Exercise. Since I've started mountain biking regularly (as weather permits) about 6 hours a week, I've had dramatically more energy throughout my workday.

I heard speed and cocaine are excellent substances to keep your mind sharp...

Quote: Original post by visage
Diet and exercise are key factors.

Sometimes, you just need to get some oxygen to your brain. Take frequent breaks to get up, stretch, and walk around outside if possible. I often find walking a lap or two around the building helps a lot. Take some deep breaths outside while you walk to really get the oxygen and the blood flowing.

Don't forget sleep. Yeah I know people are getting less and less sleep these days but I find that my brain surely turns to mush if I don't get enough and I feel like I'm in a fog all day and will even experience micronaps which are quite annoying!
It's not fun when you look up at your code and you see a repeating key all over your code ARGHHHH!!!!
In your case though it sounds like you are eating too big of a lunch and that's making you drowsy since all the blood is going to your stomach. Trying a smaller lunch maybe all you need?
Or your biological clock might be off which will be more work to fix.
I've had all types of jobs from literally digging a hole all day to programming and all I can say manual work makes for a longer day not to mention you are way more tired at the end of it all!
Coffee has been shown to stimulate the brain but the kick it gives doesn't last long and you'll get addicted to it.

I think it's office work that's grinding you down, and no wonder; offices are often horrible, grey environments with people constantly wandering about, laughing and joking with each other but staring mass murder at you if you try and join in; endless ringing of phones (I personally hate the things, when I finally get my own place I won't have a phone at all if I'm in a cable enabled area so I'll just get cable broadband and my mobile phone is mostly switched off); bland office politics; some arsehole boss going off on one like a spoilt child (and I don't care how good you are at your job or how knowledgeable you are - throwing childish tantrums and laying into people is totally unprofessional) and the dumb 9-5 grind. I do enjoy programming but I find my performance totally drops off in a work situation because you're surrounded by highly talented people ready to drop the Sword of Damocles if you make a tiny mistake, and that is unnerving - at work, I've totally and publicly fucked up stuff which I can do in my sleep when it's on my own terms. In any case, I don't know whoever thought 9-5 was a good idea because who in the blue fuck is awake and alert at 9am? Nobody I've ever worked with, that's for sure. Often I've been the intern/teaboy and come in nice and early with some full-time employees already there but there are plenty at plenty of jobs I've worked who stumbled in like frazzled, exhausted zombies well after 9am on a regular basis and nobody batted an eyelid as it was seemingly considered normal. Don't get me wrong, I have no issue with working an eight hour day and am not indignant about it at all but I feel that perhaps shifting it to something more sensible like 10.30 to 18.30, or work whenever you like as long as you put in a full eight hours a day as Epic Games apparently do. This would relieve a lot of stress, allow people to get through traffic easier and, most important of all, get more sleep before work. It would also likely solve problems like people being stressed first thing, people missing breakfast which you shouldn't ever do because it's the most important meal of the day, physical exhaustion and not just light tiredness at work and having to cope with a commute.

No doubt you've figured out that modern life in Edinburgh is a complete mess and a shadow of what it once was and to me it is like fast slipping backwards on a V8 treadmill. Prices have risen, the roads have become ever more crowded and in a terrible state of repair along with the bus companies taking us for a ride ('scuse the pun) and a journey which used to take me 20 minutes now takes 40 on a good day, even if you take the shortcut to dodge the worst of the traffic. The pace of life has got too fast (my friend in West London is more relaxed and happy, for God's sake) and Edinburgh is a stressful, overcrowded, dirty clone city which is beginning to fill with an ever growing population of uneducated scum. This was never a problem as recently as five years ago so I don't quite know where it went wrong and, truth be told, it's taking its toll on me and I've lived here my entire life of 22 years up until I started University and moved away temporarily. My parents were here for University well before that and they actually said 1970s Edinburgh was like Pripyat compared to how it is today. I am not sticking around after I graduate and I have all the symptoms you have whilst here and working, whereas working the same job for a different arm of the same company in another city was bliss. It's the environment and not what you're doing, I think you'll find, that's the more important factor here.

For a quick fix solution, I agree with all those who say get more sleep which, I will admit, is difficult if you're saddled with stress and have to get up at fuckthis o'clock to get to work and most people have no life during the week because you have to be in bed stupidly early in order to get enough sleep to get up stupidly early, it's a vicious circle and it is making me want to telecommute and/or start my own business from home because life is far too short for that sort of stuff. Also, working at home would dodge the problems I mentioned at the top so I would try that if you have the option.

'Scuse the length of this wall, by all means. I had an e-mail from China asking for it back.

Quote: Original post by ukdeveloper
Waaah waah waah my job sucks...

For a quick fix solution, I agree with all those who say get more sleep...

Waaah waah waah my job sucks...

There, made that easier for future readers to comprehend.

Quote: Original post by BeanDog

Quote: Original post by ukdeveloper
Waaah waah waah my job sucks...

For a quick fix solution, I agree with all those who say get more sleep...

Waaah waah waah my job sucks...

There, made that easier for future readers to comprehend.

That would be true, except I'm not currently working. But yes, the job I had in mind when I wrote that was particularly grim.

However it was a valuable experience in that I now know what to expect and, more importantly, what to avoid.

How much sleep would you say you get a night? Maybe that's it.
Or, if you feel like you don't get a good sleep, do more exercise during the day, and you will feel tired when you're all ready to go to bed.

I used to not sleep much, and drink a lot of sugar drinks, and code all night. Etc. The usual programmer persona.

But it caught up to me. No more working 20 hours a day on software and chugging mountain dew. I try to go to bed by 1, i eat correctly, and go on 5 mile hikes up a mountain about 4 times a week. It has really made a huge difference.

Eating breakfast, getting sleep, getting exercise, and not having a diet which consists mostly of caffeine will improve your life.

Also, to stay on focus i usually write a list of tasks on a piece of paper. That way while i'm testing one i can quickly see what other tasks there are and possibly work on one while the other is building, etc.

I try to check off at least 2 items per day, slow and steady progress gets it done.

Do yourself a favour and buy this book: Your brain: the missing manual by Matthew MacDonald. It tells you everything everyone else already said in this thread and much more. And it's a witty book and fun to read to book. I highly recommend it. It got me to do things even my parents could never get me to do, like go to bed on time, eat brown bread instead of white and get regular exercise.

Thanks Sander, Ill check that out in the libray next time