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Ask HN: How do you deal with an off-day?

by lulzury on 8/27/24, 3:57 PM with 54 comments

• by nicbou on 8/28/24, 12:47 PM

  If I'm physically off, the most productive thing I can do is give myself space to recover. I try to refill my "Sims bars": sleep, eat, socialize etc. If I get bored, I might just clean the flat, triage my Downloads folder, and maybe pick some easy tasks from my to-do list. It gives me a clean slate for the next day, which really helps me recover.

  If I'm emotionally off, I leave all work aside and take myself on a date. That usually means cycling to a breakfast place I like, going to a museum, getting drinks with friends or reading in a pleasant place.

  Above all, I accept that not every day will be productive, and that forcing myself to produce consistent output is not a good idea.

• by codingdave on 8/27/24, 5:07 PM

  I don't. I take the rest I need, and try again another time. This is where remote work shines - I try not to let my teams fall into the trap of 9-5 hours. I encourage everyone to work when they are productive, and don't force it when they are not. As long as the work gets done, it is all good.

• by al_borland on 8/28/24, 2:27 AM

  Usually catch up on the little things. Little updates on things that aren’t my main project and don’t need any meetings, consults, or anything else. Clean up my email, purge downloads/screenshots/etc, organize things so when I’m having a better day I can have things easier, and stuff like that.

  Or, if there is something that absolutely has to get done, I suck it up and get it done, so I can go do nothing when I’m done, while not having to think about it anymore.

• by bravetraveler on 8/28/24, 1:17 PM

  Normally I'd make that a research day, but now I get very little say in how a day goes. Regularly have half of my day or longer booked.

  Reading and trying stuff out can give me that spark. Finding a dozen messages from people wanting 'a quick chat' drowns it.

• by markus_zhang on 8/27/24, 5:23 PM

  Usually an off day is for kids or other urgent matters, such as water leak or basement backflow.

  Our invisible middle aged family man/woman does not have the luxury to be "off".

• by legacynl on 8/28/24, 12:37 PM

  An off-day is an off-day. If it was possible to find some method to be productive it wouldn't be an off-day.

  Just like getting sick there's not much that you can do about it once you have it.

  Once you have an off-day it's better to accept that you won't be very productive and inform your superior, instead of trying to force something and having to make up for that lost productivity the following days.

  Just as with getting sick, the best thing you can do is prevention. Make sure you have a healthy sleep pattern, eat varied and in moderation, exercise regularly, and take care of your mental health.

  If you feel like you have a lot of off-days try to figure out why that is. Are you sleeping well? are you stressed or anxious? Make a note of these things on your off-days (it can be hard to accurately remember emotions) and try to see if you can discern a pattern.

• by anon291 on 8/30/24, 4:32 PM

  I think the first thing I do, which has taken me a full 32 years to learn is to never judge yourself on your worst day. It can be so easy to send yourself into a long-term depressive episode just because your one day sucked because you didn't get enough sleep / are sick / had a rough day / etc. I remind myself that today is just one day, and there are many more ahead. I accept the fact that my day is not going well, and just look forward to tomorrow, when it will be better. Under no circumstances should you dwell on how bad today is and how that means your life sucks. That is the path to perdition.

  Instead, accept it, treat yourself, and exercise self-care. It's okay to skip things or put things off (if there are no deadlines to meet of course). Just enjoy and pamper yourself.

• by turtle_heck on 8/29/24, 12:57 PM

  A lot of people disregard the creative aspect of programming, even if you're feeling great, some days creativity comes, some days it doesn't.

  In the company I work for, which is horribly ran, a lot of the projects I work on have a bus factor of 1 - which is me. So, me taking a sick day, or even vacation can throw off one of the many arbitrary or poorly planned deadlines.

  I haven't found a good answer to this, but I find it helps me to have a good routine such that no matter how dead tired or sick I am, I can engage the routine and get _something_ done.

• by MissTake on 8/27/24, 4:00 PM

  Do what I can & be cognizant as to the effect my slowness will have.

  And if doubt, be honest walk away and take some me time after letting the team know.

• by dividefuel on 8/30/24, 4:36 PM

  I go with the flow. Usually I can't take the full workday off (meetings that I should be at, etc.), so I try to focus on doing a task that I don't feel friction towards. If I feel like I can't get started on something or that it's just not going well, I try to do something else until I find something that I can make progress on. Maybe that means going through my email backlog or making a nice todo list. Maybe it means exploring a low priority side project that sounds fun. Often I find that making progress on a low priority task can reframe my mood and bring me back towards working on the important goals for the day.

  Some days, though, it's just a lost cause, and it's best to then focus on using the day to recover. You'll feel a lot better the next day if you recover than if you spend 8 hours struggling and failing to be productive.

• by hasbot on 8/30/24, 4:29 PM

  I'm retired now but when I was working I'd just take it slow. Surf the web a bit. Do TODOs that didn't require much mental acuity. Drink a lot of coffee. Mondays were always bad because I often went away for weekend rock climbing and wouldn't return until late Sunday.

• by olegious on 8/28/24, 9:06 PM

  I like the approach of a Hall of Fame NHL player, Teemu Selanne- he asks "how good are you on your bad day?" and "if you're having a bad day, what can you do to make it a little bit better?"

  Obviously there are exceptions when you're physically ill, but for the most part I think this approach is a good one to keep in mind because it forces you to think how you can make even an off day a little better.

  Link to podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/spittin-chiclets-episo...

• by mamidon on 8/30/24, 4:29 PM

  Most of the time I've just had a completely sleepless night; I normally just muddle through with a lot of coffee. I've tried taking a sick day for this sort of thing, but I found that puttering around at home just threw me off even further.

  Ever since my divorce I feel like I'm just going through the motions, work, sleep, socialize. Without a home life it just feels empty, but what decent woman would want someone like me with my baggage? Even if I found someone, which seems impossible these days, with no-fault-divorce why would it be any different this time around?

• by _bupb on 8/30/24, 4:35 PM

  Basically power through but with care and empathy for myself. Do the work, but only the important stuff, eat well, not too much and get some light movement and early sleep later.

  I only call in sick if I have a fever, am contagious or am really unable to sit at a desk for more than 10 minutes due to the illness.

  Otherwise I am not sick, I maybe take some pain killers, acknowledge that a) I am human b) I can always concentrate for at least 1 or 2 hours, even if I am not at my best and c) those two hours are enough for the day.

  And who knows, sometimes being not at your top leads to new perspective into your work.

• by eyelidlessness on 8/30/24, 4:33 PM

  In the past, I had all sorts of advice I could give you to feel/be more productive. Now, having experienced severe burnout that lasted several years—that still affects me, and may do for the rest of my life—

  My advice is to listen to your body. It is telling you there are more important things than productivity, at least right now. Take a break! Whether that’s a nap, a day off, a long weekend, whatever you need. You’ll be glad you did. You may very well be more productive in the long run if you do.

• by antisthenes on 8/30/24, 7:25 PM

  I have brain trauma, so I probably have anywhere between 1 and 3 of "off-days" on any given week, and frequent headaches.

  Luckily, the way I deal with it is by being overly-productive on the good days. So if anyone requests anything on my off-day, I just try to do 1 or 2 things, and for the rest I tell people I will get back to them with more info or will set a future meeting.

  So far so good. Being 100% remote helps.

• by muzani on 8/29/24, 12:40 AM

  Often just sleep it off. Sleep in the office, or car, or if you're at home, a proper bed. A 3 minute nap does wonders. Sometimes more sugar or hydration helps. Sometimes a walk.

  It's rarely ever a full off day. It's an off-hour, then you tilt because you're trying to force yourself on no fuel or you procrastinate and feel worse. Then it becomes an off-day.

• by teuobk on 8/30/24, 4:34 PM

  On those days, I like to switch from work on the computer to work with my hands, like wrenching on a project in the garage. It won't get me any progress on my computer-based work, but it will give me a sense of progress on my garage-based projects, and it will leave me recharged for the next day.

  That, and more coffee.

• by inSenCite on 8/31/24, 11:53 AM

  Whatever fun/mechanical thing I can muster the energy to do...clean something in the kitchen, clean something in the garage, sharpen a knife, replant a plant, go for a run, sit on the sofa staring out the window with my dog in my lap.

  Off days are tough. The important thing is not to feel guilty about it.

• by suninsight on 8/31/24, 4:00 AM

  Do nothing and have faith that it will all work out. Off-days IMO are the secret super power that are not recognized enough. So much so, that now I feel the worst I can do on an off-day is to try fill it up with something 'productive'.

  Do nothing. Be no one. Every once in a while. Works for me great.

• by quietthrow on 8/29/24, 3:55 AM

  Genuine question: why does being productive matter on a off day? Isn't an off day ones body's way of telling that it's need something else not what the mind conjures up randomly or something that is instilled in the subconscious through cultural or personal values?

• by WarOnPrivacy on 8/30/24, 4:39 PM

  I carry a workload with duties from mindless drudge to A-Game.

  I procrastinate the drudge work anyway; it's there & ready when bad-brain days show up.

  Yesterday was bad enough that I put off driving until it cleared some. My career revolves around having that kind of flexibility.

• by Woeps on 8/28/24, 7:37 AM

  Small documentation work, research, cleaning up my desk and of computer files/inbox.

  Just do small stuff that normally fall trough the cracks. It's also during these days that my brain comes up with solutions I can then implement during more productive days

• by juujian on 8/30/24, 4:27 PM

  The most important part is not trying to catch up, but preparing for a productive next day. It goes against intuition, but sometimes the best I can do is prepare a meal for the next day(s) and go to bed early.

• by carapace on 8/30/24, 6:32 PM

  Measure your productivity by integrating over a longer period than one day.

  Conserve your health. Take "off days" seriously as a message that you need some TLC, and that will help prevent serious health issues.

• by browningstreet on 8/30/24, 4:36 PM

  If I can, I'll go for a drive and then find a place for a walk/hike. Usually opens new dimensions for me, if even just my attitude/spirit/free-thinking.

• by tra3 on 8/27/24, 6:27 PM

  1. Off day = vacation day = PTO (paid time off)?

  or

  2. You're not firing on all cylinders and tired and can't get going and feeling unproductive?

  Either way, you cannot be productive 100% of the time. Take it easy.

• by yungporko on 8/28/24, 6:59 AM

  i found a way of sleeping with my hand on the mouse that moves it slightly with the motion of my breathing so that teams doesn't show me as away while i nap

• by hm-nah on 8/28/24, 3:01 PM

  Reflect on where I am in life, where I’ve been, where I’d like to go.

  Write (paper and pen), draw diagrams, sometimes sketch.

  If sick, watch fav movies and only do email via phone.

• by idontwantthis on 8/28/24, 3:19 PM

  I expect that pushing myself will just lead to worse performance that I’ll need to fix later. Do what I can, and not feel bad about it.

• by ilrwbwrkhv on 8/28/24, 2:09 PM

  Off days are simply not a thing. You can either be like physically sick and in that case you take the day off but there are no off days. If you are good at something and you can do things in a single threaded manner with focus and you have one to two things which are major items that you want to check off, every single day will be a good day. Now you might not make as much progress or some days you might make a lot of progress, but the days in which you do not have progress are not off days.

• by anonzzzies on 8/29/24, 6:42 AM

  I just sleep and read. Why strain yourself more if you know it is not going to be productive?

• by perihelion_zero on 8/28/24, 6:04 PM

  Open up the GIMP and start making joke meme comics. Laughter is the best medicine.

• by uptownfunk on 8/29/24, 4:00 AM

  A little bump of cbd or thc 5-10mg and the induced sleep, it’s a good reset.

• by dyingkneepad on 8/27/24, 5:06 PM

  The the mandatory yearly corporate BS trainings.

  Organize your inbox.

  Do that one thing you've been wanting to but is lower priority, like learning a tool or working on a low priority bug.

• by brudgers on 8/27/24, 5:17 PM

  I have never obsessed over sleep metrics.

  If I am sick, I accept I am sick.

  Like most people, I've had jobs with physical demands. Feeling tired is a normal part of a hard day's work.

  "Productive" is a bullshit goal. Good luck.

• by handofdang on 8/30/24, 4:37 PM

  Mostly I check for newly registered handles with "dang" in them and shadowban the IPs that created them.