I'm a tech entrepreneur building Flowtelic—a note-taking app that helps you build the habit around building a second brain and publishing blog posts consistently.
This is a tough one as it can be very personal I think. Things I would look at would be whether you have some type of goal or purpose to the work you're working towards, and that you're slightly challenged so you grow your skills bit by bit. Usually when I get demotivated I start looking for a different job, but that's because the work got repetitive, the opportunities are stagnated and the team don't really take those opportunities to make you feel excited.
The work environment can be quite toxic. Negative opinions, other people who aren't motivated, or those who are but don't take them time to help you grow can be demotivating. Your manager plays a key role and they may actually be contributing to the feeling of demotivation.
My advice, spend a bit of time reading about different subjects (non-technical) and having a break mentally. Feel comfortable thinking about nothing. I can recommend something like "Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us". I do audio books as I don't really like reading.
Usually when I get demotivated I start looking for a different job, but that's because the work got repetitive, the opportunities are stagnated and the team don't really take those opportunities to make you feel excited.
There needs to be care with this approach, though, just because the process of software development means you can't really be full passion projects all the time. There are going to be ruts that you get into with the ebb and flow of a project. You might spend a month on devops when that isn't your thing but everyone is "full-stack" even though devops totally isn't part of stacks. Then next sprint you're on your favorite thing again like that never happened. Or the project gets shelved and you're on another part of the whole or an all-new project.
If I looked every time I was bored with the process, I'd probably only hold a job for 6 months at a time because boring stuff happens, then things pivot and becoming interesting again, then they get boring again, and so on. Part of what makes job hopping an undesired trait, to me, is seeing that the job candidates can't persevere through dumb projects or the boring parts of a project.
I'm a tech entrepreneur building Flowtelic—a note-taking app that helps you build the habit around building a second brain and publishing blog posts consistently.
This is a great response, and on hindsight I was a bit brash in what I said. Just to clarify, when I've experienced demotivation it's not because of the technology or the people, but because I've lost my connection with the overall purpose and the job doesn't give me a sense of meaning.
It generally takes me a long time to recognise that I'm demotivated. To give you an example, I left IBM in 2010 after 6 years with the company and changed department once in that time. The release schedules were upwards of 18 months long. I wanted a dev role from test and even after 18 months of it not happening, I realised I was demotivated.
It all boiled down to my overall sense of purpose wasn't there. I wasn't being given the opportunity to work towards what I wanted, the mission of the product was vague at best. I much prefer working with smaller teams and being closer with the customer. It keeps me focused on the 'why'.
As you say, we can all face short term boredom with technologies that don't motivate us. Just make sure you're not stuck with it for 18 months.
For further actions, you may consider blocking this person and/or reporting abuse
We're a place where coders share, stay up-to-date and grow their careers.
This is a tough one as it can be very personal I think. Things I would look at would be whether you have some type of goal or purpose to the work you're working towards, and that you're slightly challenged so you grow your skills bit by bit. Usually when I get demotivated I start looking for a different job, but that's because the work got repetitive, the opportunities are stagnated and the team don't really take those opportunities to make you feel excited.
The work environment can be quite toxic. Negative opinions, other people who aren't motivated, or those who are but don't take them time to help you grow can be demotivating. Your manager plays a key role and they may actually be contributing to the feeling of demotivation.
My advice, spend a bit of time reading about different subjects (non-technical) and having a break mentally. Feel comfortable thinking about nothing. I can recommend something like "Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us". I do audio books as I don't really like reading.
Happy to answer more questions if you want.
There needs to be care with this approach, though, just because the process of software development means you can't really be full passion projects all the time. There are going to be ruts that you get into with the ebb and flow of a project. You might spend a month on devops when that isn't your thing but everyone is "full-stack" even though devops totally isn't part of stacks. Then next sprint you're on your favorite thing again like that never happened. Or the project gets shelved and you're on another part of the whole or an all-new project.
If I looked every time I was bored with the process, I'd probably only hold a job for 6 months at a time because boring stuff happens, then things pivot and becoming interesting again, then they get boring again, and so on. Part of what makes job hopping an undesired trait, to me, is seeing that the job candidates can't persevere through dumb projects or the boring parts of a project.
This is a great response, and on hindsight I was a bit brash in what I said. Just to clarify, when I've experienced demotivation it's not because of the technology or the people, but because I've lost my connection with the overall purpose and the job doesn't give me a sense of meaning.
It generally takes me a long time to recognise that I'm demotivated. To give you an example, I left IBM in 2010 after 6 years with the company and changed department once in that time. The release schedules were upwards of 18 months long. I wanted a dev role from test and even after 18 months of it not happening, I realised I was demotivated.
It all boiled down to my overall sense of purpose wasn't there. I wasn't being given the opportunity to work towards what I wanted, the mission of the product was vague at best. I much prefer working with smaller teams and being closer with the customer. It keeps me focused on the 'why'.
As you say, we can all face short term boredom with technologies that don't motivate us. Just make sure you're not stuck with it for 18 months.