Bored?

Saw a posting on Slashdot today about a programmer being bored at work and asking what to do about it.

Well, Slashdot readers being as they are, mostly responded with some not helpful suggestions (but some where).  Seeing as I've been in the development field or such a long time and had my share of periods of boredom (and almost every other emotion) I thought that I add my response.  Here goes.

The first thing to find out is what you are bored with.  It may not be so easy to tell.  Is it the same coding, no designing, no attention, lack of social interaction, gotten into a rut?  It basically comes down to needing some kind of change.  New job always comes to mind, but is that the easiest and riskiest method of forcing change on yourself, never mind that jobs may not be easy to come by.  Change is needed but what and how?

For myself, I find I get bored if :

• I'm not doing anything new
• I'm not keeping myself busy (I love getting things completed).
• I've run out of goals for myself

The first thing I do is, doing something different every day.  It does not really matter what it is but it needs to be different.  Different lunch, different web sites to visit, different clothes.  Along with this I create a very simple ToDo list.  Mind you it may only have one item on it, but it's something that I have not done before.  It should be something of our my normal routine and can be accomplished in one sitting (so I can feel like I accomplished something).  When I've done that one item, then add a new item and then maybe another.  Starting making little goals to look forward to that do not involve your normal work.

Some of the things I have done to break up my daily patterns are:

• Make pancakes (any cooking) in the morning instead of cereal.
• Find some podcasts to listen to that is NOT on programming.
• Go read a book (not a programing book) and reserve time to read it.
• Do not listen to news.
• Do not watch TV (or at least reduce it.  No reality shows).
• Go for a walk during lunch or when you get home (only about 15min worth).
• Start a Blog (but be nice about it).
• Have dinner with friends during the week.
• Get another dog (but please don't go over 3).
• Paint a room a strong color (no pastels please).
• Read up on some aspect of history that you know nothing about.
• Watch a TED video (ted.com).

 All of these suggestions are to get you to change your mind set.   It may be your job but first give changing your mindset first.  It can be easier to change almost anything but your mind.  People change jobs, locations and partners, all to avoid that it may be themselves that they need to change.  All these little change suggestions are really just the seed of change that you can build upon and it will take time.  Don't just change one thing and repeat, change, then change again and repeat.

Do something different, enjoy life more.

P.S.  One thing to look out for is depression.  Please search the web for information on depression and it's signs.