Ask HN: How do you motivate yourself? - haack
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dropit_sphere
I don't think trying to "motivate oneself" will bear a lot of fruit.
Motivation is a combination of beliefs: belief that a thing will be
beneficial, and that it's possible.

That's at the macro level. On the micro level, structure helps a lot. Some of
the more go-getter people you know are just on autopilot, but have done the
work beforehand to hack their motivation, mostly by forming habits and setting
themselves in social environs that reward achievement.

Motivation is a fickle, mercurial beast. Trying to run on it at all times
won't work. Use motivation wisely, for short bursts of work that get/keep
autopilot-you on track. Things like: going to sleep when you want to stay up,
making a plan for issues you don't want to think about, setting habits to do
things you don't like to do.

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Hockenbrizzle
Holy moly +1 for this answer.

Forming habits and getting to the point of autopilot is how it happens for me.
At some point you don't even notice it because you are so focused. It's just
like getting up to go swim every morning. It's cold as hell and you don't feel
like it, but you know that after 10 minutes in, you will feel great. And then
you just get into the routine.

The last part by _dropit_sphere_ is a particularly good thing to understand
about oneself. Can't have it all the time and you gotta use it efficiently
when you do.

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allendoerfer
By avoiding triggers, that demotivate you. I see myself as a stupid machine,
which behaves like it does in certain situations. If you want change in the
long term, you have to change the situation and preconditions instead of
trying to reprogram the machine, that will follow. Exercise, eat healthy,
sleep enough, see enough sunlight, do what you like. If you have a setback,
try to find out, how it started and try to avoid that situation, don't try to
master it.

~~~
insoluble
> change the situation and preconditions instead of trying to reprogram the
> machine

Kudos on recognising the prevalence of this phenomenon. When people are
running in a reactionary mode, trying to reprogram the system is asking for
failure. Just like with a black-box program, the input parameters need to be
changed if you want the output to change. Your _environment_ (including
objects, TODO lists, people, emails, texts, location, food, and drugs)
constitutes the input parameters. The environment must be changed for the
output to change. If you forget to change your environment after recognising a
problem with the output, then you fail to make a lasting change in the system.
Essentially, your environment is a part of the extended _you_ that you can
pretty easily "reprogram".

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allendoerfer
Exactly. Also, if you are successful in altering your "extended you" your
inner you will also change. E.g. if you want to become good at tests, you have
to set the environment to be better at tests, once you have done that, you
will become better at tests, but you will also be more likely to do more of
these tests with your initial success behind you and feel more confident etc.
making you actually better beyond the environment you created.

~~~
insoluble
> better beyond the environment you created

That sounds like an interesting approach to life: Improve your environment;
watch yourself improve; then repeat. It's like a big optimisation problem
slowly working its way toward the maximum. It's like a personal singularity.

Sometimes I spend so much time in my head that I forget to change my
environment. It would be nice if our best thoughts could somehow be put into
effect more quickly without necessarily interrupting other planned activities.
I guess that's where self-control and sequential execution come in. At the
same time, the original plans may have become invalid.

Sometimes after you change your environment, it's like you have to re-compile
the kernel before you can run the program you were initially planning to run.
The trick is in not losing state information during that recompiling process.
Sometimes writing cookies (aka, notes) can help here. Conversely, some changes
are so big (or time-consuming) that your whole plan needs to be re-wired.

They say that teaching is one of the best ways to learn. My experience seems
to confirm this advice. Perhaps when you go and explain something to someone
else, not only do you organise and solidify the understanding in your own
mind, but since you pull something out of your brain and stick it to the
extended you (and beyond), that knowledge can take on a life of its own in the
outer world. Your very awareness that the knowledge has been transmitted to
the outer world seems to have a strengthening effect in your "inner you". It's
as if the outer "awareness" links back to hidden parts of the inner you, as
were it virtual dendrites connecting your brain to the collective
consciousness.

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CodeWriter23
One thing that works for me. I keep a legal pad for each project I'm working
on. I write a to do list in pencil on a sheet. When a task is complete I cross
it out with red pencil.

So I say to myself just pick something and do it. The reward is the
gratification of crossing it out. If a sheet gets filled up, I transcribe the
remaining items to a new page, which engages visual, verbal and kinesthetic
learning modes and refreshes my perspective on where I'm at with the project.

There is most always a space to the right of my mouse for the current pad. The
system breaks down when that space gets cluttered for whatever reason. But
when it's there I jot down tasks that come up while I'm coding. I keep the
pads organized in a flat file that is just big enough to hold papers.

It works for me. Also getting enough sleep, exercise and eating properly
helps.

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ivan_gammel
Motivation means creation of incentives to do something. To be successful in
that, you need very few things: 1\. You should know what you are going to
achieve. That is, you should have SMART goal (see Wikipedia article "SMART
criteria"). Unclear of definition of the goal may become the biggest obstacle:
you will always try to avoid the uncertainty by switching to other activities.
2\. The benefits must seem to you realistic and the path to them short. For
example, if you set the goal as "build 1 billion dollar business in 5 years",
it will be SMART, but will look like a fairy tale to you. Building MVP in 3
months won't make you richer, but you'll be rewarded with positive feeling of
creating something working and useful, something that will enable you to go
further. 3\. Not doing what you want (let's call it "A") must be painful. If
life is good enough and you won't be harmed by just living it, you'll probably
will not start, because there's no real reason for it. Some people are saying
that you'll need to move out from your zone of comfort - they are close to
what you really need to do: you need to move your zone of comfort, not
yourself. Imagine, how good life will be when A is done. Think, how bad is
your life while A is not done. Now you have real incentive! But don't do that
until you've done 1 and 2.

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kleer001
It's a bootstrapping manouver, so it's kinda expensive and nonintuitive. First
I try to find another body of work to slingshot around. Then the key is to
keep structural integrity and life support systems on full. Then, as long as
I'm pointed in the right direction, and don't run into any distractions (which
fall away if I have enough inertia), I should be good for a little while.

The target is flow, the enthusiastic engagement in that activity I so desire
to be motivated to do.

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atsaloli
I envision the end goal in detail. e.g. if I'm building a business, I envision
the office we are in, the staff, the levels of income and the services we
provide, etc.

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edimaudo
What is the problem you are trying to solve?

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snowse
Just do it.

