Lack of sustained motivation has been the bane of my existence. The only true obstacle to everything I've ever wanted in life.<p>The article is cool, but not enough, when I'm not motivated, I will not do anything in those articles, I will do other things that I shouldn't be doing. Does the hack call for just work for 30 seconds. I won't. I'm unmotivated, that's the problem.<p>The question that is quite the un-scratchable itch for me has been, how do I sustain motivation for very long periods of time. That even if it falls, it never dies out. I've my up and down moments, but what I've noticed is that my down moments are almost as good at being as dead for a while.
I also like to leave a very small task undone from the previous day to help me get jump-started the next day. So if I'm finishing programming a function and the last line needs to return something, I'll just not write that last line and put a //TODO instead. The next day it helps me get in the groove of writing code after the long break.
One thing which I can highly recommend to anyone with motivation problems and help beat the procrastination is pomodoro technique [1]. When I'm stuck or can't make the first move to get into the work mood, I just hit the pomodoro timer. Somehow the ticking clock gives me boost and puts me into hours of productive work. Always! It's the only technique which works 100% in my case. Try it out for yourself.<p>[1] <a href="http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/</a>
For me the most important thing is to start working on something first thing in the morning before I start poking around on the Internet. If I spend an hour checking up on Twitter, HN, Reddit, or whatever it totally kills my productivity for the day. If I can spend just 20-30 minutes working on work before I catch up on the day's news I have a much better time focusing on my work throughout the rest of the day.
The last point is particularly useful, and quite reminiscent of what 'The Now Habit'[1][2] advocates. Some weeks I get so completely burned out, I have to force myself to do nothing but 'veg out' by watching endless netflix shows through the weekend without thinking about anything else. It's hard to allow it at first because it feels like a ludicrous waste of time, but it becomes surprisingly refreshing by the end of it.<p>[1] <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Now-Habit-Overcoming-Procrastination/dp/1585425524/" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/The-Now-Habit-Overcoming-Procrastinati...</a><p>[2] Here's a good video series that summarizes it's key points: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63Si3Gb1WSg" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63Si3Gb1WSg</a>
Is there any good advice on overcoming procrastination due to social anxiety? Things like phone calls, dealing with unknown people, etc. I have a fear that I am not very knowledgeable about something (like law, or buying some stuff or service) and that others will cheat me, and it causes me problems. Interestingly, if I schedule a meeting, I am willing to handle it, but if I won't, I will try to postpone a lot. And even if I gain more experience in one area, it will then creep again in in another.
I've been working on a side project which falls into the category of hacking motivation. Streakflow[1] is based on Jerry Seinfeld's "don't break the chain"[1] mentality that I've seen mentioned here before. It really helps when you don't want to do something because the thought of having to start over is worse than just doing it.<p>[1] <a href="http://www.streakflow.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.streakflow.com</a>
[2] <a href="http://lifehacker.com/5886128/how-seinfelds-productivity-secret-fixed-my-procrastination-problem" rel="nofollow">http://lifehacker.com/5886128/how-seinfelds-productivity-sec...</a>
I think the core of the motivation issue is the NOW vs longer term achievements, so my suggestion is to push longer term achievements to the "now court". How?<p>Well, think in byproducts of your current work: are you working on an algorithm that is complex? write an article explaining it after you understand it. Did you find an unknown development library that was very useful to your work, share it! So I see small branches of your current work that produce many deliveries.<p>Another way to solve the motivation issue is working with someone. This is the core idea on pair-programming.<p>If someone is interested I have concrete examples about delivering byproducts.
My latest theory[1] on doing things, when not motivated:<p><pre><code> - do nothing, stay stably where you are.
- let the 'reluctance' wash off a little.
- keep doing nothing (don't get drawn away)
- make the smallest step toward your task
- do nothing
- make an additional tiny steps
- hopefully[1] steps will get easier, and bigger
- the momentum of overcoming the lack of motivation
and making progress will bring a little joy
</code></pre>
[1] Obviously that's only my personal anecdotal experience, based on difficulty in doing physical exercise or learning music. Many times I didn't feel capable, aching, frustrated... Just putting myself into situation and see how things can go has been leading to regular surprises.<p>tl; dr : long warm up time.
A great hack which I use (still not very good at it though) is the 2 minute technique in the GTD book. Although in the book, the author advocates it in a different manner, I prefer to use it to stop my procrastination.<p>So I say to myself, let me just work on the code for 2 minutes, not more. And believe me, 2 minutes is a long time! By the time the 2 mins is over I don't even notice and continue coding. This also really helps me in guitar practice. Learning a new song, or a a lick is pleasant. It's the mundane repetitive exercises one needs to do to increase the strength and endurance of your fingers. So again I say to myself, let me just do it for 2 minutes. Believe me, on certain days, that 2 minutes ends up to 4-5 hours of practice.
<a href="http://lesswrong.com/lw/9wr/my_algorithm_for_beating_procrastination/" rel="nofollow">http://lesswrong.com/lw/9wr/my_algorithm_for_beating_procras...</a> i found this article and discussion useful
Also check out The Motivation Hacker by Nick Winter. That book is awesome and Nick talks about going from being too nervous to order at Taco Bell to being asked to speak at various tech and hacker conventions.
A really nice read. I'd also suggest treating one's life as a debugging session once in a while… A few choice `printf` insertions and re-running can sometimes make a world of difference. :)
I think this is all well and good, there are always things we procrastinate.<p>However, I think if you need to run your life like this... maybe look at what you're doing, as a whole. I don't think you should have to hack your motivation, or anything else, to get it to work.