NO motivation or interest

[psychocandy]

I agree with OP. 30 years when I played games like JetPac on my ZX Spectrum I thought "Computer wow I want to do that".

Now I find it hard to get excited about anything. When a user moans that they "really need to print this report out by the end of the day and this is happening" I just think - seen it all before and I dont give a toss.

OP - On serious note. Lack of motivation could be depression. Not a laughing matter.......

[WTFH]

My kids are grown up at uni !!

Get a dog. A rescue mutt.


If you've got a garden, take up gardening.


If you've got fruit trees, get a press and some demijohns.


If you've got those, get a still.

[MicrosoftBob]

I think you need a side project something completely away from IT and most importantly something creative to take your mind of the mundanity of IT

[SandyD]

Hey, again, am really am not depressed, and my life outside work is really good, my personal life is great, my social life is full (sometimes I think too full) I have lots of interests and go out to various exciting and interesting events 3 to 4 nights a week, I meet many good friends, stay in close touch with old / new friends .... its my work life that is the problem .. totally bored of work .. note I don't hate it, I am just totally indifferent towards it !

[norrahe]

Hey, again, am really am not depressed, and my life outside work is really good, my personal life is great, my social life is full (sometimes I think too full) I have lots of interests and go out to various exciting and interesting events 3 to 4 nights a week, I meet many good friends, stay in close touch with old / new friends .... its my work life that is the problem .. totally bored of work .. note I don't hate it, I am just totally indifferent towards it !

I've yet to find a contract that either motivates or interests me. Just keep on invoicing!

[SandyD]

I think you need a side project something completely away from IT and most importantly something creative to take your mind of the mundanity of IT

Good suggestion, even though am busying myself with lots of interests, I don't have a specific project .... I don't want work related project or plan B ... maybe some kind of charity ... dunno !

[WTFH]

My garden needs weeding, if you're interested.


Can pay you in sloe gin/cider/wine.

[SpontaneousOrder]

Have been suffering from this in the last year or so, I have no interest or motivation to work at all, last year I had a very exciting and demanding contract, but that was finished, then took a couple of months off then came back to this contract which is sooooo undemanding, very little tasks, waste some time on this forum again after a long absence... thing is at both project the exciting one or the totally easy one I felt the same, not sure what to do about it, how to I get back the buzz and feel good about working, not even good, I just want to be worried enough to do my job right like I used to do before, am not saying am doing it badly now, but I could certainly put in a lot more effort, used to be 120% now I put in like 50% effort...

Its not like I dream of working somewhere else or different career etc etc, I just don't want to work full stop... don't think its stress and a need for a break, I already took a break, and my contract is totally stress free...

Anyone went through this? What would you suggest I do to snap out of this state?

You need some philosophy in your life!

Read Atlas Shrugged. It's big but it's good - when you get to the end you'll realise that all of those pages of detail were actually there for a good reason.

You need to understand that the point of life is to enjoy it - and the root of all meaningful human happiness is pride - and the primary root of self-pride is productive labour.

Productivity, as a man, is what makes human beings tick. And the extent to which you are productive, according to your potential, is the extent to which you will experience pride & therefore deep & meaningful happiness. I.e. the more you distinguish yourself from a mindless animal the more you will naturally feel happiness.


You just need a change of perspective, and for that I recommend reading Ayn Rand, and for easier to swallow goodness I recommend the 'fountainhead' and 'atlas shrugged' as they are fiction (and 'anthem' is a nice 2 hour long novella I recommend too). There is ALOT more to atlas shrugged, regarding life in general, than opposing collectivism & socialist ideas.

[DimPrawn]

Lack of motivation could be depression. Not a laughing matter.......

Unless it manic depression.

[NickFitz]

.. totally bored of work .. note I don't hate it, I am just totally indifferent towards it !

I find it helps me to keep interested if I move between different industries and types of project a lot. Oh, and stay as far away as possible from corporate IT.

Don't know how practical it is if you're anything other than a developer, but the other year I worked with an online provider of archive materials to libraries, was involved in developing an award-winning promotional web campaign for a major online fashion retailer, and contributed to user interface code used by Freesat set top boxes, all in the space of eleven months. The key thing was that each of these gave me an opportunity to learn new stuff about various fields I might not otherwise have had any contact with, even though I was being paid to use exactly the same development skills at all of them.

When I end up working in the same industry for too long, or going back to one I already know well, or am involved with something that could never, ever, under any circumstances be interesting in the first place (such as corporate IT services), I get bored a lot more easily.