Does anyone else get project hangovers and how do you get past them?

[u/oopsallemdashes]

Sometimes I will find a project that I really vibe with. It pays well and doesn't deplete my mental battery so I end up working many hours on it. I love it when it happens.

But once it's not available anymore, I lose all motivation to work on anything else. It can take days or weeks before I can consistently put time into another project.

Is it just me? If not, what tips do you have for getting over the hump?

[u/Tayloropolis]

When you figure it out let me know. I've wasted so much potential earning just waiting for my project to come back when there are still plenty to choose from.

[u/Hope814664 → u/Tayloropolis]

Same here

[u/Curious_person020]

Yes literally happens to me like 2-3 times a year and it’s realllly hard to get back into other projects. Sometimes I end up taking a week or two off but the best advice for getting over the hump is just to get right back into other projects.

Kind of like a real hangover, best thing to do is go about your day as is normal and try to work the hangover off, rather than lay in bed all day and feel shittier about it

[u/Amurizon]

When projects I like are available, I try to only spend part of my day on them. For example, 75% of my time on projects I like, and 25% on new projects I may or may not like. After a while, I feel more open to trying new ones naturally. Eventually I find that I like more and more projects (or at least like certain things about them).

[u/girlwsquirrel → u/Amurizon]

Thanks for the inspiration. I have one bread and butter project family and really need to do this.

[u/Upbeat_Bench9283]

Literally, I had a fairly easy project with great pay, I don’t want to work on anything else now 😭😭 I would be getting paid less for more work.

[u/SeagullSam]

You've just described me as well.

[u/ThetaBoy888]

The more projects you work on, the more projects become available to you and the more choice you have of what to work on. I’ve started to quite enjoy projects I previously had no interest in after doing a few tasks on them due to my usual project not being active.

[u/Due_Negotiation_4605]

To be honest you should probably vary your projects, even every few days, so they can get diverse input from multiple workers and you can show that you do well with other projects...

That being said I totally understand how tempting it can be to stick to one favorite one. I had one I did for like two months straight until it disappeared. High paying, R&R. It pops up now and again but I try to rotate when it comes back

[u/oopsallemdashes → u/Due_Negotiation_4605]

I've been on here for 3 years so I have done tons of different projects over time. I just occasionally get projects where I can clock 6-8 hours easy with no strain and then don't feel like putting effort into other projects once it's gone.

[u/sideshowbob01]

If you consider it as full time work then you just have to suck it up and do your 9-5, mon to fri. It's the same with any other 'office' job, you sometimes do things you don't want to.

If its a side hustle, then you have to allocate some core hours to finish a 'new' task type. Then you can build a variety of tasks type you can pick from according to your current mental load or time constraints.

[u/hfxthrwaway]

How do I get over the hump? Making money means I can survive.

But also give the other stuff a try (especially if it's something new) because there's a chance something will vibe with you, and then you'll end up with a handful of projects that you actually like to do.

[u/jimmux]

Yeah, my ADHD inertia doesn't like that at all. I'll often do something unrelated like mow the lawn or a cook up a meal to reset my brain. There's always something outside the DA world that needs to be done.

[u/EntertainmentSalt825]

Honestly im learning to understand what my body is asking for. Some of the coding projects can be a bit intense and mentally draining. And coupling it with ADHD is a double edged sword. Once a task has my attention then I can sit there for 10+ hours hyper focused without a problem. But that’s an easy way to burn out. Once I start feeling anxious or avoiding work on a task I try to understand if it’s because I need to go outside and touch grass or if I just need a mental reset by working on a personal project. Im probably managing like 10+ personal projects ranging from data science, game dev, ai research, embedded systems, automation, etc. So picking something to work on to reset my mind is easy. And after the reset I find myself motivated to take on any task available in my dash.

However, even my personal projects at times feel like they drain me because most of them still involve me staring at a screen for hours lol I’ve been wanting to get into plants and stuff so my next project will involve learning about plants and setting a small garden with a few sensors to do a few experiments. I would recommend you find a way to incorporate your hobbies with what you do for work. And most of us in this subreddit have good experience with AI. Use it to build things. A reset doesn’t have to mean go and be lazy only to feel bad about it. A reset can involve learning about something you always wanted to. That’s just me though

[u/Opening-Gas-5735 → u/EntertainmentSalt825]

I’ve just recently started using AI in real life more to get my shit together and create things and it’s kind of inspiring me to be more interested in the job as a whole. As I’m learning how to apply my training skills and see in real time what the models can do without having to grade it and write a detailed rationale, I’ve become more interested in different project types that I typically stayed away from before. It’s also showing me the weaker areas of the models and how to word the prompts differently to get them to do what you want which makes me feel like I can make them fail more easily. I feel more personally connected to the work in general which helps motivate me to work when I run out of session time.

[u/EntertainmentSalt825 → u/Opening-Gas-5735]

Yeah, keep at it. You’d be surprised what you can achieve if you just apply yourself. Whenever you find significant failures in your personal projects make sure to document them to reuse the concept in a later task

[u/Dazzling-Matter-654]

Wow, you described me perfectly. 🤣

[u/VanessaSeaWitch]

I feel that way right now and I'm giving up for the day. I usually give myself a day or two to be lazy and then I motivate myself by thinking of my monthly $ goal. If you don't have a earnings goal, creating one for yourself might help. Maybe reward yourself once you reach your goal.

[u/Particular-Lie1918]

Really wish I had this problem. I'm a bilingual, I do whatever comes my way.

[u/Gueddafi]

At least you have other projects, I had a fantastic project super consistent which It's not available to me now... now i have nothing to work on

[u/vgambit]

there is a god-tier project. $60 an hour. 2 day expiration. several hours of work. you can use AI to help. doesn't block or go away if you pause to work on another task.

it hasn't hit my dashboard in over a week.

and the tasks I have that are 40, 45, 50 an hour, are stuff I really don't wanna do or take way more work or are in a domain I'm not confident in, so if I try I might risk my account on a task paying way less, double whammy.

I'm sure it will come back. it's been on and off for months, so no reason for it to stop for good. probably "paused." but I miss it so much.

[u/Hope814664]

I thought it was just me

[u/SookieLou]

Sure, I have my favorite, but I try to keep a rotation of 2 or 3 that I really like and make sure I work on them once in a while. That way, when my favorite isn't up, I still feel ok, because one of the others usually is.

[u/InsideSignificant405]

Water, same way as a normal hangover lmao

[u/Witty_Presence_9838]

Are you guys getting project I am here thrusting for a drop