What are some things you do to help on the bad days?

Talk to others! It always helps to talk through your stress, they don't need to provide solutions, just an ear.

Hello Iain, thank you for sharing how you feel, the life of the indie hacker sometimes get a more higher and more painful level of uncertainty, which often paralyses us and worse, makes us give up. I have phases where I feel exactly like you and I would like to share some of my thoughts on that.

1. First of all, it is necessary to understand that this kind of thoughts at some point ends up coming, it's normal, I'm sure even the best and most successful indie hackers (and other humans too 😛) have gone through more depressive thoughts and phases. The big difference is how you treat this phase and what you do with it, some people will give up, others will pause the project and others will continue in pain, even if more slowly. Life is going to get uncomfortable at some point, don't keep thinking about it, but when the phase comes, know that it's normal.
   So the first thing is, using a cliche and well-known statement The difference between a winner and a loser - they both failed, but the winner gets back up and does it again and again until it goes his way.

2.When this happens to me (and yes, it happens), I usually just accept how I'm feeling and slow down the work. "Oh you will lose productivity and etc etc". This brings us to the second point. You don't have to be productive all the time. This is a lie preached by coaches and the self-help bubble.
Nowadays, if you open Youtube or Instagram you will be flooded with people who are "SUPER productive" or who preach productivity to the extreme... "Wake up at 5 am, Use the Pomodoro technique, Make a Todo list, Use nootropics, meditate, take a cold shower, do intermittent fasting, etc etc etc". All this can help us at some point, it is interesting to know these techniques, but the truth is that this content causes us a lot of internal pressure, it creates an absolute truth that we must be productive all the time. Beware of these influences, no one is productive all the time, and when you come across so many "productive people" on the internet and you can't keep up with this rhythm you feel that there is something wrong with you, it generates frustration. If that is your case, stop and ask yourself "How do these people live life beyond those 20 minutes of the youtube video or after those 30 seconds of the story on Instagram?".
There is nothing wrong with you, be careful with the content you consume and how it affects the way you see life.

3.Indie hackers often get lonely and you forced that with "especially solo". We have a lot of knowledge to share but often with no one with the same interests. It damages our sanity. 🙃

Here are two recipes and at the end I will explain why I wrote them:
A. Create connections with people in the field, even online. Send messages, join groups, join masterminds, create a circle of people that you can talk about and live the same energy. Write comments on SAAS founders twitter posts, ask them things, start a conversation. A cliche truth, (another well know statement 🤓): You become the average of the five people you hang out with. If you don't have a connection with people who do the same, it's harder to "keep moving" forward". Not impossible, but it gets harder, changing or adding to your connections is an important thing. More than that, talking to people in the niche that already have results!! This will motivate you to do more, give you a thirst for achievement and improve your energy. Seriously, having people with the same frequency around you changes everything!

B. Suit up to the world around you, most people you hang out with have no interest or at least no knowledge about the things you do. That doesn't stop a good conversation on the subject! But we need to adapt. If you can't create or maintain a conversation about other topics, learn how to do it.

Why did I write this two things?? After all, even on a more solo career, people are really really important. They bring us a more meaningful life. As much as you like being alone, you need to create connections and hang out with people, it recharges our energies. It makes us more excited about life and it interferes with how we feel and our productivity.

When you are feeling like that, hang out more...meet and chat with people, in person, not online. (the right) people recharge our energy

4.Be aware of your surroundings/environment: What is your environment like? Does he motivate you? Does it bring you sense and thirst for achievements? Or does it depress you? It is well known that the environment changes our behavior and the way we feel. How do your friends treat you when you talk about your dreams? Your girlfriend? Your family? How do you feel when you look around your work environment? In your house? Is it organized? Does it please you? Its confortable?
Change the environment, change the behavior. And don't underestimate the power of changing the environment. Nor underestimate the power of questioning how you feel and why you feel that way. Be more self awareness of how and why you feel that way

5. Search about "coping mechanisms" and filter what make sense for you.

6.Journaling. Yeah, I'm against the mainstream productivity techniques we see out there. But this is very important. Journaling will make you question yourself. When I feel like that is SUPER important to me to think why I am feeling that way. Am I afraid of something? Of failure? Of getting out of the comfort zone? Why am I afraid? Am I sabotaging myself? How is my self-esteem right now?
Journaling brings self knowledge. Self knowledge brings more wisdom, organization and emotional intelligence. Journaling gives you the clarity that you need to make a better decision and to stick with a purpose. It gives you the feeling of "I was blind but now I see".
When feeling like that, take a time to think and question yourself. Journal it. In paper not in a digital device. Write it by hand. Buy a diary/journal/notebook exclusively for that. Put the date, and start writing

7.Be aware of your anxiety and self-sabotage thinking. I'm very anxious, I end up focusing on the future thinking several times "what if things don't work out? What if I'm wasting time? What if I don't achieve what I want?". Take your anxiety and multiply it by 10, maybe it's closer to mine! 👻
And how did I make these thoughts go away? I didnt. I just learned what my brain looks like when it tries to sabotage me. I just understood what that inner voice sounds like. With this self knowledge I have more clarity to ignore it. I know they are destructive thoughts, I ignore them. Get one thing in your head, big things take time, they take learning, they take perseverance (much more than motivation). The must have for an anxious: patience.
You may agree with what I say, but executing this is harder, train yourself to identify anxious and destructive thoughts. Train to execute patience. You can always take a time, slow down. That is being patient!! Being patient is understanding that it's okay to do things "slow but steady" at times.

Exercise your patience.

8. Lower your expectations. When your expectations are low, you don't get frustrated and the internal pressure to conquer things decreases. That means you do things more accurately and wisely, more calmly and less anxiously. Attention: Lowering expectations does not mean leaving your life at the mercy of fate. You will continue to take smart actions to complete your goals, but lowering expectations lowers the internal pressure. Lowering the internal pressure gives you more calm in the execution. You are more likely to succeed with low expectations.

9. Search about stoicism and filter what make sense for you. (Really.)

10.One thing that helps me a lot in these moments is to think something like.

Most people give up, most people are afraid, most people live a mediocre life. I'm not the majority, I'm an outlier

Thinking like that (regardless of how narcissistic it may seem) makes me energize myself to be better. To be different. To stand out. I want to feel better.
And you, Iain, you are surely an Outlier too. You are seeking how to improve, even on the bad phases. Stick to it. I'm proud of you, and surely all the Indie Hackers Community are.

Be proud of where you are, look back and see how much you achieved. How much you learned. You could be on the first step. But at some point you chose to grow up. Honor the Iain of the past and respect the Iain of the future. Stick to it 👊🏻

Time will pass anyway. Whether you do something to improve your life or not. In ten years, ten years will have passed, regardless of what you've done.

Best Regards,
Gabriel

Well, I am uplifting as much as possible. I’ll often watch a feel-good movie on my laptop (Forrest Gump, Lion King), tend to my plants, and cry to the saddest songs.

Gratitude and acceptance (of what’s outside of my control) are the things I keep coming back to. Simple but not easy.

I’m not very good at this yet, but currently my go to is to focus on what I can control and take a cue from the stoics by making peace with the worst case scenario.

“If I do all of this work, show up consistently and it doesn’t work out, won’t I at least have been proud to have given it my best shot?”

To me that derisks it at one level, because now I’m proud of my choices regardless of the outcome. It helps me refocus on what I can control, choosing the sort of person I want to be, taking consistent actions and letting the terrain reveal itself over time.

I actually wrote a little blog post about this this week whilst I was pondering a similar dilemma.

Yoga helps every single time.

I try to give myself some slack. Take a day or at least half day off. Do something for pure fun to just clear my head.

Being kind to myself has helped me a lot in life!

I try to have at least one engaging conversation with another person, in person. For me, it doesn't matter who this person is. It could be the clerk at the grocer or stopping someone in the street that I see from time to time.

As long as I can have a nice and pleasant conversation my mood vastly improves. My mind becomes calm. I start thinking with clarity and focus. I find it much easier to get into a state of flow.

Bad days are bad days. I can't really do anything to make them "good" or much better. Just keep going.

I recently started a side project and I understand that feeling. Specially when your family and friends don’t understand nothing about what are you doing.

For me is difficult calm me. Maybe go to the nature and clean my mind. But normally I think that could help me is speak with people that are doing the same and look for support. Indie Hackers is a good resource to see that you are not alone.

This is my first message to community. I hope that it helps and help other people In the future :)

I usually go for a walk, get something nice to eat and come home and watch TV or Play games. Finally, take a shower.

If I still feel bad, I go to Sleep. There's always tomorrow.

I try to get away from my computer -- maybe go for a walk or a run to spend some time outside. Sometimes even just getting up and taking a shower can help.

My go-to is journaling! It really helps to understand what's actually going on instead of the overwhelm that our brains generate when things aren't going our way.
When you put things down on the page, abstract thoughts transform into concrete ideas so it's much easier to take stock of the situation and discover new ideas or emotions.
I'm building a journaling newsletter so things get a little meta for me when I have a bad day, but journaling has served me well for the last 6 years. I always feel better after writing things down.
If you're looking for any prompts or tips on getting started, don't hesitate to reach out!

I remind myself my goals and tell myself I'll do whatever it takes to reach them, no matter what.

It always very helpful!

Go outside and connect with nature, meditate, practice gratitude, and maybe take a nap.

Rolled into Mindfullness, thanks to a customer. Was intreged during development (lms), catching up courses by working with them. This changed my working and free days, no bad days since to be ownest and easier to get in flow.

I think I'm different from most people, but this is what applies to me me. When I'm anxious, I have found that music usually makes me more emotional. In the future, I want to try classical music to see if it has the same effect.

I also vent to my boyfriend as he is very good at listening.

A punching bag would do
I journal about the tough days
I listen to some uplifting music

Think about how things could be much worse. Look at those bad days as a glass half full.

I think it's important to remember a lot of people have bad days. And what works for me, might not work for anyone else. It's who you are!

But for me:

FRESH AIR wins every time and helps massively.

You can work and work. But taking time out for you is important!

I don't run www.survey101.io full-time, I would love to in the future, but I still find time for me, on top of a full-time job and setting up Survey101

I can attest to this. Trying to build something especially on your own is super stressful, because you're not sure if you'll be successful, you're not sure if you're just wasting your time. Even though I get in these funks, I still push through because I don't want to give up especially if its something I believe in.

I heard a great quote "I'll do it or die" - Jim Rohn, I truly believe I will accomplish my dreams or die trying. This mentality motivates me and gets me out of my head.

Beyond LED Technology manufactures and distributes a wide range of lighting solutions for residential, commercial, and specialty lighting needs. https://beyondledtechnology.com/

Cognitive behavioral therapy
Meditations
Good sleep

going for a decent walk along with some buddies or partners is quite a good option though. We never do exercise or meditation and then complain about stress and similar things.
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Try boxing or Muay Thai, it really helps.

Envision your final result.

If this result seems incredibly hard to reach, make the MVP smaller and more achievable.

Usually when ideas start, they are so big, that you lose motivation when you see how far away you are. Most SaaS companies start out barebones, and add features as they go.

Find that MVP. If you are stuck on designing a core functionality, work on something else.

Also, never think of the experience as "wasted time". The absolute worst case scenario you can have is gaining experience with a failed product. Even that is valuable.

it is easy to forget that you're never the only one!

Couldn't agree more with getting some fresh air, I don't think I've ever taken as many walks as I have the past few months
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Here is what I tell myself. Do you have in your home a room to evacuate your digested food and when press a button it disappears? When it's dark in the evening, can you press a button and light appear? Can you have in your hand a device that has access to all the knowledge in the world and millions of movies? Don't you need to stock food for the winter? Then you probably have a more luxurious life than most of the kings who have ever lived on earth.

I have ADHD and I'm not medicating currently so the struggle is real.

Something I just can't force myself to work on things without a hard deadline.

In my case I like to go for a walk or just go outside to get a bit of sunlight on my skin and listen to a podcast.

After a few hours of coding I start to see diminishing results and that's when I decide to go do something else and come back fresh later or call it for the day.

My final advice is solve something you want to use yourself.

That's the only way I've been able to keep building my project semi consistently

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