Has Coding Become Boring?

hey guys so a few weeks ago I did a video on feeling stagnant as a developer and one of the comments mentioned being completely bored with programming and I've seen this over and over in other people as well as experienced it myself so when I started coding I I just kind of fell in love with it like a lot of people do I I could work for 12 plus hours straight and just get lost in what I was doing and time just flew by but since then I've gone through stages that range from that to just despising the look of of my text editor and luckily I seem to to break out of that mental state when I get into it pretty quickly uh I still don't get that initial excitement that I once did but I still managed to enjoy it so I I wanted to just make some suggestions to people that feel like they kind of lost that itch that they used to have for software development so a lot of people that aren't developers think that coding is very boring I've heard it over and over from people that I'm close to even my wife she just can't understand how I find it enjoyable to look at a a a screen with weird characters on it all day but you and I know that it can be kind of a high to to solve problems and create things but again you you can kind of lose that spark at times and not only that but it can be very very frustrating so obviously we're all different people and not everything that works for me is going to work for you but I just wanted to go over a few things that kind of help me reignite that spark uh for coding when you know when it goes out so the first one is is kind of obvious and it's what everyone says to do and that switch things up so if you're stuck working on the same type of projects or you're using the same Tech stack try learning something completely new you know maybe you've been doing backend work forever so maybe try dabbling in front end and design or or vice versa uh you could explore new framework or language you know I decided to to try something very different recently and I ordered a couple Raspberry Pi kits and there's uh I have a few ideas for some home automation stuff that I want to get into and that's something that's completely different from what I usually do which is you know full stack web development uh I just want to try to get into some other areas of programming and and hopefully make some content on it as well so I know that some of you are working as software developers and obviously you can't just change you know what you can't just change the the language or Frameworks that you're using at work but you can hopefully try different approaches methodologies um use different software you know whether it has to do with your project or project management and it really depends on how much Freedom you have as a developer you know you could try to automate away um repetitive tasks if possible so number two is change your work environment and this is one that that really helped me when I was really burning out I got really burnt out in 2020 2021 um and you know I work at the same two desks in my finished basement day in and day out and a couple years ago I decided to to go downtown Boston into the City and just work at some different places different co uh coffee shops and uh different outside work areas when it was nice out and it was a little weird at first it's it's kind of hard it was hard to focus with people around but I got used to it and actually it felt kind of comforting because I was work I worked alone so long just by myself that I started to feel really isolated you know so you can try this out even if it's just your local Starbucks or um you know a bookstore a library there's there's tons of places with free Wi-Fi and there's even work spaces that you can pay for as well where you can go and you can have a desk and you know work in a different place it might help to to switch things up that way um another thing you could do is change your work environment in your house or at your job um maybe at work you have you know a cafeteria that you can go to and if you work from home of course you have a lot of options you can take your laptop into a different room out on the porch you could even just move things around on your desk you know in your office area it's a simple change but it can make you feel not so just not so repetitive um and in addition to changing your workspace even if possible change your workday around you know and this one again this is tougher to do if you work on location for a company um although not impossible some companies are very lenient when it comes to when you can take breaks and where you work and stuff like that as long as you get the work done that seems to be you know more common these days if you work from home again you have a lot of options what I don't suggest doing is sitting down at 700 a.m. and just working straight until 3: 4 5:00 p.m. you know that's what I used to do and um I got pry pretty miserable now I break my day up and just to share that with you guys I wake up around 4:30 5:00 a.m. and that's like the my me time usually I'll play some games recently I've been playing a lot of Black Ops 6 uh Call of Duty you know I'll do that for an hour or so and then I'll check some emails then I'll start working and I'll work until about 9:00 a.m. then I'll go make myself breakfast I'll go for usually like a 30 minute walk I highly recommend getting some exercise in every day even if it's just like a 10-minute walk you know even if you're at work and you can just go for a little walk around campus um then around 10:30 I'll work until about 2:00 and then I'll get a coffee I'll go to the gym for an hour and I'll I'll do some weight training I may stop at the store or something then I'll go home home work for another one to two hours and then I'm done for the night and I'll spend some time with my family so my day really goes by fast and I enjoy it because it's broken up you know I'm never sitting in a chair more than like three three and a half hours uh I used to sit there for 10 12 plus hours and I got extremely depressed I was I was making a ton of money but I was miserable and unhealthy um so number four is focus on the big picture and I think it's easy to get stuck in the weeds and just focus on only what's right in front of you but try and take a step back and and look at your current project as a whole not just the task you're working on and think about who's going to benefit from it who's it going to help look at your past work and even look at your future you know plan for your future one thing that helps me stay motivated is just to think of all the people that have taken my courses and watch my YouTube channel and all the people that I've helped you know people I've helped get jobs and stuff and that gives me the motivation to keep doing what I'm doing and get better at it so number five is get inspired and inspiration can go a long way um I'll go through times where I won't consume any software development content at all you know I'll I'll listen to all kinds of podcasts watch all kinds of videos from politics to space exploration to Fitness uh absolutely anything but Tech videos and that seems to be when I get the most bored um at work you know coding so I suggest either doing a really cool tutorial project or if you just want to consume and not write any code you have videos like this for me the syntax podcast with Wes boss and Scott tulinsky is just pure gold if you know you can listen to it while you're driving or or walking or whatever um there's other podcasts there's business-based podcasts and videos if you're freelancing or you're a product Creator just something just find content that inspires you to do more work so number six is reflect on why you started and I think a lot of times boredom it comes from just losing sight of why you started this in the first place so reflect on what Drew you to coding was it solving problems creating stuff um learning new skills try to reconnect with that initial excitement and you could do this by looking at or adding to some old projects you can also combine this with the first tip of switching things up and kind kind of recreate that first excitement that you had when you were learning JavaScript for example and apply it to learning python or game development or just something new and then number seven is change up your tools and workflow so sometimes boredom isn't always about the work itself it's about how you're doing it and changing up your tools your extensions your workflow it can can make your day-to-day coding feel fresh again and it's kind of like rearranging your desk you know everything still works the same but it feels new and exciting and just to give you some examples you could try some new VSS code extensions um this could be extensions for debugging documentation or even just you know changing up the theme and and the look of your editor all together really just customizing it to your own um you could even try a different editor although I love vs code so I probably wouldn't do that um you could look for some new helpful browser extensions you could use different productivity tools like notion you know not only does that help you switch things up but it can also help you be more organized and productive at the same time um you could explore different terminal tools you could even go the extra mile and try a different operating system and get into Linux but that might be a little too timec consuming this may sound a little weird but if your boredom comes from being burnt out then you may actually want to take some time and do something different for a little while you know find a hobby that has nothing to do with coding um something like photography cooking woodworking Fitness whatever just something that you're interested in and I think sometimes you need some stimulation elsewhere and it will kind of refresh your mind and then you can dive back into software development and use some of the other things that I mentioned all right so that's it guys hopefully you found this helpful um if you have any other suggestions or or tips that help you when you start to get bored then let us know in the comments