I recently find my self stuck in state where I feel not very into code, I need some kind of inspiration, so sometimes I just review somebody's code, watch some kind of movie about coding or something like that, but not always I get what I need, if you know what I mean.
How do you increase your mood for coding ?
I've taken to writing a blog post and a short story and solving two Project Euler problems a day. This gets my creative juices going and gets me in the mood to work.
Can't recommend this enough.
Edit: I also recommend a tech-oriented book. For instance, I'm reading The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson at the moment, which always makes me want to create. In fact, I often end up building projects based on ideas from books.
I just force myself to start coding; often on something simple - but anything that needs doing. Before long the "juices" start flowing, and it's midnight again.
I write unit test and refactor. This may sound strange, but it actually works! If I'm really stuck, I might go over some old code, write unit test if coverage is low, and do minor refactorings. This gives me a "good feeling" and helps when I start writing new code.
Quick temperature changes...oddly enough. Take a cold bath and then go run around outside for a few minutes. No big jog or anything, just a short burst to get yourself back to normal body temperature.
I find that cleans out the systen well and gets my mind sharp to do some more coding. It does somewhat depend on the situation, but that's what works most for me because I'm usually just tired or lethargic feeling from sitting down too much.
Why do you not feel like coding?
With me it mostly has to do with environmental reasons, stupid project/management/coding practices/family worries, or because I've programmed myself into a corner.
Doing something about the underlying reasons tends to help the most. I've switched jobs once. That worked very well. I find pair programming to work well for me. I once just didn't install an IDE for a while.
When finishing up I always make sure to make some notes about some things to do and think about. Ideally I also leave some easy jobs to clean up, so there are some quick and easy wins to start off the next session.
This gives you a boost because you're being productive and your mind doesn't have to think too hard about remembering where you were and while you're figuring things out and remembering the details, you're ticking off issues.
I'm a big fan of "fun coding", if I don't feel like coding a really boring feature such as "recent files" I go there and something new and cool. That makes me feel better, challenged and learned something.
Try heroin.
But seriously, just play a game. I find that RTSs get me in the best mood for coding (thinking deeply, etc), while FPSs get me too twitchy.
finding some cool tricks or technology involving your programming work, language etc kind of works for me.
sometimes i come here to look for inspiration too, it's something about learning something new which i can applied to my work which makes things fun for me again.
it's all about trying to improve the status quo process to make it easier and more fun for me to code.
Here are a few steps I would suggest:
Find the time in which you are usually most productive (for me its after 10 PM!) and try starting coding then.
Take up a coding challenge.
Pre-plan the logic and coding part of the code you are going to do in a paper upto every little detail and try to start doing it mechanically. Soon you will find yourself immersed in it.
Take a break and come back.
Leave early from the day job ... and then start visualizing the excitement of the home-time coding project.