Dealing With BRAIN FOG As A Software Developer

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Hey folks, I'm just heading home from the office. Um, we're going to go to Reddit to experience Oh, my sunglasses. Experienced devs. I put them there this morning and I was like, "Oh, that's going to be so helpful. You're going to see your sunglasses on your steering wheel." And part of me was like, "You're an idiot. You're going to forget them. You're going to start driving. They're going to fall." I was like, "No, no, no. How could you possibly miss the sunglasses right on your steering wheel?" Turns out I am both smart and stupid because I was right and wrong. Um, I did it anyway. I was wrong, but past me knew it was going to happen. So anyway, experience devs for the topic. This one is just going to be a little bit more uh a little open-ended, I guess, bit of a thought experiment um and less technical.

So the person who wrote on experienced devs was just asking about people that you know do you experience like kind of like brain fog by the end of the workday. Um so they were writing to basically say they get through their workday whatever. I didn't read all the details but um by the end of it they're like I feel like you know after a workday I can't like do other stuff that I want to get done. So, I wanted to talk about this because it's not like it's not specific to like software development, but I think it's a good thing to to have awareness of like, you know, everyone's going to have probably some individual approach to this and maybe we can talk through it and come up with some ideas that um might be applicable to different individuals.

If you are watching or listening, you know, maybe at different points throughout this video, if you stick all the way through it, maybe you have something that you want to leave a comment on and say, "Hey, this works for me, or this doesn't, or here's something I've observed." I think that'd be super helpful for other people. Um, you know, just for the record, right? I am one person, but all of you watching and listening, when you leave comments, other people can read them and learn from you. So, uh, definitely shout out to folks that are leaving comments. Devin, you know who you are. Thank you for the comments that you leave and truly it's helpful for other people, too. So, keep that in mind as you're listening. You could help someone else out. So, when I was thinking about this, I know that for myself, I wanted to start with like one pretty clear example for me.

And um I get this feeling of brain fog or like like basically mental exhaustion. uh where like this person is saying I can't focus or do anything else after 100% I have this when I load my days with oneonone so I am an engineering manager this might not feel like it's applicable to you but maybe it is for like a day full of meetings for example right but for me as an engineering manager when I load a day full of one-on ones like I know for myself that I am introverted I know this right and yes like I can be introverted and still talk to a camera yes I can be introverted and still do presentations. I'm introverted. I know I am because I lose energy from spending time with other people. I need to recharge on my own. I don't try to recharge by being with other people.

So, it's very obvious to me when I spend a day doing one-on- ons and like, well, why do I do this to myself? It's more for like structuring my my schedule and trying to make optimizations for other things. But to give you an example, historically, um, for the past year at least, Thursdays for me are a day filled with oneonone's. Um, they're a day where I do one-on- ones with a lot of my remote employees. So, uh, I don't drive to the office because I would drive to the office and just be on phone calls, but I basically have like what are backtoback one-on ones, a bit little gap in between, but my day is mostly one-on-one calls. And it's not that I don't enjoy them or I don't think that they're valuable. I think they're some of my most important like my most important time is generally in one-on- ones.

And what I notice is that especially on Thursdays, I have some meetings that are at the very end of the day that aren't one-on- ones. And anything after that, that's my personal time. I am so mentally exhausted on Thursdays by the end of my workday. Um I've experienced this with my my current team and my Thursday setup on the previous team I was on. I can't remember what day of the week. Usually it's two days. Like one is really loaded with one-on- ones. Another one has uh you know maybe 50 to 75% of one-on ones uh to match that day. And then the rest of my days are are more cleared up for other things. Um, and I noticed even on my previous team, it was the same thing. Like 5:00 would hit and I'm like, I need like I need to physically go lie down and sleep.

I It's like so so exhausted that it's not a matter of like, oh, it's hard to focus and like, you know, it's like I I I have to go lie down. And um I think like the reason I'm sharing this is because I had to do a bit of reflection here. I'm like I know I know that I'm introverted. I know that that kind of stuff takes a lot out of me. Um and then I need to ask myself the honest question like to would it be more effective for me overall to to schedule things differently to not do that? And I I actually think the answer is no. I think that it's a bit of a it's kind of a trade-off I have to make. But in order for me to get the rest of my work week to be more effective, I kind of have to bite the bullet on that um and then kind of suck it up.

So Thursdays generally like I'll need a little nap after work. Sometimes on a Thursday if I need to by the time it's like lunchtime I might have to go lie down at lunch and that like that's fine. I'm working from home. I'm going to on Thursdays I'm already working a longer than 8 hour day anyway. I don't feel guilty. It needs to happen. I need to be mentally recharged. So, that's something that I noticed for myself. Um, I wanted to talk about another example that is nothing to do with software development, but I wanted to share this with you because again, I want to kind of put some examples out there for people to think about. So, um, I had heard this before and I never really like believed it because it didn't seem like it applied to me. So, it's not that I was like, "Oh, that's false." But I'm like, I don't to follow the advice.

I'm like, it just doesn't really make sense. But, this had to do with going to the gym. And some people were saying that like um they're like, "Oh, I don't like to train um you know at some part of the day like before work or whatever because I can't get anything done." And the reason they were saying that is like they get brain fog after. They're like, you know, I work out really hard and then I have brain fog after. So for me to go, you know, spend time on meetings or calls or like to have focus time, they're like it's really difficult. I I feel like I have brain fog. And um historically, so for many years, I would go to the gym in the evening. So um you know, many years back, it used to be like 9:00 at night I would go. And I was more of a night owl anyway.

So I'd go at 9:00, you know, finish between 10 and 11, right? Usually like I'm home by 11:00. Um, ideally like by 10:30 I guess, but definitely home by 11:00. And um, then it would be Come on, buddy. You got to move over. You got to move over. Holy cow. One or the other. Don't match my speed. Okay. So, um, be like get home, eat, and then, like I said, I was a night owl, so I'd probably be up till like 2 a.m., but that was my creative time. So, I never had this issue of like of brain fog. It was like go to the gym, come back, eat. I'd be super creative, cranking out code and stuff, you know, building hobby projects. Oh, come on, man. This is a day. This is a day you got to go. I don't know why I'm letting this person in.

They clearly can't drive and I shouldn't be behind them. Um yeah, like just always felt very good. And then I would be after that I would be exhausted and I would go to sleep. Great. So going to the gym wouldn't keep me up cuz people would be like, "Oh, I can't work out late. My heart rate's too high." Like not for me. I'm like I get creative after, you know, eating get creative and then I go to bed and everything's good. I have since switched to CrossFit and so I go to CrossFit for 6:00 in the morning which means I have to be up at 5. I'm still not a morning person. It's been over it's been about a year, maybe over a year. I'm not adjusted. Not a morning person. I do go to bed way earlier now obviously cuz I have to wake up at 5.

But what I've noticed is that I have brain fog. I need like I need to go sleep when I come home from the gym most of the times. And I think it's maybe just because the style of working out's much different. I'm not working out like I was when I was bodybuilding where I'd be doing a lot more heavy lifting. Uh more more muscle fatigue versus like when I'm at CrossFit, it's like my heart is about to explode. Can't breathe. My heart's about to explode. I get brain fog like crazy. So, what really sucks for me as someone who is trying to be productive as much as possible is like CrossFit destroys that for me. I wake up at 5 and by the time I'm like ready to be productive, it's 9:00 a.m. CrossFit does not take me 4 hours, but that takes 4 hours of my day where I physically like cannot be productive.

I'm usually home like a little bit after 7:00 in the morning, but I lose like an hour and a half cuz I have to go back to sleep usually. So, it's something I'm still kind of struggling with and I'm I'm hoping that if I just keep waiting it out, like, you know, I will metabolically adjust or something that like things will get better. And maybe it's just because I'm still not a morning person. But um my goal is to try and fit into that. There is a cop coming up behind me and I'm getting nervous. Nice. Not after me. We like that they were coming up pretty fast, but I think they're just probably also fed up with the crappy drivers. So, um, so anyway, I'm sharing that because again, we're talking about brain fog. We're talking about feeling productive. Um, I don't know like when are you being physically active?

What does that look like? For me, that's something that absolutely introduces brain fog. And it's something that's new for me because I never used to experience that. And I don't know, like even if CrossFit were at 9:00 p.m. and I was still a night owl, I think that CrossFit with my heart rate being up might actually not let me fall asleep. So maybe it wouldn't be a good idea to do at night. I don't know. Something to think about. Um, I did a quick scan of some of the Reddit comments. Some people were suggesting things like, "Hey, like get uh get more effective with taking breaks and I think it's good advice, right? Um, it's generic advice because it's hard to give like really actionable advice unless you're like, you know, working directly with someone on this kind of stuff. But it's going to be very personable, personal, personable.

So for some individuals, it might be like, hey, get up from your desk. If you don't have a standing desk, right? Get up, walk around a little bit, take a little break, you know, maybe try to carve out time a little bit more uh consciously, right? Get some get some 45 minutes of work in, then go take a go take a 10-minute walk. you know, another five minutes to go grab water or something like that. Get back to your desk, do another 45, 50 minutes, get up, walk, do something like that. Um, I think that could be really helpful. Uh, I don't practice that myself. I'm not good at getting up and walking around. I definitely do like the exact opposite of that. Like, I kind of anchor myself to my computer. But um I could see that being super helpful for people. I know that for myself if I'm feeling tired at least getting up and walking around is helpful.

Um I don't have a standing desk. Maybe for some people all that's really going to help is like converting from sitting to standing for a bit. Um I don't know like I don't know the right advice for everyone on how to take a break effectively. Um, I already mentioned like, you know, for me on a on a one-on-one day or something like it might be a midday nap. I work from home. I absolutely do not feel guilty about taking a nap at home. I'm not saying I like sleep for the whole day or something. Uh, I can literally nap for like 8 to 13 minutes. And I know that sounds oddly specific, but when I've taken naps, I set my alarm for 20 minutes. Usually, I want to explain this very quickly because I find it pretty interesting. I will set my alarm for 20 minutes.

So, if I, you know, if it's over lunch or whatever, like I said, taking a 20-minut nap, I'm not going to feel guilty about sleeping on my own lunch. So, go set it for 20 minutes. I am a very vivid dreamer. So, this is, you know, view into Nick's life, but every night when I fall asleep, um, I I I and I've gotten tested for this. I enter REM sleep like almost instantly for the first part of my sleep and I dream very very vividly. It's REM sleep. Then I wake up and this is this all happens with like within the first like 30 minutes of sleeping like every single night. So I will enter REM sleep dream very vividly then I wake up and I am wide awake or it feels like I'm wide awake and then shortly after I fall back asleep continue on with the night.

This happens I don't know how many years this has happened for but this is how I sleep. When I nap though, it's very similar. Like I get the first part of that sleep. So when I lie down to take a nap, I enter REM sleep like right away. So every nap for me is like very very vivid dreams. I can actually usually feel myself falling asleep, which is a very weird experience. And um so I feel myself fall asleep. I have vivid dreams. And if I wake up 8 minutes in, if I wake up 13 minutes in, somewhere in there, I try not to go back to sleep. Sounds funny, but I have noticed that if I go try to fill the remainder of that sleep for 20 minutes, I wake up more tired. If I just wake up when it happens, whether that's 8 minutes in, 13 minutes in, whatever, I'm good.

Sounds ridiculous because how is eight minutes of sleep going to help? I don't know. I I'm not a doctor. I'm not a scientist. Don't know. But that's what works for me. If I wake up within that 20 minute mark, um, good to go. Do I hit the 20 minute mark? Sometimes. I feel like it's pretty rare. But sure, I've fallen asleep and made it the whole 20 minutes and my alarm goes off and whatever. Um, but usually it's somewhere around the halfway mark and uh I'll wake up and I just get out of like get out of the bed and and keep going. So, naps can be helpful. Um, some people were talking about hydration. I figure this is probably something that most people would benefit from. I don't know what the stats are, but I'm pretty sure basically everyone is dehydrated.

I genuinely don't think that most of the population uh I don't know like maybe I don't know if this is like a western culture thing or not, so hard for me to say, but I feel like most people are probably dehydrated because it seems like it's a lot of work to go drink enough water. And um so definitely if you're like, hm, I don't actually drink a lot of water. like I don't have a water bottle at my desk that I regularly go fill up. You may want to consider that. Getting up to go fill your water bottle could be a way to get up from your desk, too. So, I know that some people, especially when they're trying to drink a lot of water, yes, coming from a bodybuilding background, I am one of the people who has had one of those really stupidly big water bottles, uh, but people do it so they don't have to keep filling it up.

You might actually want the opposite for yourself because maybe you want to have a smaller water bottle, drink it to get your water in, and then use that as a sign that when you need to go fill it up, you have to get up and walk around, which yeah, that takes time, but it's going to be one of those things to go take a break, get up and walk around so you can get a little bit more movement and um go fill up your water, too. On the note of movement though, um I was saying like, yeah, get up and walk around. I mentioned that earlier, but walking desk, walking treadmill, my goodness, standing desk, walking treadmill. Um I think that's a good combo. I know that when I was doing uh prep for bodybuilding, what I did was I got a walking pad and then, you know, pull it out from under my couch and I had a separate desk.

I don't have a a desk that lifts into a standing desk. So, I had another like kind of pull out desk that I could pull out of the closet and um you know over lunch or in a you know focus part of the day. I didn't like doing it in meetings. I feel like I know some people do and that's great. No problem with it. But I find for myself if I'm like talking on a call and I feel like I'm winded cuz I'm walking, I don't feel good about that. So, um, that's for me. There's another cop flying up behind me. Uh, and it's a single lane. H, why is this happening? It immediately makes me feel like I'm doing something illegal. Like, oh, I got weapons and drugs on me. Oh, no. I'm like, is that a normal thing that people start like questioning like what they're doing that's illegal when a cop comes up behind them?

Like I'm waiting for these lights to turn on and I'm like, I'm not actually doing anything. But like I'm going below the speed limit because the guy in front of me is going the speed or not going the speed limit. And then I'm like, is this cop going to think that I don't know how to go the speed limit? I don't know. Other people do this, right? It's like the same thing when you're going to cross the border and you have to go through customs and you're like, "Wait a second. Am I smuggling things?" Like, I don't know. Maybe maybe other people don't feel that way, but um what else we got? The walking pad thing I think could be a game changer for people, especially if you're the kind of person who's like um you feel like you don't get enough physical activity. It's it's not a lot of effort to walk.

You can get a walking pad for pretty cheap, right? You don't have to walk super fast or anything crazy. Just move and you might find that that's a something that helps a lot with um with mental clarity and stuff. So, something to consider. So, a lot of this is kind of around like rest. It's around, you know, hydration. Uh I should add in with hydration like eat better, you know, very general statement, but like the things that we put in our body make a big difference. So if you're constantly trying to rush around and like you're not really eating quality food, you're just trying to eat whatever you can to get some calories in because you're, you know, you skipped breakfast and lunch cuz you were working too hard, now it's time for dinner, like that kind of thing. And then you're just rushing to get whatever calories you can.

like put a little bit more time into trying to plan this kind of stuff and uh focus on getting like better quality whole foods versus just like whatever you can that's like hamburger helper. Try to try to invest a little bit of time and effort into that and uh you can notice a difference as well. But we got, you know, your your your nutrition and hydration. We got rest. We got movement. And I think a lot of those things can really help. Um, you may find like honestly maybe the work that you're doing is draining because you're not really engaged in it and then you kind of like suffer through it for the day. So that by the time it's the end of the day you're feeling like you have brain fog because you're just mentally exhausted from focusing on stuff you don't enjoy. And then the crappy thing about that is when you repeatedly do this, it becomes draining.

So much so that when you want to go focus on the stuff that you do enjoy, you're like, I don't have I don't have capacity for this. And um that becomes a bit of a dangerous spot, right? Because we need to make sure we have some time for that stuff that we do really enjoy. And um if you're never getting around to that, then like you know, you're just working until the point where you're like mentally checked out. Then you never spend time on stuff you love and you rinse and repeat. Like what are you doing, right? That's no way to go through life. So I always say with this kind of stuff, awareness is like the most important thing, right? It might take a little while to figure out what types of things help make things better, right? Maybe it's the walking pad. Maybe you're like, "Oh crap, I'm not drinking enough water." Try these different things out.

It might take you a while to nail it. And it might change over time, too. Maybe you're getting enough water, but then I don't know, you're not moving around enough. I don't know. Try these things out. Try different things. But the point is that if you don't even have awareness and you're just kind of going through life being like, I don't really enjoy things or I never have time or have energy at the end of the workday. Like maybe some of this is why, right? So awareness I think is really important. When you have awareness, then you can start trying some actions. And awareness also doesn't mean that like you every single time you're going to pick up on this thing. But like when you when you start being more aware, you can try to catch yourself when it's happening. Even if you notice after the fact and you're like, "Oh yeah, like you know, last night I was feeling pretty run down.

I didn't really didn't really think about it, but like maybe I should have done something." Cool. like don't beat yourself up for for not taking action on it, but like use it as a reminder, help reinforce that so that you can have more awareness and then the more that it happens, the more awareness you have and then the more opportunity you have to try things out. So, um I don't know. I hope that's helpful. I realize that's just a bunch of random stuff to kind of toss out there, but I I think that there's a lot of us in a similar situation for how our Don't stop. It's not a stop sign. It's not a stop sign. Keep going. There's a a day of a day of the drivers. Um yeah, a lot of us are in similar situations. So, I'm hoping that just by kind of talking through some of that just gives you a couple of ideas, right?

I can't can't solve your problems, but you can you can solve your problems. And if you have some awareness, maybe that'll help. So, thank you so much for watching, folks. If you have questions that you want answered on software engineering topics, career development, that kind of stuff, leave a comment below. I'm happy to try and make a video response for you. If uh you want to be kept anonymous, you can go to codecommute.com. There is a submission page there. You can check the anonymous box and I'm happy to keep you anonymous or you can provide all your details if you want to. And um otherwise my main channel is Devleer. This is where I have all of my C and programming tutorials and I'm splitting that channel into a couple of others. So the Devleer podcast is another YouTube channel where I'll have my podcast interviews as well as a live stream that you can check out.

It's on Mondays at 700 p.m. Pacific. It's also recorded, so you can check out the live streams after, too. There's a bunch of people that come over from Code Commute. It's a lot of fun. It's an AMA style, so you can ask questions there. And I really enjoy it. It's really fun for me to chat with people. And uh the other channel that I'll mention is called Dev Leader Path to Tech. And this is where I'm going to be moving all of my resume reviews, which I do for free if you watch those videos. You can see how to submit your resume. And I will be adding things like interview tips and interview examples. So, make sure to check that out. Those last two channels I mentioned are going live soon. Uh it is the end of July for what that matters based on when you're watching or listening to this.

So, thank you so much for watching. I'll see you next time.