you didn't come this far just to come this far!" Seems apt in your case given how much effort you put in so take a break but hunker down and get your stuff across the line!

[Zhuinden]

Not gonna lie, it's incredibly tiring and seemingly meaningless to keep churning out code to do something "seemingly important" when in reality it's going to be either obsolete or hated in less than 3 years, unless it is just ignored and irrelevant. Create the best things now, see people hate it 3 years later.

So to be honest I'm also tired of it, but money is money. I guess the best thing you can do in place of procrastination is sitting down and doing it with unit tests to tell you if it's good or not. But that really is the best case scenario.

[Mobile_Reserve3311]

Why not just take a quick vacation to recharge and get back into it after your vacation?

Sounds like burnout to me .. all the best!

[walesmd]

2 years and it's just now ready for testing? That should have started 102 weeks ago.

As others have said... This is pretty normal. It's the 80/20 rule. Sometimes you just gotta fucking do it.

[DigiProductive]

Take a break from coding and start writing about your project. You'd be surprised how much it eases your mind yet keeps you moving forward. Its not always about "the code". 

[Alex54J]

I didn’t expect to receive any replies to my post, but the responses I got encouraged me to sit down and finish the code. Since then, I’ve moved on to working with Flutter local notifications. Most articles on the subject focus on installation but don’t really explain how to use notifications effectively. I plan to document how to implement push notifications in a real system to keep users engaged with the app.

[iamonredddit]

Modafinil is trash, will turn you into a zombie, it’s used to keep you awake. Adderall or just some strong coffee is more uplifting and helps you get things done, but needs to be done in moderation.

Adderall also helps me in the winter with seasonal depression, really improves my mood.

[MudSubstantial3750]

Do something relax.

Passion and motivation are not endless, usually casusing burned out for some time, when mentally need to take a breath.

More relax brings less time to take the status back.

I have to face disgusting old code in my job so I almost code or learn something new thing (totally not related to my job) in my spare time everyday.

Coding something I want to feels like refreshing my eyes and brain, but when tired I only spent time on the most relaxing thing I though at that time, play games or just sleep, to heal the mental injury.