How to be more productive

I can really relate to a lot of this. I'm a graduate student with ~10 distinct projects/ideas on my todo list and at any point in time I feel more or less inclined to work on each of them. And strangely, the most important ones are rarely on top, maybe because they are both assigned and daunting.<p>My work life comes down to a mental battle and trying to induce motivation in myself because I know that when I am in my motivated state working on something I can be significantly more efficient than when I'm not, perhaps even by an order of magnitude. I've sat down to work on a paper one day having decided it is fun after explaining it to a friend and did a weeks worth of work that evening until 2am.<p>I have to figure out what induces these mysterious states.

Interested in this headline, I clicked the link, and found the article very insightful and resonated strongly with me. I was going to email the author and thank him for his writing, but only then did I realize the author. Aaron, wherever you are, thank you for what you did to make our world better off than you found it.